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ELT vs. ETL: Much Ado about Something
There's no doubt that ELT - yes, that's extract-load-transform (also called "pushdown") not conventional extract-transform-load (ETL) - is now a mainstream capability. Informatica's inclusion of pushdown optimization in the recently released PowerCenter version 8.5 brings ELT the legitimacy it deserves... I fully expect pushdown will be come a new frontier in the battle for ETL supremacy.
So Open Source Is Mainstream -- Now What?
This may not be "the year of Linux on the desktop" -- and who knows, maybe it is -- but there's little to no question that this is a pivotal year for open source as a mainstream economic phenomenon in the tech world, as my colleague Charles Babcock has indicated. My big question is: what next?
IBM Bows Multi-Domain Master Data Management Server
Pre-build data models address data quality and consistency problems related to customers, products, accounts, suppliers and more.
Open Source 'Movement' Becoming A Gold Rush
I see references to the open source "movement," as if it were a cohesive ideological gathering, like the Labor Movement of the 1930s or maybe the Wobblies. I agree there are certain shared values among open source developers and a favored way of doing things, but I've always doubted the political agenda. After the $1 billion Sun/MySQL deal, however, my doubts have been erased. It's clear there is a movement -- and it's headed toward the bank.
It's The Talent, Not Just The Technology
Something I've noted in passing about the recent spate of open-source acquisitions -- Nokia and Trolltech, Sun and MySQL AB -- deserves to be expounded on at length. What's being bought here is not the software, but the talent behind it. The software is free, or as free as this sort of thing gets. Talent is priceless. That's what's being bought and sold here.
Silobreaker advances social-network visualization
I'm a fan of network visualizations, by which I mean display of interconnectedness mined from disparate sources. The subject matter could be just about anything: witness the collection of projects at Manuel Lima's VisualComplexity site. Social networks inferred from on-line media prove particularly interesting, the sort of stuff you'll find in static form at Jeffrey Heer's and Danah Boyd's vizster site and dynamically in Linkinfluence's Map of the Political Blogosphere, which I wrote about las
EMC Reports Strong Growth Across All Business Segments
The company reported double-digit revenue growth across the board, even in its mature business of information storage and content management and archiving.
Liautaud Takes the Money and Runs
Business Objects announced today that its founder, Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer, Bernard Liautaud, has resigned from those roles and will join SAP's supervisory board in June. With the acquisition of Business Objects by SAP all but complete and the BI agenda being set, at best, by committee, Liautaud is heading for the exit (a well-trod path by executives in his shoes), free to enjoy the well-earned spoils of his success.
Debunking the 'Web 2.0' Myth
My thanks to our friend James Robertson for pointing to an important UK study that debunks many of the "Web 2.0" and "Google Generation" myths that currently abound. I have bit of a reputation as a cynic, but the Google Generation is something of which I have simply seen no real evidence, despite vendors and fellow analysts arguing loudly about its importance in today's workplace.
Engineering Content Management For A Web 2.0 World
If you think we're entering a recession, you wouldn't know it from talking to Alfresco's CEO John Powell.
A Chat With Movable Type's Anil Dash
What with Six Apart's blogging/CMS software Movable Type now released in an open source edition, I decided to go directly to someone at the company -- namely, VP Anil Dash -- and talk to him about where his company's headed. Movable Type's become one of my personal open source case studies, partly because I use the program myself (as does InformationWeek) and because I'v
Analyst's Take: Teradata 12.0 Counters the Appliances
More efficient processing, workload management and master data management help handle mixed workloads.
Lombardi Executive Re-org and 2007 Results
Lombardi held an analyst conference call last week in advance of today's press releases - a relatively new format for Lombardi - to discuss their executive reorganization against the backdrop of their 2007 results and 2008 strategy. Rod Favaron, CEO (and, until last week, President) and Phil Gilbert, President (formerly CTO) gave us the update...
Put-to-the-Test: Embarcadero EA/Studio 1.5
Process modeling tool highlights include BPMN support, low cost and integration with ER/Studio data modeling environment.
Nokia Snags Trolltech
The latest open source acquisition just came down the pike, and from the outside it's one of the unlikelier pairings imaginable: Mobile handset vendor Nokia just made a $150+ million offer for open source software makers Trolltech.
Kalido Brings Visual Modeling to Data Warehousing
Design tool helps business owners and IT gather requirements, understand information needs and quickly implement production systems and ongoing changes.
Open Source Funding Signals CMS Shakeup
The last few years have seen a ton of movement in the open source software market. And the recent string of acquisitions are sure to shake up the business of content management.
Operational BI: Getting 'Real Time' About Performance
Operational business intelligence is about delivering information to people when and how they need it in the context of business need. Explore the five best practices best-in-class companies are using to drive faster, better decision making and higher customer satisfaction.
Study Finds Most Companies Believe They Underutilize BI Tools
In addition, the research done on behalf of business intelligence vendor Noetix found that if companies could do better ROI studies, then it would be easier to get BI projects approved.
Cognos 8.3: The Good, the Bad, the Reality
Last week Cognos announced the release of Cognos 8.3, its flagship business intelligence platform. The latest release includes a number of improvements both for end users and administrators. Although it is a point release, I'd venture to say it's the biggest since Cognos 8 first shipped in November 2005. Here's my take on highlights and gaps…
Open Source License Auditing Tools Still Need Someone Knowledgeable Behind The Wheel
Yesterday my colleague Charles Babcock brought us the news about HP's release of the FOSSology tool, a license-auditing application that promises to help organizations cut through the thickets of software licenses that can come with open source programs. When you get down to it, though, it's just a tool: the real decisions about software licensing have to and always
The Grim Realities of Content Security
My colleague Jarrod forwarded a link to a news story of how one person deliberately destroyed seven years' worth of corporate content/data with ease. Meanwhile, I had another tab open regarding the White House's inability/refusal to archive email messages and had just finished reading about the loss of a laptop containing personal details on 600,000 people - quite a busy day for data destruction.
Can Sun Make Dolphins Fly? It Probably Shouldn't
When Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz wrote the headline, "Helping Dolphins Fly," it set off a chain reaction. He was referring, of course, to Sun's acquisition of MySQL. The dolphin's image is the trademark of the open source database company. What's going to happen when MySQL is folded into Sun? SunnySQL, suggested one blogger, Evil_Work, who was no doubt inspired by Schwartz' flight of fancy. And the excess was just getting started.
What's an HBX Analytics Customer to Do?
Omniture completed its acquisition of Visual Sciences last week. So where does that leave HBX customers? For the party line, you can check out the HBX migration FAQ. After reading through it, my guess is that you'll have a bunch of questions. Well, here are some of the questions I'd ask if I were in your position...
An Open Source Nightmare: What If It Ain't 'Open' No More?
Most of my nightmares tend to be mundane nonsense about being late for school. Folks in the open source community have nightmares about open source products becoming closed source properties. That's nightmarish, to be sure, but I have to ask how much of the nightmare is not wholly real.
Renaming the Next Generation Internet
Prof. David Farber has issued an interesting challenge: "Endlessly people talk about the Next Generation Internet... I need a name for the Internet-like network we will need when we are faced with end to end optical communications at hundreds of gigabits; multi-core computers (large number) and other now-research technologies." While we shouldn't confuse names with substance,... we understand the power of names to describe and even to inspire, including in the IT world.
Anti-Leadership Vaccine At Red Hat; Is Whitehurst The Answer?
Oracle strips out Red Hat logos and offer its own Linux? Red Hat refused to be provoked. Novell wants to cozy up to Microsoft? That's a fellow Linux distributor's affair. Microsoft has patents that govern parts of Linux? No tough rejoinder from Red Hat. Now Jim Whitehurst has arrived on the scene as the new CEO. He's an engaging and experienced manager. And he's going to need all his skills to find an antidote to Red Hat's anti-leadership vaccine.
The Money Is On Appliances, CEP, MDM
Despite this country's credit crisis, it appears there are still plenty of big-money bets being placed on emerging technologies. This morning alone I've seen three pretty hefty sums put into data warehouse appliances, complex event processing (CEP) and master data management (MDM). Knowing a thing or two about each market, I'd say they are far from subprime investments.
Risking Innovation, And The Nature Of The "Should"
An article ran a couple of days ago in the New York Times (whose coverage of technology can be spotty), entitled "The Risk of Innovation: Will Anyone Embrace It?" by G. Pascal Zachary, a Stanford journalism professor. The thesis was pretty straightforward: "Great innovations have foundered over human stubbornness." Just because you build it, that doesn't mean they will come. (And sho
BI Chaos Escalates with SAP-Business Objects Combination
SAP announced they achieved an ownership milestone to move forward with their acquisition of Business Objects and the formation of new subsidiary of SAP focusing on business user needs like BI and Performance Management along with Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC)... SAP also announced new solution packages, and you need to assess the "gotchas" in these offerings.
OS/2 To Stay Closed, Says IBM
Well, you can't say they didn't try. After one of the more prominent online OS/2 communities (OS2 World) delivered a politely worded petition with 11,000 signatures to IBM to make OS/2 into an open source product, the word has come back from IBM: Sorry, but no. Not happening.
Gartner: Growth Slowing In BI Market
The worldwide market is expected to slip into the single-digits by 2011 as the market matures and consolidates.
Actuate Launches Its First Web-Based Performance Management Software
Actuate OnPerformance includes many of the same features as the company's on-premise Performancesoft Suite.
Next-Era BI: Proactive, Pervasive, Performance-Oriented
How do you differentiate your business when same-old BI and same-old automation are commodities? Cognos, SAP-Business Objects and independent vendors present visions and real-world examples of blended solutions.
BizAutomation.com Targets NetSuite in Small-Business CRM, ERP Market
The company expects to fill what it sees as a market void -- Web-based software that's affordable to small businesses with up to 50 employees.
MicroStrategy Matures - Notes from the Conference
Were the holidays only two weeks ago? They seem a distant memory with so many BI headlines this week alone. SAP and Business Objects announced a number of joint bundles, Cognos launched 8.3, and MicroStrategy kicked off its annual user conference in Miami. The frenetic pace of BI continues in 2008.
Forrester Makes Sense of the Oracle-BEA Deal
Are you an Oracle or BEA customer trying to make sense of the combination? Forrester's John Rymer and Mike Gilpin offer an extensive analysis of the overlaps and of which products are likely to prevail. Oracle is promising long-term support for BEA products whether they're continued or not. But eventually, say the authors, "carrots and sticks" are likely to prod customers toward the preferred, go-forward products.
ODF Vs. OOXML: Someone Is, Indeed, Writing A Book
The other day, when talking about Microsoft's adventures with the OOXML standard it drafted, I said something to the effect that someone could easily write a book about that escapade. As it turns out, someone is.
Sun Rises At Last
The acquisition of MySQL by Sun Microsystems, right on the heels of the Oracle-BEA merger, is great news for everyone. After languishing on the sidelines for years, Sun has, in a single stroke, reclaimed its relevance, taken the open source movement a step further, and opened up new (and promising) options for customers.
SAP Completes Business Objects Buy, Details 'Business Optimization' Vision
Nine "joint product packages" present roadmap toward business intelligence and information management product offerings.
Microsoft 'Opens' Its Office Binary Formats
If there's one document format out there that's been a de facto standard that defines de facto standards, it's the Microsoft Office .DOC format (vintage 1997-2003), which has the double whammy of being binary and proprietary, despite also being heavily reverse-engineered. Now Microsoft has decided to kick off an open source
The Open Source Freeloader Phenomenon
After the filing of the Verizon / BusyBox suit, and after reading about any number of other, similar incidents where a company showed what could only be seen as flagrant disregard for the GPL, I had to ask myself: Why do people do this? Are companies really that naive about the GPL, or do they just think they can get away with anything?
Sun And MySQL: Happy Together
Sun's open source strategy has just ratcheted up a notch: they've purchased MySQL AB, the makers of one of the most widely-used open source database solutions. So, is this a good thing or a bad thing? My take: It ought to be a good thing.
Oracle Gets BEA: Dare I Say 'I Told You So?'
The big news today is that Oracle is buying BEA. Everyone saw this coming, but I offered my take on the appeal of BEA's middleware and virtualization technology last October. The question is, what will Oracle do with BEA, and how will this help or hurt BEA and Oracle customers?
Cognos Talks Performance Management, Walks BI
All the talk was about performance management, performance management, performance management at yesterday's Cognos 8.3 launch in New York, but most of the upgrades are about good old business intelligence. There were a few notable performance management-oriented tidbits, but the real appeal of Cognos 8.3 is in a handful of business-user-friendly upgrades aimed at democratizing reporting and analysis.
SPSS Upgrades Take Predictive Modeling and Text Mining Mainstream
Clementine 12.0 said to deliver faster modeling and intuitive data visualization. Text mining software integrates with predictive analytics.
Classic Games, Open Sourced: SimCity
Not all open source software is Serious Business. A project that caught my attention in the last couple of days is a port of the classic Infogrames / EA title SimCity -- released for just about every platform known to man -- into an open source implementation named Micropolis.
MEGA To Update Modeling Tools With Latest BPMN Standard
Among the benefits of incorporating the standard in the MEGA Modeling Suite is the ability to share business process information in a standard manner among business and technical groups.
Financial Performance Management Boosts Charity Mission
Opportunity International taps Oracle/Hyperion software to deepen analysis and speed financial reporting.
Now Lenovo Loads Linux, Too
When IBM sold its personal computer division to Chinese PC maker Lenovo, one of the flagship products that went along on that sale was its invaluable ThinkPad notebook line, home of some of the best engineering I've seen in notebook PCs in the entire time they've been on the market. Now Lenovo is preparing to take the ThinkPad a step ahead and ship them with SUSE Linux preinstalled.
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The State of Cloud Computing - Fall 2020
Download this report to compare how cloud usage and spending patterns have changed in 2020, and how respondents think they'll evolve over the next two years.
2021 Top Enterprise IT TrendsWe've identified the key trends that are poised to impact the IT landscape in 2021. Find out why they're important and how they will affect you.
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