Chattering About Big Data
April 22, 2013
As social media outlets such as Twitter continue to grow analysts can tell a lot from what users are tweeting or which topics have the most followers. It seems that Big Data is really buzzing in the Twitter world and created quite a stir in 2012. According to the DataSift article “Who’s Big in Big Data? the data science team at DataSift did an analysis of the amount of social interaction that Big Data received in 2012.
“A record number of Tweets were reported relating to big data within the technology sector in 2012 showing a continual growth of social interaction around ‘Big Data’. Using our sophisticated social data platform, we ran a DataSift Historics query against our hot list of Big Data products and conversations to identify which vendors were the most socially interactive, which domains were the most favorable in publicizing ’Big Data’ Tweets, the quarterly traffic progression for mentions of ‘Big Data’ and the most Tweeted stories.”
From the comparison of the various Tweets concerning Big Data, DataSift was able to determine which topics were the most popular. They then went a step further and looked at which links people shared and what Big Data sites people went to the most. Results showed that over 2.2 million Tweets were generated and Apache was the most popular Big Data vendor. As an added bonus DataSift also was delighted to learn that a BBC news article on DataSift took 2nd place in the running for most shared Big Data stories of 2012. This type of social media analysis not only provides companies with valuable insight for their daily business but also shows who the heavy hitters really are in the Big Data world.
April Holmes, April 22, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
DataStax Hosts Big Data Days
April 19, 2013
DataStax is a leader in NoSQL database solutions, particularly based on Cassandra. They have made recent headlines as DataStax, and others like them, are slowly chipping away at the historically overwhelming market share of Oracle. Now they are making headlines for hosting some upcoming professional development opportunities. Read more in the article, “DataStax Announces Big Data Days by the Bays — Hosts Cassandra Summit in San Francisco and Sponsors Bloomberg Next Big Thing Summit in Half Moon Bay.”
The article begins:
“DataStax, the company that powers the big data apps that transform business, today announced two major events taking place in the Bay Area during June, the Cassandra Summit 2013 and the Bloomberg Next Big Thing Summit. Big data is today’s defining technology trend, transforming industries ranging from retail and finance to media and health care. As a leading big data platform provider, DataStax is hosting the Cassandra Summit and sponsoring the Bloomberg Summit.”
But in addition to DataStax, many value-added open source leaders offer great customer service and training opportunities. LucidWorks is another known for setting the industry standard for development support as well as customer support and training.
Emily Rae Aldridge, April 19, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
LucidWorks Honored in CRN Big Data 100 List
April 18, 2013
The data-management pioneers at LucidWorks are receiving some well-earned recognition, we learn from “LucidWorks Named to Inaugural CRN Big Data 100” posted at the Wall Street Journal. The roster, the first in what is to be an annual list, highlights the very best of the many vendors flooding the big data field. The press release informs us:
“The inaugural list recognizes innovative technology vendors that offer products and services to help businesses manage ‘Big Data’ – the rapidly increasing volume, speed and variety of information being generated today. The list covers three categories: business analytics, data management, infrastructure and services. Vendors on this list are industry stalwarts leveraging their products and services to meet the Big Data challenge, as well as a wave of startups developing a new generation of products to help businesses address their Big Data needs.
“Since its launch in 2008, LucidWorks has redefined the way people search for information. The LucidWorks product suite consists of two development platforms: LucidWorks Search and LucidWorks Big Data. Users conducting searches powered by these platforms can uncover real-time insights from any data source, structured or unstructured, regardless of its location. The company’s rich portfolio of enterprise-grade solutions is based on the Apache Lucene/Solr open source technology.”
Hooray, open source! Part of why we love LucidWorks is their support of these community-built projects. Not only do their products enhance open source solutions instead of competing with them, the company directly contributes to the Apache Software Foundation.
LucidWorks (formerly Lucid Imagination) is the commercial company for Lucene search and its server Solr. The company crafts robust, scalable search solutions that make the most of this open source technology. LucidWorks prides itself on making open source search accessible and easy to learn. These search gurus are headquartered in Redwood City, CA.
Cynthia Murrell, April 18, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Silo Syndrome Claims the Sky Is Falling
April 18, 2013
Organizations in the financial services, healthcare, technology, e-business and government industries are at an increased risk for the newly diagnosed “Silo Syndrome”, according to the article “Thousands of Companies Diagnosed with Dreaded ‘Silo Syndrome’” published by PR Newswire.
Apparently, the symptoms of corporate “Silo Syndrome” are as follows:
“*An inability to immediately access business information
- Searching for answers but never really finding them
- Problems processing terms like “unstructured content”
- A penchant to unnecessarily flatten relational data
- Inability to join concepts together in real-time
- Needlessly accessing multiple systems for ‘what’ and ‘why’ answers”
Big data giant Attivio is championing awareness initiatives for what they claim is an increasingly ubiquitous syndrome, as CTO Sid Probstein stars in his very own PSA-style video. Attivio has also created a “Six Signs of Silo Syndrome” warning sign, which can be printed and displayed anywhere.
While Attivio no doubt holds the cure to “Silo Syndrome”, maybe humans build silos because silos are useful. After all, silos are required by various regulations, and silos simply make sense for certain types of business processes. Sure there is room for improvement, but sometimes silos just make sense.
Samantha Plappert, April 18, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
McKinsey Supplies Valuable Information Through New Newsletter
April 18, 2013
Analytics outfit McKinsey is engaged in a savvy marketing effort. The company now offers a newsletter packed with information on big data, the McKinsey Quarterly, first published in March. For example, they help businesses put together big-data strategies with their first article, while the second details three key challenges of data analytics. This month, they have turned to a crucial market segment; the company tells us:
“Two additional articles–the first set in a series on how analytics has been changing key industries–apply these insights specifically to health care. The Big-Data Revolution in US Health Care: Accelerating Value and Innovation explains why analytics could transform the sector. How Big Data Can Revolutionize Pharmaceutical shows a way forward for companies struggling with declining success rates and stagnant pipelines. Both include video interviews with McKinsey directors, who discuss the challenges that organizations face.”
McKinsey is proud to provide well-informed management consulting services to organizations in a variety of fields around the world. The veteran company was founded in 1926, during the early days of management theory. More recently, McKinsey has prudently seized upon technology as a natural addition to the core considerations of strategy, organization, and operations.
Cynthia Murrell, April 18, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Temis and MarkLogic Collaborate on Big Data Challenges
April 18, 2013
Well, this is quite a surprise. Temis announces, “TEMIS and MarkLogic Strengthen Strategic Alliance.” Semantic content-management firm Temis is partnering with MarkLogic, who boasts of providing the only enterprise NoSQL database in the market, to tackle unstructured data. The press release tells us:
“With new, enhanced integration capabilities, TEMIS’ Luxid® and MarkLogic® Server can now help organizations do more with their content. . . .
“TEMIS’ Luxid® and MarkLogic® Server count many joint customer implementations. Their integration delivers seamless semantic enrichment of data stored in the enterprise NoSQL database with the Luxid® domain-specific and multilingual annotation process. This enables organizations to build powerful Big Data applications, combining content semantics with real-time database agility to make massive volumes of unstructured content easier to exploit.”
Metadata master Temis was Founded in 2000 by some folks with IBM-based text-mining experience under their belts. The company now has offices across Europe and North America. This year, their flagship Luxid Content Enrichment Platform won the Software & Information Industry Association‘sCodie Award for Best Semantic Technology Platform.
With a laser focus on efficient and fruitful databases, MarkLogic is headquartered in Silicon Valley, with offices around the world. The company was founded in 2001, and has been working beyond the relational database since long before “big data” became a buzzword.
Cynthia Murrell, April 18, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Big Data Saving Money and More
April 17, 2013
The cost of running a business and its computing systems is quickly becoming one of the greatest burdens on almost every industry. While systems get more intuitive and fast, they get pricier. Thankfully, we are discovering how big data has some solutions for this. We discovered an interesting perspective from UnReveal’s article, “Big Data? Bring it On.”
According to the story:
“Harmonize and optimize all e-data without complex, expensive and time-consuming IT processes
- Fuse disparate information together without the need for extensive data-mapping projects and linking structured fields by common keys.
- No artificial manipulation or human interference that could distort results and outcomes. uReveal connects and reads all data in its natural state.
- New data is integrated as frequently as servers are refreshed allowing for near real-time analysis and more actionable results.”
We like the message this sends and agree. However, some people have even bigger expectations for their big data. According to a recent Tech America Foundation story, government big data saves money, but also lives. “According to 87 percent of federal IT officials and 75 percent of state IT officials, the use of real-time Big Data solutions will save a significant number of lives each year.” All we can say is wow. This makes us eager to see now big data next invades our lives.
Patrick Roland, April 17, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Big Data Job Market Boom
April 17, 2013
Big data and analytics means more than just helping companies wade through unstructured data to make better decisions. In this time of economic woe, it also means jobs. Few other places outside of fracking are people hiring like they are for the big data revolution, as we learned from a recent Government News article, “SAIC Builds Victorian Cyber Security Center.”
According to the story:
“Global research and development company, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) will develop the regional cyber security centre to support its efforts for the Australian Government and industry clients. The researchers will also be involved with developing software applications associated with SAIC subsidiary CloudShield Technologies Inc, and TeraText products. According to the Victorian Government, the centre will create 50 skilled jobs involved with the facility over the next three years.”
As we have heard from several other sources, the big data job market is booming. Dice recently broke down the outlook for the market and what skills data experts need. Saying: “The expected market for Big Data is expected to surpass $100 billion…This means that employment opportunities in the area will increase.” We agree and see this as a boom time to get into the industry that logically isn’t going anywhere, since we are producing more and more data all the time and need someone to manage it.
Patrick Roland, April 17, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Avoiding Unnecessary Data
April 16, 2013
Speed is the key. We can talk about a lot of different elements that help build successful big data and analytics, but at the end of the day a program’s speed is the thing that matters above all else. Shaving a few seconds off organizing unstructured data can add up to a lot over the lifecycle of a business and there are some impressive steps being taken to avoid wasting time with unnecessary data, as we discovered in a recent Data Center Knowledge story, “IBM Advances Big Data Platform, PureData System for Hadoop.”
According to the story:
“IBM BLU Acceleration delivers key information to users faster by extending the capabilities of traditional in-memory systems – which allows data to be loaded into Random Access Memory instead of hard disks for faster performance – by providing in-memory performance even when data sets exceed the size of the memory. Innovations in BLU Acceleration include “data skipping,” which allows the ability to skip over data that doesn’t need to be analyzed…”
IBM’s breakthrough couldn’t come at a more appropriate time, because Computer Weekly has just released a story about the millions companies waste on storing and dealing with unnecessary data. Read it here. The key with all this is streamlining. Business moves faster than ever so any step that can be taken to minimize drag is welcomed.
Patrick Roland, April 16, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Thetus Goes to the Government
April 16, 2013
Big data is awash in exciting new names, but some tend to stick out more than others. Thetus Is a name not many are familiar with yet, however that is poised to change. Especially, in the government. The small analytics upstart is making big inroads with governmental big data, as we discovered in a recent Thetus Blog post, “Government Big Data Forum.”
The story focuses heavily on explaining the forum:
“This year the forum will “examine emerging technologies and concepts designed to address the full spectrum of agency mission needs for Big Data.” With three keynote speeches and a strong list of vendors exhibiting their products this event will definitely be worth while for anyone interested in government analytical tools. If you’re already attending make sure to stop by our booth to see the latest capabilities in our core product, Savanna!”
Thetus has been busy with government work. In addition to this forum, they recently helped take an analytical look at Kenyan droughts, which brought them heaps of praise. The cornerstone of everything they do is Savanna, which has a fascinating demo available right now. This is a great opportunity for governments looking for big data help. Time to take a look and see how it fits.
Patrick Roland, April 16, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
