Brain vs Brawn in Data Analysis
September 16, 2012
Is bigger necessarily better when it comes to data? Klaviyo’s Ed Hallen doesn’t think so, as he reveals in his post, “Big Data vs Intelligent Data (and What Startups Can Do with It).” He believes the recent focus on big data may be missing a big point. Intelligent data, defined as reducing huge quantities of data to just the relevant bits, is much more important than being able to analyze every scrap of data that comes your way.
Hallen enumerates what he considers intelligent data:
- Data that is clear and unambiguous – i.e. the data values can be defined and measured in a repeatable fashion.
- Data that is concise – i.e. the data represents the smallest number of data points that would lead to the same action. If you need 90% certainty to take action, it’s the amount of data that will safely give you that.
- Data that is directly linked to action – i.e. based on different values of that data, different decisions will be made and implemented.
Hallen suggests a few applications that actively help companies use data intelligently: Unbounce or Myna for A/B testing, Hubspot for marketing analytics, and, naturally, his own Klaviyo for user management and marketing. He advises startups, especially, to carefully consider what they need from their data and what they will do with that information. Good advice for any business.
Cynthia Murrell, September 16, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Centrifuge Rolls Out Big Data with Visual Analytics
September 16, 2012
Centrifuge has released its latest version, we learn from “Centrifuge Delivers Scalable Big Data Analytics with Visual Network Analytics Version 2.7.” Centrifuge focuses on corporate fraud, security, and risk. The upgraded platform brings more speed to intelligence and pattern discovery for large amounts of data. The press release states that Centrifuge is the first big data analytics solution to allow customers to bring in their own data, eliminating the often expensive data transformation step.
Centrifuge CEO Renee Lorton explained her company’s niche :
“Corporate Information security is a big data analytics challenge that cannot be addressed with traditional data mining, BI, or legacy analytics approaches. The sheer volume and complexity requires a powerful investigative discovery approach that is easy enough for a non-data scientist to use. Machine data, for example, is one of the fastest growing segments of big data, generated by websites, applications, servers, networks, mobile devices and other sources. Now, discovering patterns in Big Data is both easy and cost effective with Centrifuge’s powerful interactive data visualization.”
The write up points out a new ease-of-use feature and flexible relationship matching. Also, the Relationship Path Discovery function serves up all possible connections, but points out the shortest ones. The new version also includes an extensible data framework that broadens users’ access to a wealth of data set types.
Headquartered in McLean, VA, Centrifuge embraces the considerable challenges behind corporate security data analysis. It is proud to have garnered a place in the 2012 FinTech Innovation Lab Program, and to have been placed on the 2012 Always On Global 250 Private Company Top Ones to Watch list. Their trademarked slogan is “See Clearly Now.”
Cynthia Murrell, September 16, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
VoltDB and Actuate Unite
September 12, 2012
Combine the high speed processing of VoltDB with analysis capabilities of ActuateOne, and you get a fast and flexible solution that no business will be able to do without. At least, that’s the hope behind a new pairing described in 4-Traders’ “Actuate Corporation: Actuate and VoltDB Team to Speed Processing of Big Data and Deliver Faster Insights.” The announcement was made at last month’s NoSQL Now! Conference. The write up explains:
“Organizations across a wide range of industries – including finance, digital advertising, mobile/telecom and online gaming – that have extreme needs for fast, real-time data processing will benefit from being able to quickly analyze data that is processed in milliseconds. Specialty applications for the combined solutions include fraud detection, high-velocity trade order processing, digital ad exchanges, and micro-transaction systems.”
The hybrid product promises such boons as low latency with guaranteed accuracy, scaling for large active datasets, operational and analytic dashboards, and the ability to combine real-time and historical data sources.
Launched in 1993, Actuate is headquartered in San Mateo, California. Because the company founded and co-leads the Eclipse BIRT (Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools) open source project, its NASDAQ symbol is BIRT. Its ActuateOne platform is built around this project.
VoltDB was founded specifically to serve companies that require ultra-high database throughput and real-time analytics. Their NewSQL database is an in-memory, relational SQL database. The company makes its home in Billerica, Massachusetts.
Cynthia Murrell, September 12, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Big Data: Retail Savior or Slayer
September 10, 2012
TIME Business recently reported on Big Data in the article “Future of Retail: How Companies Can Employ Big Data to Create a Better Shopping Experience.”
According to the article, while Big Data is evidenced in a multitude of industries, it is highly noticed in the retail sector. Online stores like Amazon use the data they have collected from customers to create an individualized profile to recommend products that users may wish to buy based on the information gathered about products they have already purchased. A recent study found that Amazon reported 30 percent of sales were due to its recommendation engine.
Online retailers are not the only businesses utilizing Big Data to boost business. Traditional retailers are also turning to it in hopes of staying relevant. The article states:
“One company that hopes to give traditional retailers the kind of analytic tools available to ecommerce firms is RetailNext. The firm has developed a computer program that uses a store’s security cameras to give managers all kinds of information about how consumers interact with the store. Using this program, Retail Next can show exactly how many customers are in a given store at a time, which parts of the store they explore, which specific items customers spend a lot of time perusing — and which they do not. RetailNext can combine this information with other variables like staffing levels, weather, product assortment and placement to determine what does and doesn’t boost sales.”
Big Data certainly has the ability to rescue retail. However, the companies with honking data analytics systems may triumph. Who are the losers in the equation? Local stores in our opinion. Downtown Fairbanks, Alaska is a retail dead zone. Why? Ask a shop owner on Second Street.
Jasmine Ashton, September 10, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
IntelTrax Top Stories: August 31 to September 6
September 10, 2012
The IntelTrax advanced intelligence system blog provides summaries of articles pertinent to the world of data analytics and security. This week, we learned how the analytics market is continuing to grow, as well as some companies that offer excellent tools to help your company grow along with it.
“Cristobal Addition Strengthens Digital Reasoning” spotlights an important new addition to the board of the Tennessee based text analytics powerhouse, Digital Reasoning. Cristobal Conde has a rich history of working in the information technology field.
He states:
“I’ve been in information technology since the late ’70s when you had to build your own database manager. When companies like Sybase and Oracle developed commercial database managers – they made sense of structured data and allowed thousands of applications to be built on top…There is a pressing need to do something similar in unstructured data, and I believe Digital Reasoning is the company best positioned to do this.”
While the United States has a wealth of data analytics solutions to choose from, the Asian analytic market continues to gain in power and importance. According to “Asian Analytics Changing Fast” the big data analytics market in India is expected to double to $680 million by 2015.
Patrick Roland writes:
“This piggybacks on lots of other Aisa-centric analytic news. While many nations are flexing their muscles in big data, some American companies are catering to the industry, too. One prime example is the Chinese language support of Synthesys recently announced to aid the burgeoning data market in China. We expect more and more as places like the Philippines and Hong Kong begin making strides just behind power players like India and China.”
According to “Business Intelligence on the Rise” BI is one of the fastest growing industries and therefore smart businesses are utilizing this technology as a tool for growth.
The article explains:
“The big data opportunity is one of the biggest growth propellants for analytics. The vast amount of data that is available for analysis is exploding, however, it is housed in multiple silos of information with little or no cross-channel analysis of how the data correlates. For forward-thinking enterprises, big data can create value. Whereas BI traditionally performs structured analysis and provides a rear-view mirror into business performance, big data analytics provides a forward-looking view, enabling organizations to anticipate and execute on the opportunities of the future.”
We obviously are living in a world where BI and data analytics solutions are becoming an necessary part of business. Digital Reasoning offers a smart BI solution called Synthesis that delivers automated understanding for big data. The results are saved time and money.
Jasmine Ashton, September 10, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
IntelTrax Top Stories August 24 to August 30
September 3, 2012
This week the IntelTrax advanced intelligence blog provided readers with some interesting stories regarding the state of technology and the big data trends.
“Automation Hot Trend in Business Intelligence” discusses the growing industry of business intelligence to help organizations manage their data. Automation has been an important part of many BI solutions that are currently on the market:
“One company that’s scouring the social web specifically for business-specific data is FirstRain, a startup with Penny Herscher at the helm. Her company extracts the hard-to-find nuggets of relevant Twitter data for sales and marketing professionals. The big perk with FirstRain is the automation–the heavy lifting. It adds context to the data it’s found and packages it up for business use so a sales professional can immediately understand their customers. Working with the broad range of companies seeking big data and analytics solutions, FirstRain has clients in the pharmaceutical industry, finance, insurance and beyond.”
Another post, “VMware Acquires New Data Solutions Technology” highlights the recent acquisition of a small tech start-up as a way to continue innovating and growing.
The CEO of Pattern Insight wrote in a recent blog post:
“Ever since we started Pattern Insight, our vision has been to change how people search, mine and analyze their vast amounts of IT and Engineering data. Log Insight, a log analytics product, is the culmination of our efforts aiming at management and real time operational analytics for IT data regardless of scale. Today, I am very pleased to announce that Log Insight, together with its technology and team, have been acquired by VMware. We are very excited for the opportunity to accelerate our vision and maximize the impact of our technology.”
“Data Analytics Is the New Tech Bubble” discusses some potential issues with those involved with big data analytics. The writer fears, that like the bursting of the tech bubble, Big Data can expect a similar reaction.
According to the article:
“We’re in the middle of a Big Data and Hadoop hype cycle, and it’s time for the Big Data bubble to burst….Yes, moving through a hype cycle enables a technology to cross the chasm from the early adopters to a broader audience. And, at the very least, it indicates a technology’s advancement beyond academic conversations and pilot projects. But the broader audience adopting the technology may just be following the herd, and missing some important cautionary points along the way.”
Sometimes it is important to cut out the middleman and invest in small companies that have more flexibility for innovation. Digital Reasoning understand the importance of automation and innovation and their flagship product Synthesys reflects that.
Jasmine Ashton, September 3, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
What Can Big Data Do for You?
September 1, 2012
We all know big data has been at the top of the buzzword heap for many moons now. But how does all that hype translate into practical use? ZDNet examines the matter in “How is Big Data Faring in the Enterprise?”
Writer Dion Hinchcliffe begins by identifying three big changes he says are emerging within the big data field. First is the growth of “data-first” thinking; rather than hunting for data that supports an already formed decision, this approach strives to pull insight from the best raw data available. Next is the significant move away from the relational data model which has long held sway. Finally, Hinchcliffe writes:
“The third change is the move towards making big data a more operational component of the way organizations work and how externally-facing products function. While data scientists are often required to get the best outcomes, the results of their work are often applications or data appliances that are usable by just about anyone. Just like Google enabled the layperson to query the entire contents of the Web with a few keywords, the next generation of enterprise big data seems to be about connecting workers with the data landscape of their organizations in a way that doesn’t typically require IT wizards in white robes.”
How practical. And the fate of big data in the enterprise hinges on practicality; CFOs don’t usually like to spend a lot of money simply for hipster credibility. Hinchcliffe looks at several reports on what real businesses are, and are not, doing with this technology. For example, a recent report from Novarica shows just 15 to 20 percent of insurance companies preparing to embrace big data. See the article for more.
The word is out that this technology can provide a competitive advantage, but it seems most businesses are unsure how, or how soon, to grasp it. They need industry-specific solutions, and they need to know how these solutions will integrate with their existing business processes.
It looks like big data has some more marketing to do.
Cynthia Murrell, September 01, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Darpa May Be Hilbert
August 28, 2012
Wolfram Math World has a good run down of the 23 problems presented by the original fashion pace setter, David Hilbert. “Hilbert’s Problems,” according to Math World:
are a set of (originally) unsolved problems in mathematics proposed by Hilbert. Of the 23 total appearing in the printed address, ten were actually presented at the Second International Congress in Paris on August 8, 1900. In particular, the problems presented by Hilbert were 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 13, 16, 19, 21, and 22 (Derbyshire 2004, p. 377). Furthermore, the final list of 23 problems omitted one additional problem on proof theory (Thiele 2001). Hilbert’s problems were designed to serve as examples for the kinds of problems whose solutions would lead to the furthering of disciplines in mathematics. As such, some were areas for investigation and therefore not strictly “problems.”
This blog post is not the appropriate forum for a review of the status of research regarding the PhD carnival these problems have created. You may recall that one of the problems, “the cardinal number of the continuum” can drive some people crazy.
I noted the story “23 Mathematical Challenges.” DARPA, a US government research agency, has rolled out its own set of 23 problems. Presumably PhD candidates and grant writers will hop to them. Here’s a sample problem if you think you are pretty good at solving USA Today sudoku puzzles:
Quantum and statistical methods have had great success modeling virus evolution. Can such techniques be used to model more complex systems such as bacteria? Can these techniques be used to control pathogen evolution?
Once you have that nailed, what about:
Extend our understanding of symmetries and action principles in biology along the lines of classical thermodynamics, to include important biological concepts such as robustness, modularity, evolvability, and variability.
My question, “Is Darpa the new David Hilbert?” Hilbert fedoras would be a wonderful addition to the Darpa authorized clothing regulations.
Stephen E Arnold, August 28, 2012
Sponsored by Augmentext
IntelTrax Top Stories August 17 to August 23
August 27, 2012
This week the IntelTrax advanced intelligence blog published some innovative articles regarding the state of analytics solutions and the various industries that they are permeating.
“Analytics Providers on Roll with Online Marketing” discusses how data analytics is slowly but surely breaking into the online marketing industry through partnerships that offer customers online marketing analytics.
The article highlights a recent partnership between Emory Digital and National Analytics:
“The platform includes a daily website audit, competitive position and gap analysis, website analysis, keyword analysis, link analysis, conversion analysis, benchmark tracking and ROI tracking, and project management. The software tracks Key Performance Indicators that go far beyond search engine rankings. It measures brand engagement, pages bringing traffic, page view per visit, new visits, time on site, bounce rate, goal conversions, ecommerce transactions and revenue and lead generation.”
Another industry that is starting to rely as heavily on data mining as rock mining is the field of geology. “Big Data Teams with Geologists to Mine the Earth” discusses how there is a new tool that speeds up the process of data mining and exploration for geologists.
The article details:
“GDD’s Field Data Integrator combines best-of-breed technologies for collecting, managing and analyzing data more rapidly. The end-to-end solution enables geologists to collect samples in shorter time frames, and then quickly analyze large volumes sample data for complex scenarios such as such as project timings, cash flows and profitability with greater sensitivity levels….GDD’s Field Data Integrator automatically synchronizes sample data from various field instruments, GPS, and cameras onto a ‘tough’ tablet using Bluetooth. Geologists enter notes directly onto the tablet using on-screen or wireless keyboards, enabling all data on samples to be collected automatically into a single source. The tablet then automatically synchronizes with a master database running Vectorwise whenever in mobile range, saving geologists time in manual data entry.”
The Financial industry is also being highly impacted by data analytics, according to “Cloud Makes Financial Analysis Easier.” The post discusses a new cloud based data visualization system called Adaptive Discovery. Adaptive Planning, the creator of the new product, claims that it has an intuitive visual interface that will appeal to business managers, allowing them to more easily access, analyze, and explore key financial and operational data.
The article states:
“Adaptive Discovery, the visual discovery application within the Adaptive Planning suite of performance management solutions, allows companies of all sizes to quickly and easily understand and take action upon their companywide data. Business users can easily compile, display and explore data from multiple systems and lines of business with highly visual, interactive dashboards and scorecards. The application presents data in ways that managers can easily grasp, so they are able to make better day-to-day decisions. Adaptive Discovery delivers an exciting new level of capability and interactivity that is far superior to both static data in spreadsheets and the limited reporting options available in existing enterprise applications.”
While Adaptive Discovery is one solution that improves data mining, there are also other affordable data analytics solutions on the market. Digital Reasoning has a long standing reputation of bringing data analytics to a variety of industries, including the financial world.
Jasmine Ashton, August 27, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
IntelTrax Top Stories August 10 to August 16
August 20, 2012
This week the IntelTrax blog published some excellent articles on data analytics and search technologies.
One of the most notable analytics developers for Web sites is the search giant Google. “eGoogle Analytics Is No Longer the Only Game in Town” discusses some other options for those companies that are not satisfied with what Google is offering.
The article explains:
“If you operate your own website, analytic software can be crucial in order to track exactly how well your site is doing. Without this software, you can do whatever you want with your site, but you will never know if it is getting more visitors, aside from the amount of comments. When you look at the possible options you have for analytic software, the most popular choice is Google Analytics. However, if you’re not a fan of Google or its Analytics package, there’s no need to fear. There are still a handful of options for you to try out.”
Another article of note discusses the recent dramatic increase of unstructured data in almost every industry. “Growth of Text Analytics in Response to Unstructured Data” discusses the fact that there has also been an explosion of data analytics solution to make sense of all this new data.
When discussing some great solutions available, the article states:
“The Text Analytics market is rapidly consolidating with numerous mergers and acquisitions over the past year. Oracle purchased Endeca for its technology to mash up unstructured data from many different data sources. HP acquired similar technology from Autonomy. IBM picked up Vivisimo and Lexmark for their rich search features. Popularity of Big Data is driving huge interest in the area of text analytics, and that interest is causing the technology to evolve quickly. Text analytics techniques, for example, are becoming increasingly richer and more sophisticated in the information and insight which they can provide.”
While there are a lot of amazing data analytics solutions on the market, many companies are also feeling the effects of a downtrodden economy, so choosing an affordable solution is a very important part of their decision making process. “CFOs Demand a Reduction in Costs and Increase in Competitive Edge” argues that companies are utilizing data analytics solutions as a way to cut costs and create new growth opportunities.
Here are some qualities that companies in New Zealand and Australia are looking for in their products:
“As a discrete process, like CRM, corporate performance management is particularly well suited to a cloud delivery model. It provides organizations greater flexibility, lower capital costs and fast implementations that take weeks rather than six plus months. The end result is customers fast-track uncovering business opportunity. We’re excited about partnering with Host Analytics as it provides our clients a unique value proposition at a time when CFOs and CIOs are telling us that their number one priority is to reduce costs and gain competitive advantage with business analytics.”
The three articles that I have highlighted drive the point home that companies, regardless of their industry, are looking for text analytics solutions that will efficiently make the most of their limited resources and time. Digital Reasoning is a relatively young provider that understand the unique needs of small and midsized companies and offer their Synthesys platform as a solution that provides all the necessary data crunching tools and apps needed for most industries.
Jasmine Ashton, August 20, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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