Dr. Jerry Lucas: Exclusive Interview with TeleStrategies ISS Founder
January 14, 2013
Dr. Jerry Lucas, founder of TeleStrategies, is an expert in digital information and founder of the ISS World series of conferences. “ISS” is shorthand for “intelligence support systems.” The scope of Mr. Lucas’ interests range from the technical innards of modern communications systems to the exploding sectors for real time content processing. Analytics, fancy math, and online underpin Mr. Lucas’ expertise and form the backbone of the company’s training and conference activities.
What makes Dr. Lucas’ viewpoint of particular value is his deep experience in “lawful interception, criminal investigations, and intelligence gathering.” The perspective of an individual with Dr. Lucas’ professional career offers an important and refreshing alternative to the baloney promulgated by many of the consulting firms explaining online systems.
Dr. Lucas offered a more “internationalized” view of the Big Data trend which is exercising many US marketers’ and sales professionals’ activities. He said:
“Big Data” is an eye catching buzzword that works in the US. But as you go east across the globe, “Big Data” as a buzzword doesn’t get traction in the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific Regions if you remove Russia and China. One interesting note is that Russian and Chinese government agencies only buy from vendors based in their countries. The US Intelligence Community (IC) has big data problems because of the obvious massive amount of data gathered that’s now being measured in zettabytes. The data gathered and stored by the US Intelligence Community is growing beyond what typical database software products can handle as well as the tools to capture, store, manage and analyze the data. For the US, Western Europe, Russia and China, “Big Data” is a real problem and not a hyped up buzzword.
Western vendors have been caught in the boundaries between different countries’ requirements. Dr. Lucas observed:
A number of western vendors made a decision because of the negative press attention to abandon the global intelligence gathering market. In the US Congress Representative Chris Smith (R, NJ) sponsored a bill that went nowhere to ban the export of intelligence gathering products period. In France a Bull Group subsidiary, Amesys legally sold intelligence gathering systems to Lybia but received a lot of bad press during Arab Spring. Since Amesys represented only a few percent of Bull Group’s annual revenues, they just sold the division. Amesys is now a UAE company, Advanced Middle East Systems (Ames). My take away here is governments particularly in the Middle East, Africa and Asia have concerns about the long term regional presence of western intelligence gathering vendors who desire to keep a low public profile. For example, choosing not to exhibit at ISS World Programs. The next step by these vendors could be abandoning the regional marketplace and product support.
The desire for federated information access is, based on the vendors’ marketing efforts, is high. Dr. Lucas made this comment about the existence of information silos:
Consider the US where you have 16 federal organizations collecting intelligence data plus the oversight of the Office of Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). In addition there are nearly 30,000 local and state police organizations collecting intelligence data as well. Data sharing has been a well identified problem since 9/11. Congress established the ODNI in 2004 and funded the Department of Homeland Security to set up State and Local Data Fusion Centers. To date Congress has not been impressed. DNI James Clapper has come under intelligence gathering fire over Benghazi and the DHS has been criticized in an October Senate report that the $1 Billion spent by DHS on 70 state and local data fusion centers has been an alleged waste of money. The information silo or the information stovepipe problem will not go away quickly in the US for many reasons. Data cannot be shared because one agency doesn’t have the proper security clearances, job security which means “as long as I control access the data I have a job,” and privacy issues, among others.
The full text of the exclusive interview with Dr. Lucas is at http://www.arnoldit.com/search-wizards-speak/telestrategies-2.html. The full text of the 2011 interview with Dr. Lucas is at this link. Stephen E Arnold interviewed Dr. Lucas on January 10, 2013. The full text of the interview is available on the ArnoldIT.com subsite “Search Wizards Speak.”
Worth reading.
Donald Anderson, January 14, 2013
PolySpot Uncovers and Delivers Vital Enterprise Information
January 11, 2013
We’ve heard it before and we’re hearing it again: computers and data are nothing without the intelligence and analysis skills of data scientists. This time the age-old insight comes from a recent GigaOM article called “Why Big Data Might Be More About Automation Than Insights.”
The author discussed how attorneys are using big data technologies to sift through terabytes of electronic documents with Recommind CEO Bob Tennant.
The following insight was shared from their conversation:
Predictive coding, as it’s called, frees them up to focus more on case strategy than on the tedium of analyzing every single PDF and email message to figure out if it’s relevant to a case. However, he noted, although the software typically does a better job than a person alone would do, most law firms still use a hybrid man-machine approach to leverage the strengths of both and ensure nothing gets missed.
While big data technologies are certainly replacing the need for employees to manually read huge stacks of documents, we would not say that automation is where these technologies end. Key insights are delivered from business intelligence software like PolySpot that, through connectors, has the capability of uncovering information from over 100 different file types.
Megan Feil, January 11, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Small Businesses Find Scalable Big Data Solutions with PolySpot
January 9, 2013
From local municipal government to the education sector to big business, every industry is paving way for big data and the technological solutions inherent to its worth to come in as a jumpstart to success. However, in a recent article from Venture Beat called “Why I Don’t Buy the Hype About Big Data,” technology executive Bruno Aziza advocates for the buzz around big data to slow down to a halt.
He cites Gartner supporting the trend by releasing big numbers: a recent report shows that $28 billion was spent on big data technologies this year, and over $230 billion will be spent through 2016. The problem? Aziza states that technologies and the necessary staff are consequently very expensive.
He continues the discussion by recommending that companies seek out solutions for business intelligence on an appropriate scale:
The amount of data that Facebook and NASA are crunching remains the exception, not the norm. Truth is, you don’t have to be a large company to leverage your data. If you looked at range of companies in the U.S., you’ll find that there are over 50,000 that only have between 20 and 500 employees – most of which, I’d argue, are trying to solve data problems at scale.The biggest market for big data is not just with the Fortune 50, it is with the Fortune 500,000.
We cannot deny that it is vital for small businesses to find the size-appropriate solutions, but that does not mean that the big data hype has no place. The ‘big’ in ‘big data’ is relative to the size of the business as well. PolySpot technologies deliver scalable big data solutions for small businesses, for example.
Megan Feil, January 9, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search.
Attivio Offers Attractive Security Options
January 7, 2013
Attivio makes a very strong case for its own security solution in “The Pitfalls of Early Binding, Late Binding and Hybrid Security Models.” The well-organized article begins by describing each model and its pitfalls. For example, early binding requires constant content reprocessing, while late binding tends to slow response times considerably. The hybrid model, naturally, retains flaws from both its parent models. This section would actually make a good primer on the subject.
Next, the piece explains Attivio’s unique approach, which began by looking at how organizations actually used access controls. Steve Bower, director of client engineering and author of the post, discusses his company’s method:
“The first thing we came to understand was that changes in access control are primarily changes in access to sets – sometimes large – of content, as well changes to the user/group structure itself. . . .
“At the root of our Active Security model is the idea of breaking up the access control problem into its constituent parts; users, groups, documents and ACLs. To accomplish this, Active Security models documents, ACLs and user/group hierarchies as independent records within the Attivio universal index, enabling discrete control by allowing for independent updates to any part of the system. At query time these pieces are brought together, in a single query execution, using a combination of Attivio’s patented JOIN operator and Attivio’s GRAPH operator.”
Bower states that this innovative approach results in improvements over the traditional options, including latency reduction and a reduced load on security systems. He also lauds the platform’s scalability, simplicity, and extensibility.
Headquartered in Newton, MA, Attivio also has offices in the UK and Germany. The company offers high-performance, cost-effective approaches to the complex data challenges faced by government agencies and their defense and aerospace colleagues. Attivio prides itself on innovatively integrating enterprise search, intelligence, and analytic capabilities to provide the best solutions.
Cynthia Murrell, January 07, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Information Management Is Key to Intelligent Search
December 31, 2012
Searching for information within an enterprise is often not simple, or even fruitful. A recent survey from MindMetre gives us the disturbing truth that over half of knowledge workers admitted they cannot find the information they are looking for using their company’s enterprise search system. The facts are detailed in a white paper from KMWorld titled “Best Practices in Intelligent Search,” which argues that under-management of information, not information overload, is to blame.
An overture to this white paper, “What Are You Looking For? An Overture to ‘Intelligent Search,’” is featured on Enterprise Search Center. The overture states:
“We set out to discuss “enterprise search” and “intelligent search” in this White Paper. And that we shall. But let’s get something straight: Enterprise search is not what you think it is. It is not a single unified piece of software that can magically scour through the dozens of business applications that contain that piece of information our hypothetical guy was looking for. And, much less, it is not a single tool that can seek, discover and deliver an important piece of information from the hundreds and thousands of repositories from which it may emerge.”
This article and corresponding white paper offer a lot of wisdom on enterprise search facilities and Intrafind can be a great resource as organizations seek to make the best of their investments. High-quality research surrounding the capabilities and necessary features of search applications is a focal point of the information retrieval specialists.
Andrea Hayden, December 31, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
PolySpot Enables Efficient Information Dissemination and Analysis in the Enterprise
December 28, 2012
Bruno Aziza has two titles for his position at data analytics company SiSense. One is the Vice President of Worldwide Marketing…and the other: Data Geek. He comes out as such in a recent MIT Sloan Management Review article called, “The Big Deal About a Big Data Culture (and Innovation).”
In a conversation with their contributing editor, Aziza talks about the developing role of data analytics and offers insight into how to successfully utilize data and analytics effectively.
Aziza raises the awareness of the context surrounding the surge of interest in big data:
Secondly, I think the term analytics has raised the awareness of the problem. Before we used to call this business intelligence, and it’s funny how just the change of a term to business analytics made other people want to be interested in it. Also the financial crisis has helped people realize that you can be doing business in the old fashioned way, or you can be trying to be smarter than the other guys.
Whether it is called big data analytics or business intelligence, the important part of the evolution is that businesses know how important having efficient access to big data is to gaining a competitive advantage over other companies. One solution we have seen translate into ROI for organizations extracting value from big data is PolySpot. Their technology allows for information dissemination and analysis to happen quickly and effectively.
Megan Feil, December 28, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
InetSoft Ranked as a Leading BI Provider
December 18, 2012
A recent announcement from InetSoft Technology states that the company performed well in the findings of Gleanster’s new customer-review based research report on Agile Business Intelligence. We learn in the article “InetSoft Rates as a Leading Provider of Business Intelligence Solutions” on PRWeb that the report introduces the “agile BI” concept, gives reasons to implement it, and explains how organizations are maximizing investments. The report then gave ratings based on customer review; InetSoft ranked in the top ten across four consumer-based categories and was deemed a leading agile BI provider.
The article shares:
“‘Gleanster’s report is a terrific resource for organizations evaluating BI solutions with an eye towards improving agility and self-service,’ offered Mark Flaherty, CMO at InetSoft Technology. ‘These are two areas that have seen vast improvements thanks to the new breed of BI vendors that InetSoft is among. It is particularly gratifying to score so high in the customer review driven rankings across the board and especially in terms of ease-of-use, which is a primary product design goal for us and is so key to successful BI application deployments.’”
The full report is available for free download at http://www.gleanster.com/reports/reports/agile-business-intelligence.
Not much for us to add on this one. Is this a pay to play rating? We have not decided what we think. If you know, let us know via the comments section of the blog.
Andrea Hayden, December 18, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Another Partnership Locked in for Tableau
December 18, 2012
The press release published on CTOLabs announces the partnership between Karmaspehere and Tableau. The release entitled, “Karmasphere and Tableau Partner to Deliver Rich, End-to-End Big Data Analytics Solution,” posits a current era of transition into a new world of big data analytics.
The selling point and the feat these two companies have accomplished by working together is the self-service ability without any IT involvement. The analytics workflow includes data ingestion, exploration, analysis, reporting and visualization – all without reliance on IT.
Chief Executive Gail Ennis is quoted by the release:
“It is time to bridge the gap between Big Data Analytics and BI. Tableau is the world’s fastest growing BI company with industry-standard reporting and visualization capabilities. Customers who live in this BI world will now be able to access the power of Hadoop through Karmasphere, and get their Big Data analytics delivered seamlessly through Tableau.”
What is more important that Karmasphere customers can now access Hadoop and Tableau customers can now access big data analytics through that platform? Well, this partnership is one of Tableau’s many recent partnership announcements. We are not counting, but they certainly seem to have friends in the right places.
Megan Feil, December 18, 2012
Sponsored by Arnold IT.com, developer of Augmentext
Small Business Gets Business Intelligence Too
December 17, 2012
Many enterprise information management vendors target larger enterprise organizations that can stomach paying big bucks to manage information. There are more and more small businesses with savvy ownership looking to extract value from big data, however. Several very affordable options are outlined in the Terra article, “Data Crunch: 5 Analysis Tools for Small Businesses.”
Tech giant Google obviously has a solution in this arena, like they do in every other arena. The Application Gallery is an app market connecting third-party developers to Google Analytics to essentially expand its features.
We learned:
“Google Apps Application Gallery can be a place to start for owners looking to upgrade their data analysis IQ quickly and easily. Price: You can browse the Application Gallery for free. You can purchase apps for varying fees. Hub’scan runs $750 for 250,000 analyzed pages, LogMycalls is free to start, with paid services running $29 per month.”
Additionally, the other four solutions are: WolframAlpha’s Facebook Reports, Quantum Leap Buzz, JackBe Presto, and Recorded Future. Business intelligence for small business has definitely arrived. The only question remaining is whether or not these tiny companies have the resources to use it.
Megan Feil, December 17, 2012
Sponsored by Arnold IT.com, developer of Augmentext
Get Beyond the Latest Enterprise Buzzword with Feature Rich Solutions
December 13, 2012
Today’s successful company buzzword is agility, but one does not see cheap prints mimicking the word plastered on office walls around the globe. It would be unnecessary because according to The Enterprise Architect’s article“Enterprise Agile: Extending the Agile Process Outside Development” agility takes teamwork to an entirely new level, without the use of pictures.
There may not be an i in teamwork, but there is in agility. Individual departments continue to work separately while working together for a common goal, ROI:
“Solutions need to be fit in an existing ecosystem: the definition of done needs to include compliance and multiple teams working towards a common goal. Agility is only possible when the whole organization adopts the mindset: in an agile enterprise the marketing and sales side of the organization is balanced with product development. In an agile enterprise the entire business is organized in a way that it can respond quickly to changes in the market. All departments are fully integrated with the overall value stream, there is end-to-end agility.”
Companies need results in order to generate ROI, so agility is a great way to respond to the buzz of big data and enterprise solutions. Smart corporations know that the latest trendy buzzword will not provide results. They have to get beyond the buzz to reliable, feature rich search solutions with a provider like Intrafind… the other ‘I’ in agility.
Jennifer Shockley, December 13, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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