No Plunge Involved When Extracting Big Data Insights With PolySpot
October 26, 2012
What popular concept does not garner a lot of talk and buzz before the ball gets rolling? Big data is not unlike anything else. Action will come when planning around purchasing software and acquiring talent fall into place. No matter the level of hype businesses will rely on information provided by articles such as ZDNet‘s “Taking the Big Data Plunge a Challenge for Enterprise: Cisco.”
When this happens, IT architecture will no longer look the way it did in the traditional business analytics and application delivery model, which consisted of a compute tier, a storage tier, and networking. Architecture for big data is based on a scale-out model with multiple clusters of compute and storage units. Fortunately, there is not much change in hardware making the transformation to focusing on big data and easy and affordable one.
The article shared:
Regardless, organisations are still grappling with changes in the method of handling an influx of data, Cisco Consulting Systems Architect Adam Radford said, but it’s important to take advantage of big data, as it provides much more insight into things like internal operations and customer sentiments. However, big data and traditional analytics not only require different IT architectures, but approaches in retrieving information as well, he said.
There is one certainty: enterprise organizations want big data and they want the tools to make sense of it. As for recommendations, PolySpot has made a name for itself specializing in delivering information and insights.
Megan Feil, October 26, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Microsoft 2013 Releases Head to Production
October 26, 2012
Microsoft is releasing the 2013 suite of solutions to manufacturing. Updated solutions include Office 2013, Exchange 2013, and SharePoint 2013. More information can be found in the full article, “Office 2013, Exchange 2013, SharePoint 2013 Released Oct. 18.”
Kirk Koenigsbauer, corporate vice president of the Microsoft Office Division, announced the RTM milestone in a blog post. He claimed that the 2013-branded Office represents ‘the most ambitious release of Office we’ve ever done.’
In July, Koenigsbauer and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer showed off touch-friendly Office 2013 apps. These apps will run on the “Desktop” side of the Windows 8 user interface. Microsoft is also building ‘Metro-style’ Office apps, but so far only the OneNote Metro-style app is available for testing. Gartner analyst Steve Kleynhans has described the new Office 2013 apps as very similar to those in Office 2010, but with screen layouts optimized for touch.
Many organizations are excited to implement the newest iteration of SharePoint, but others may be nervous about the transition. The fact is that there is always a steep learning curve when it comes to a new Microsoft product, particularly SharePoint. However, third party solutions can ease that transition. Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise offers more frequent updates that are intuitive, easing use without a steep learning curve. Additionally, Fabasoft Mindbreeze can enhance an existing SharePoint infrastructure, meaning that large disruptive updates may be a thing of the past.
Emily Rae Aldridge, October 26, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
Twitter User Analytics Not Surprising
October 26, 2012
Some interesting Twitter demographics were revealed in the article “Typical Twitter User is a Young Woman with an iPhone and 208 Followers” on Gigaom recently. The article covers a study, “An Exhaustive Study of Twitter Users Around the World,” completed by analytics firm Beevolve, offering information about who is using Twitter and why. The findings tell us that our stereotypes about Twitter users are most likely true: most Twitter users are women, iPhone users, young, and tweeting about family and fashion. And of course, their background is probably purple.
We also learn:
“The most useful part of the study, however, is that it provides a good view of how ordinary people use Twitter. For instance, it reveals that 25 percent of Twitter users have never tweeted, the average number of followers is 208 and that 81 percent of users have fewer than 50 followers.”
Very interesting stuff, but this system is a key indicator of exactly what? We wonder if there is a disproportionate number of users in New York and San Francisco too; location demographics would be informative. Looks like businesses on Twitter just need to learn how to appeal to the all the other twenty-something purple-loving iPhone users like me.
Andrea Hayden, October 26, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Search Technologies Enhances the Google Search Appliance
October 25, 2012
Document security and efficiency in search are typical and serious woes that face users of Google Search Appliance. However, that seems to be changing, thanks to enterprise search technology services company Search Technologies. The company recently announced the release of two products for Google Search Appliance customers, Entity Recognition Assessment and Sensitive Data Assessment Service, according to the write-up “Search Technologies Offers New Google Search Appliance Services” on Yahoo News. These two services will work together to allow users to take advantage of the capabilities released in GSA Version 7, particularly the new Entity Recognition.
We learn about the advantages in the source document:
”‘Entity Recognition is an important new capability for all GSA users,’ said Kamran Khan, CEO of Search Technologies. ‘Our new Assessment Services allow GSA customers can take full advantage of this new feature. They will help organizations maximize the search experience, especially over unmanaged data sources such as file shares, and add an additional layer of security, based on the automatic identification of sensitive concepts within documents. This way, they are getting full business value from their Google Search Appliance.’”
Search Technologies is taking a leadership position with regard to the Google Search Appliance. The firm’s innovations promise to improve the GSA’s search effectiveness across unmanaged content sources and large data sets, while protecting sensitive information in the enterprise. Customers will likely gain a competitive advantage with the implementation of this new technology alongside the Google Search Appliance. More information is available at www.searchtechnologies.com.
Andrea Hayden, October 25, 2012
Secure Cloud Platform Product Addresses Search Woes
October 25, 2012
Cloud platforms present an interesting issue for those attempting to search across such siloed cloud applications in real-time. OneLogin, cloud identity management specialists, recently released a product to help businesses facing these woes. In the article “OneLogin Launches First-Ever Federated Cloud Search” on The Herald, we learn about the Cloud Search product which allows users to search across public cloud applications like Google Apps, Box, and Zendesk.
We learn more about the necessity and benefits of this type of search product in the enterprise:
“‘Employees at cloud-centric enterprises have to navigate a variety of cloud applications every day, yet they are unable to search across these applications with Google-like searchability,’ said Thomas Pedersen, founder and chief executive officer of OneLogin. ‘Cloud Search is a revolutionary product that provides users with actionable insights into products, projects and customer issues. It is also the realization of our platform vision to help CIOs securely leverage their cloud application portfolio.’”
OneLogin Cloud Search is also tied to an enterprise’s existing security model. This ensures that employees only have access to content that is authorized for them.
We are happy to see new players explore secure search. For a product that has been tested and in use for a longer period of time, Intrafind is a secure choice. Intrafind allows for users to search structured and unstructured enterprise data securely with a wide range of connectors.
Andrea Hayden, October 25, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Smart Firms Look to Business Intelligence that Delivers Information
October 25, 2012
When there is more than enough new data types to warrant new methods of analysis, you know there must be a paradigm shift at play. SAP certainly is not the first to point out the juncture we currently sit at, but nonetheless they threw in their hat to the number of firms presenting research on the subject. CMS Wire reported on the matter in “Report: ‘New Paradigm’ of Data for the Social Enterprise.”
The report is titled Rethinking Analytics for the Social Enterprise and it makes the case that social businesses are in a new generation of analytics where data is collected, analyzed and often used socially. That is, the data is disseminated through mobile platforms in near real-time.
One of the characteristics of the new paradigm is the social collection of structured and unstructured data from sources both inside and outside a company, including interactions with customers and prospects. That data is analyzed socially in a collaborative fashion throughout enterprise, using mobile tools and generating results that are more visual, more current and immediately actionable.
The looming question is which vendors will pull through as the big players in shaping this new arena of software solutions and more. There is no doubt that keeping an eye on PolySpot‘s information delivering business intelligence solutions is a smart move.
Megan Feil, October 25, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Google Updates Algorithm
October 25, 2012
Web site design is not only important for user experience, but also because it may impact search engine page rankings. Google, arguably the most used search engine, recently updated its page layout algorithm. Read the full report in the Search Engine Watch article, “Google Updates Above the Fold Page Layout Algorithm.”
The Page Layout algorithm first launched January 19, 2012. In the official announcement, they explained who might be affected: ‘Rather than scrolling down the page past a slew of ads, users want to see content right away. So sites that don’t have much content above-the-fold can be affected by this change.’
They continued, ‘If you click on a website and the part of the website you see first either doesn’t have a lot of visible content above-the-fold or dedicates a large fraction of the site’s initial screen real estate to ads, that’s not a very good user experience. Such sites may not rank as highly going forward.’
In addition to Web site design, another important element is Web site search. Businesses should be particularly concerned with how quickly users can locate necessary information on their Web page. Nothing will turn a potential customer away faster than a slow and painful online search process. Fabasoft Mindbreeze makes a very effective Web site search solution that automatically crawls your organization’s existing site and smartly indexes the results. Mindbreeze InSite is a smart investment for any organization with a Web presence.
Emily Rae Aldridge, October 25, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
Google Once Again in Hot Water Across the Pond
October 25, 2012
The European Union’s love affair with Google continues. The Guardian reports, “Google ‘to be Told by EU to Unravel Privacy Policy’.” Last March the company made some changes to its European privacy policy which seem to have rankled the EU’s “data protection chiefs.” The main bone of contention—Google failed to provide users with the chance to opt out of the changes. All this is going on, by the way, as Google has been meeting with the European Commission’s competition division about its (alleged) search results manipulations.
The article asserts that by handing the case to the French data protection commissioner, the EU has signaled that it means business. France’s CNIL is considered more aggressive than its counterparts in other countries, like the UK’s ICO. Writer Charles Arthur consulted privacy expert Chris Watson, who opined:
“By putting the CNIL in charge of this, the EU was going for blood. It was a declaration of intent. . . . The point is that Google is an international company which is leveraging its power in the browser and its other services in a way that affects national businesses all over the EU. There’s great political importance in the data protection commissioners doing something.”
Though Google was warned that its proposed privacy policy changes might violate EU law, the company proceeded anyway. (Surprised, surprise.) The article characterizes the changes:
“Google brought together separate ‘silos’ of data collected from services such as its search service, YouTube and Maps into a single datastore so that it could tailor adverts and content more closely. Google said then the new policy would simplify the user experience, and said it was confident it had obeyed ‘all European data protection laws and principles’.”
It is? Many seem to disagree with that assessment. I suppose whether Google has obeyed those laws will be up to the CNIL to decide.
Cynthia Murrell, October 25, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
AWS Global Start Up Challenge is Back
October 25, 2012
Amazon’s clever angle on finding good people and good ideas is back, the company declares in its post, “Welcome to the 6th AWS Global Start-Up Challenge.” The annual contest, which began in 2007, provides publicity while delivering a bevy of talent and insights to the company.
The Challenge calls on start-ups that have built their businesses using Amazon Web Services to submit their ideas for a “product, Web site, software application/tool, service, or any other system that substantively uses” one of Amazon’s cloudy products. (The full list of those products is listed in the Official Rules.) The announcement states:
“This contest, launched in 2007, is a way for promising start-ups to get noticed and compete for an opportunity to win some great rewards for your start-up. This year’s challenge offers prizes such as $100K in combined cash and credits for multiple winners, VC introductions, PR support, and more. If your start-up is built using AWS, we want you to apply!”
The write up goes on to give some specifics on the rewards Amazon will shower upon the winning contestant. You can see the entire list here, but opportunity and publicity are perhaps the most promising. The announcement mentions:
“Meet Tier One Investors: At last year’s event, finalists met 1:1 with representatives from top VCs such as Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures, NEA, Accel and Madrona Venture Group. Last year’s winner Fantasy Shopper went on to raise $3.3M from top tier venture firms NEA and Accel after the Challenge.
“Press and attention for your start-up: Finalists and Semi-Finalists will be featured in Start-Up Challenge press releases which have previously been picked up by top tech outlets such as TechCrunch and GigaOM.”
So, there you have it. If you are part of a qualifying start-up and are up for the challenge, you’d better get cracking. The deadline for entries is November ninth.
Cynthia Murrell, October 25, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Amazon Needs Content to Redeem Kindle Sales
October 24, 2012
Our beloved chief goose has commented about Amazon’s battle with its rising costs. Selling hardware at a loss in the hopes that the business model of Richard King Gillette will work is the sign of an optimist.
According to a recent admission from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Amazon needs content, and it needs it to sell fast. The company stated that it makes virtually no money on its Kindle hardware and is counting on content to sell to make the ebook venture worthwhile. The reporting article, “No More Games: Amazon Admits it Needs Content Sales for Kindles to Fly” on Ars Technica, shares that the company is hoping that content purchases from Kindle users will redeem the profit margin on the ereader.
The article reveals more information about the pricing and the company’s game plan:
“The Kindle line has long seemed like it might be a loss leader for Amazon, though the company has been reticent about stating that outright. Bezos said at the press event announcing the new Kindle Fires and the Kindle Paperwhite that ‘We want to make money when our customers use our devices, not when they buy our devices,’ before unveiling their competitive (but not staggeringly low) prices.”
The revelation sounds particularly dreary for Amazon and its content providers. We wonder if the company will be able to control its costs at this time of tactical loss leaders in tablets and ebook readers? What happens if the costs exceed revenues? Interesting question.
Stephen E Arnold, October 24, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com
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