Another Book for the Big Data Crowd
October 19, 2012
My goodness. I am delighted that I am not a real journalist or a real publisher. We continue to learn about discounted or free books. The most recent book information came to us via David Barber (Happy Quack, to you, sir). The book is Bayesian Reasoning and Machine Learning. If you are a big data fan, Bayes, the wily cleric, has become one of the go to tools for many big data and analytics outfits. When systems learn, the deft Bayes’s methods are in play. I would like to explain the interesting consequences of such methods, but for now, you can get the discount at this link. The free version is available at http://web4.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/D.Barber/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Brml.Online
Stephen E Arnold, Beyond Search, a word pair now used by Microsoft, CNet, and Set Grimes. Well, well, well. Oops. That is a Markov chain trigger.
IBM Reveals PureData System for Big Data Management
October 19, 2012
The article tells us more about the capabilities of the new system:
“The PureData System is designed to manage petabyes of data. According to IBM, it can manage up to 100 databases and can perform analytics in a matter of minutes versus hours to understand consumer purchases and other data-intensive tasks, such as detecting credit card fraud. It focuses on transactional applications such as e-commerce, customer analysis and analyzing operations.”
The benefits of this product could be monumental for enterprises attempting to manage the Big Data chaos. Intrafind a first integrator for IBM PureSystems, offering feature-rich solutions that make the best of an IBM Pure installation. Intrafind’s product, Semantic Metadata Generator 1.0, is used for “free tagging, controlled tagging, entity recognition and topic recognition of an unstructured text.” For more details on Intrafind, direct your browser here.
Andrea Hayden, October 19, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Big Data Creates Jobs and PolySpot Delivers Information
October 19, 2012
Big Data has been helping to increase efficiency and generate ROI for businesses, and now it might just help in lowering unemployment. Read Write Web’s article “Big Data Is Creating Big Job Demand” tells us that Big Data is opening the door to some computer savvy positions now and in the future.
Corporations are investing in employees that are proficient in software development and have a nice mix of IT related skills:
Even if you are not an engineer, many hiring managers want candidates to have a thorough understanding of the software development lifecycle. More development equals more QA or ensuring a project, product or service meets certain standards and satisfies requirements. Programming has been at the top of the career skills lists for quite a while, and there are no signs of this demand abating any time soon. Between big data and mobile-application demand alone, those who code well should have more employment opportunities for some time to come.
The innovative technologies keep developers in high demand and increase the need for skilled technical positions. Companies utilizing Big Data solutions that offer insight enabling infrastructure components such as PolySpot solutions will be set once the workforce is in place because these solutions deliver information securely to all employees.
Jennifer Shockley, October 19, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Zeppelin looks to enter the Ring with Other Social Business Tools
October 19, 2012
In “Yammer, Jive, Microsoft SharePoint are ‘Blank Pieces of Paper,’ says Zeppelin,” Meghan Kelly relays comments from Zeppelin on the social business tool’s potential to connect employees in the workplace. Zeppelin co-founder Anze Vodownik voiced opinion at the DEMO Conference that Yammer, Jive, SharePoint, and the like claim to be a new Facebook or Twitter but are installed in a company and become underused. She had this to say about the Zeppelin service:
Zeppelin lets employees put quick blurbs about their day in front of coworkers. It connects with Google Analytics, Basecamp, Microsoft, and customer relationship management systems, and allows employees to upload files and photos. You can also sign up for a daily or weekly summary of what is happening on your team.
The company launched its private beta today. Right now, Zeppelin is only going after the small to medium-sized business market.
SharePoint is a ubiquitous platform that is only increasing adoption rates. When it comes to encouraging collaboration in the business environment, consider a third party application that also taps into all of your information, including social media channels. Mindbreeze facilitates the comprehensive incorporation of all electronic data repositories and connects seamlessly with SharePoint. Social business and employee collaboration fueled by efficient and comprehensive access to information is possible with Mindbreeze.
Philip West, October 19, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
What Happened to Google? Nothing.
October 18, 2012
I have been amusing myself with the various analyses of the Google missteps. I just got off the phone with one of my clients who asked me, “What has happened to Google?” My answer, “Nothing.”
For context, check out “Google Reports Profit, Sales That Miss Analysts’ Estimates.” The estimable Bloomberg said:
The company earlier this year spent $12.4 billion on Motorola Mobility Holdings, pushing it further into the hardware market and stepping up its rivalry with Apple Inc. (AAPL) Third-quarter total revenue, including the acquisition of Motorola Mobility, rose 45 percent from a year earlier, while expenses rose 71 percent over the same time period. Motorola Mobility contributed sales of $2.58 billion for the period. Net income declined to $2.18 billion, or $6.53 a share, from $2.73 billion, or $8.33, a year earlier.
Everything looks pretty good considering the dilution of ad precision, the lousy economy, and the lost voice of Larry Page.
Let me highlight two other points. First, the Motorola deal is going to be exciting and expensive. Second, Google operates via controlled chaos. The approach may work like a champ among rocket scientists. Among lesser souls, management is a bit more tricky. Glue together without a clamp Motorola Mobility and controlled chaos, and I think we have a pivot point for the happy crowd in Mountain View.
One more thing: those pesky regulators are not going quietly into the good night.
Stephen E Arnold, October 18, 2012
The Google Search Appliance Adds Bells and Whistles
October 18, 2012
A version of this article appears on the www.citizentekk.com Web site.
The Google Search Appliance is getting along in year. A couple of weeks ago (October 2012), Google announced that Version 7.0 of the Google Search Appliance GB-7007 and the GB-9009 was available. The features of the new system are long-overdue in my opinion. Among the new features are two highly desirable enhancements: better security controls, faceted browsing. But the killer feature, in my opinion, is support of the Google Translate application programming interface.
Microsoft will have to differentiate the now aging SharePoint Search 2013 from a Google Search Appliance. Why? GSA Version 7 can be plugged into a SharePoint environment and the system will, without much or fuss, index the SharePoint content. Plug and play is not what SharePoint Search 2013 delivers. The fast deployment of a GSA remains one of its killer features. Simplicity and ease of use are important. When one adds Google magic, the GSA Version 7 can be another thrust at Microsoft’s enterprise business.
See http://www.bluepoint.net.au/google-search/gsa-product-model
Google has examined competitive search solutions and, in my opinion, made some good decisions. For example, a user may add a comment to a record displayed in a results list. The idea of allowing enterprise users add value to a record was a popular feature of Vivisimo Velocity. But since IBM acquired Vivisimo, that company has trotted down the big data trail.
Endeca has for more than 12 years offered licensees of its systems point-and-click navigation. An Endeca search solution can slash the time it takes for a user to pinpoint content related to a query. Google has made the GSA more Endeca like while retaining the simplified deployment which characterizes an appliance solution.
As I mentioned in the introduction, one of the most compelling features of the Version 7 GSAs is direct support for Google Translate. Organizations increasingly deal with mixed language documents. Product and market research will benefit from Google’s deep support of languages. At last count, Google Translate supported more than 60 languages, excluding Latin and Pig Latin. Now Google is accelerating its language support due to its scale and data sets. Coupled with Google’s smart software, the language feature may be tough for other vendors to match.
Enterprise searchers want to be able to examine a document quickly. To meet this need, Google has implemented in-line document preview. A user can click on a hit and see a rendering of the document without having to launch the native applications. A PDF in a results list appears without waiting the seconds it takes for Adobe Reader or FoxIt to fetch and display the document.
What’s not to like? The GSA GB-7007 and GB-9009 delivers most of the most-wanted features to make content searchable regardless of resource. If a proprietary file type must be indexed, Google provides developers with enough information to get the content into a form which the GSA can process. Failing that, Google partners and third-party vendors can deliver specialized connectors quickly.
Effective Knowledge Management Requires Enterprise Search
October 18, 2012
The post goes on to elaborate on another study with similar results:
“Not enough for you? Seven years ago, an article ran in NewScientist. It highlights a study done at King’s College London, that showed in today’s business setting, marked by emails, smart phone connections,– the connected 24×7 reality of today, the average IQ of an individual drops by about 10 points. The study went on to conclude, (and this is my favorite part), ‘Even smoking dope has less effect on your ability to concentrate on the task in hand.’”
Knowledge management is obviously powerful, but requires one to step back and consider available options and information. Enterprise search is a key ingredient to knowledge management and Intrafind offers some of best in class best practices for secure searching that offers semantic linking and intelligent tagging.
Andrea Hayden, October 18, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Search Technology Delivers Enterprise Information
October 18, 2012
Generic server markets are desperately trying to hang on to their hardware margins but the new competition comes with some renown. Corporations like IBM and Cisco are seizing opportunities to create a unified computing system that might just drive the smaller servers out of business according to GigaOM’s article “Does Big Data Really Need Custom Hardware?”.
IBM is using their built in expertise and reputation as leverage in attempt to corner the Big Data market:
There are many who think that data processing will require something above and beyond a typical x86 set up, such as a box from SeaMicro or Calxeda machine with low-power cores that are networked to work in parallel to parse many bits of data in small chunks. Others are thinking farther ahead and envision new architectures that mimic the human brain. These boxes aren’t about the whiz-bang tech inside; they’re an admission that services wrapped in a box are the main opportunity ahead for larger vendors.
Information management software already exists that can effectively and securely extract and enrich raw data within an enterprise-wide environment. The hook for IBM is to draw users to their other PureData services and push out the smaller companies. Enterprises have been relying on smaller scale developers such as Polyspot for information delivery solutions so it is unlikely that these innovative companies will be bullied out of their field of expertise, even by someone as colossal as IBM.
Jennifer Shockley, October 18, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Making Connections between Data with Semantic Search
October 18, 2012
In “Google’s Knowledge Graph: Implications for Search & SEO,” Bharati Ahuja discusses Google’s hopes for the Knowledge Graph to help deliver a more perfect search engine, or in Google’s Matt Cutts’s opinion, a knowledge engine. The Knowledge Graph aims to help users find the right thing, get the best summary, and go deeper and broader to discover more about the search to potentially answer the user’s next question before it is asked. Ahuja explains its impact on SEO:
The Knowledge Graph is also paving the way to new approaches toward SEO. Semantic search isn’t just about the web. It’s about all information, data, and applications. Data is the foundation on which such a web and search world can exist. Data in itself is meaningless, but when data gets linked because of its relationships with various data sets available on the web, it becomes useful and meaningful. So when users type in a query, these inter-connected relationships add context and the related information more powerful.
The power of semantic search in addition to relevant content is key to gaining and retaining an audience. A powerful search system that can make connections among vast amounts of data can also help deliver a better search experience for users. One solution worth taking a look at is InSite from Mindbreeze. InSite is capable of searching a wide variety of specific documents, including PDFs, Excel sheets, and Word documents, as well as searching social media sites and Web sites.
Philip West, October 18, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
Oracle Offers Integrated Big Data Engine
October 18, 2012
You need a big database engine and a lot of hardware so you can converge lots of big data. At least, that’s what Oracle hopes we will believe. V3.co.uk‘s reports, OpenWorld: Oracle Touts Converged Approach for Big Data.”
OpenWorld includes both hardware and software made to work together. This sort of integration is, after all, what Oracle has historically done best. The write up reports on comments from Oracle’s Balaji Yelamanchili:
“Yelamanchili explained that with the advent of in-memory analysis, which stores data in RAM rather than on a platter-based disk drive, appliances are able to operate on an exponentially faster magnitude without raising costs or sacrificing capacity. The Exalytics system stores up to 1TB of data in memory while running up to four Intel Xeon E7 processors. . . .
“Additionally, the company said that firms will benefit from combining the Exalytics platform with its ExaData server platform. Oracle has designed the two systems to connect via on-board Infiniband high-speed connections.”
This may be the right approach for businesses that can afford it. And that actually see a need for a powerful big-data engine. No doubt many companies fall into that column, and Oracle does tend to build reliable products.
However, Oracle president Mark Hurd seems to think every organization should want to buy his company’s system; “the data is coming whether you like it or not,” he says. Hmm. Is a state of alarm really a good place from which to make financial decisions?
Cynthia Murrell, October 18, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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