Get An Oracle Education
March 1, 2013
Oracle developers will be glad to know that there are a lot of educational opportunities in 2013. Eon: Enhances Online News posted, “Oracle Applications Users Group Announces Educational Series 2013.” The Oracle Applications Users Group is the world’s largest database on Oracle Applications generated by users. The group is launching two virtual e-learning series: “Oracle EBS A to Z: A Deep Dive Educational Series,” Feb. 18-22, and the “Best of OAUG Connection Point® – EPM/BI,” Feb. 25-March 1.
The Best of OAUG Connection Point focuses on content discusses at the 2012 ORAUG conference, including: Oracle Analytic Applications, Oracle BI, and Endeca. If you would prefer something newer and about Oracle E-Business Suite, the Oracle EBS A to Z has what you need:
“OAUG members are invited to ask questions and discuss their concerns directly with Oracle developers and executives during this five-day interactive series. Each day highlights new topics, including Oracle Projects, Oracle E-Business Suite Human Capital Management, Oracle E-Business Suite Technology Certification Primer and Roadmap, Oracle E-Business Suite integration best practices, Oracle E-Business Suite Extensions for Oracle Endeca Information Discovery, Oracle E-Business Suite maintenance, Oracle Advanced Procurement and security.”
Take note that OAUG is incorporating Endeca into these two series. The main goal of the 2013 OAUG Educational series is to help developers locate information and support on issues they will handle on a daily basis. Endeca, as one of Oracle’s newest acquisitions, is one of those.
Whitney Grace, March 01, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Release and Connect Information Locked in Enterprise Applications with Polyspot
February 21, 2013
Competitive advantage looms large for those companies that have already explored the market of big data solutions and have started to deploy these technologies designed to produce a ROI. A recent post from the Harvard Business Review asks companies whether or not they are currently armed with the tools and knowledge for success with their big data solutions. Big Data: Can You Seize the Opportunity? offers a video with information for companies looking to execute a big data initiative.
The video’s purpose is summarized in the blog post:
But Donald Marchand and Joe Peppardhave found that when Big Data and analytics projects are implemented like other major IT initiatives, they often fail to produce the results desired by executives. Their conclusion: these projects should be implemented differently from other IT projects and should be based on understanding how people create and use information. Ultimately, businesses need to focus on the business problem and choose the technology that best addresses that problem.
Some technological tools do not provide the necessary infrastructure to connect multiple silos of information locked up in various applications across the enterprise. There are tools that have been devoted to amassing a library of these connectors to deliver information such as PolySpot. We recommend looking into these types of big data solutions.
Megan Feil, February 21, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search.
Creating Search Based Apps in SharePoint Simple and Effective
February 20, 2013
New SharePoint users can often benefit from a hands on learning tutorial that lays out step by step how to get things done accurately and well, accurately. Let’s face it, in this fast paced world of ever evolving technology it is important to not waste time. Time is MONEY and money is the business.
Ontolica has done it again. With “Building Search Based Applications with SharePoint,” author Robert Piddocke walks users through an easy and effective way to create a search based application.
“Creating Search Based Applications in SharePoint is an easy and effective way to drive contextually valuable information to users without the limitations of having the documents in a specific library. Search can surface content from not just SharePoint but even from File Shares or other document management systems. All you need is the content crawled and you can create a document display mechanism based on search.”
The first step is to identify what metadata you want to use and if custom columns on SharePoint lists exist and can be used for your search. You must make a metadata mapping in the search service application for each piece of metadata you want to use. Run a full crawl.
Next up is creating a new page for your search based app. Then you must configure th core search result web parts but don’t forget that each web part needs a unique setting in order to function properly. After you adjust the layout xalt on the resut web parts to exclude the description and display relevant metadata you then have to set the sort on the result web part for date to display the most recent items and ply a query hat will match what you need users to see.
For more detailed information and some ridiculously helpful screenshots as well as a download we suggest heading over to Piddocke’s article.
Leslie Radcliff, February 20, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Enterprise Information Delivery Strengthened with Solid Library of Connectors
February 13, 2013
Now that many organizations have begun to employ big data initiatives we are seeing many more surveys that are examining what stage of the process these companies are at. An article from ReadWrite discusses the results of a survey conducted by Infochimps and SSWUG.org, a community site for IT professionals. “Big Data: Many CIOs Completely Clueless” offers solid insight into what kind of technologies these companies need in order to succeed with their initiatives.
The article states:
The greatest challenge with Big Data is getting at the data trapped in various business applications across an organization, the survey found. Pooling this huge amount of information is necessary in order to run the necessary analytics to find ways to cut costs and run a more efficient business. But before that can happen, all the data has to be converted into a usable format.
Understanding a more complex picture, at a bird’s eye view above the individual enterprise applications, is likely to be much easier when the proper tools are employed. We have had our eyes on one such possibility, PolySpot. Enterprises benefit from the heightened information access and enriched information that comes with a product featuring such a strong library of connectors like this technology offers.
Megan Feil, February 13, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search.
OpenNebula on Infrastructure Management
February 8, 2013
OpenNebula is in the business of infrastructure management, but is seeking to differentiate itself from the pack and hasten enterprise adoption. The full story is provided by GigaOm in its piece, “OpenNebula Open-sources Service Management Layer with Enterprise in Mind.”
The article begins:
“OpenNebula, the European answer to the likes of Eucalyptus and OpenStack that counts CERN and China Mobile among its customers, is moving to differentiate itself from competitors by freely releasing OpenNebulaApps, a suite of cloud application management tools that sit on top of its traditional infrastructure management toolkit. The OpenNebulaApps tools were previously available only to OpenNebulaPro customers but, according to project director Ignacio Llorente, OpenNebula realized there was more value in opening them up.”
OpenNebula is trying to build on their open source base and customize on the boom of cloud apps. They may be able to make a good go of it. But, on the other hand, while they may succeed in their traditional role of infrastructure management, it may be best to leave enterprise to the experts. One we would recommend taking a long hard look at is LucidWorks. LucidWorks can offer the ongoing trust of the industry and a reliance on the most trusted names in open source, Lucene and Solr.
Emily Rae Aldridge, February 8, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
A Case Study for the Use of Onalytica Software
February 7, 2013
In order to tout their product, Onalytica presents a case study in “‘The Onalytica Way’—Onalytica Insight Used in Jefferies Equity Research.” The global investment bank used Onalytica’s solution specifically to research companies whose business models tap into on-line networks. The write-up states:
“The research explores the growth dynamics and business models of UK comparison sites MoneySuperMarket and Rightmove, as examples of businesses which exploit the many-to-many dynamic in different ways. Our previous work with Jefferies includes research analysing the global Fashion debate and retail markets, which eventually led to a buy recommendation on ASOS based on our insights. Using our InfluenceMonitor platform, we draw out brand insights from the online debate to see how these sites’ share of influence has developed over the quarters in comparison to their market competitors.”
For more information on weighting for influence in online analysis, the post points us to another of the blog’s articles titled, not surprisingly, “Weighting for Influence.” It might be worth checking out if you are curious.
I hate to be the one to point this out, but. . . if this worked as they claim, wouldn’t Jefferies be the dominant investment firm? Just asking.
The marketing consultancy was founded in 2004, and is based in London. Onalytica provides clients with “near real-time” analysis with the aim of better positioning themselves amidst day-to-day market changes.
Cynthia Murrell, February 07, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
DataStax Enterprise 3 0
February 7, 2013
DataStax hooked itself to the Facebook entity and now pitches its newest version, we learn from the Register’s “DataStax Cranks Up Facebook NoSQL to 3.0 with Enterprise Features.” The article explains what to expect from the latest release of its DataStax Enterprise Edition. It is worth noting that this company also offers a search system.
Writer Timothy Prickett Morgan informs us that DataStax’s raison d’être is to commercialize the open-source Cassandra NoSQL data store created by Facebook. The company does offer a stripped-down Community Edition for free, but the list of features available only in the Enterprise Edition is significant. Version 3.0 tackles perceived security flaws in Hadoop with new features, including some tweaks it is releasing to the open-source-community edition of Cassandra. Morgan writes:
“The open source tweaks include internal authentication and internal object permissions, with the same grant/revoke paradigm used by relational databases also being applied to the NoSQL data store – in this case, it is done at a table or column level. Databases also have row-level locking, but there is no analogy to this in a NoSQL data store. DataStax has also added client-to-node encryption based on the familiar SSL protocol to make sure that data being passed between Cassandra and an end user device is encrypted in flight.”
Enterprise users can also count on external authentication, encryption for at-rest data inside the stack, data auditing features, and a commercial version of Cassandra (aka the DataStax Enterprise Database Server). Round-the-clock tech-support coverage is thrown in as well. The product is not quite ready for general release, but “early adopter customers” can take it for a spin now. Check back around the end of February for general availability.
Headquartered in San Mateo, California, DataStax was founded in 2010. Their Cassandra-based software implementations are flexible and scalable, and are employed by businesses from young startups to Fortune 100 companies, including such notables as Adobe, eBay, and Netflix.
Cynthia Murrell, February 07, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Insights from Both Technology and Business Applications Join Forces with PolySpot
January 18, 2013
The world only becomes even more data-driven and Wired offers up some insight on which field, business or technology faces more of the potential issues in collecting, storing and analyzing big data. The article “Big Data: Business or Technology Challenge?” delves into this question by answering it with several predictions.
Finding and employing different technologies that are operated by both side, business and IT, that work in harmony with each other through enterprise architecture and infrastructure technologies will become even more common.
The article states:
In 2013, we will see increased demand for Big Data tools and applications that will be easier to use and will satisfy the business user, not just data scientist users. All market indicators point to this. If you look at Hadoop-based technology capabilities, many are still immature and require unique specialized skills. We have already seen new product announcements that address this need, including the recent announcements on Cloudera Impala and Microsoft Polybase.
Many big player technology vendors are entering in on the scene now, according to the article. However, there are startups like PolySpot that have been integrating enterprise information in different applications, enabling important opportunities to present themselves to decision-makers for years. These types of companies will see success based on our predictions.
Megan Feil, January 18, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search.
Fifteen Year Old Invents Information Filter App
January 18, 2013
Useful apps can be made by anyone, but Fast Company reported on how “This 15-Year-Old Built An App To Help His High School Debate Team. It Could Do Much More Than That.” Tanay Tandy invented an app he calls Clipped that was developed to extract information from news articles and other sources and create a bulleted list. It is being touted as a new tool that could put research assistants, Congressional aides, and judicial clerks out of work. Clipped has received mixed reviews so far, but Tandy is working on an upgrade that should resolve the problems.
Tandy personally created the algorithm for his debate prep. Here is how he uses it:
“I use it to scan over articles, and after using Clipped, if I like an article, I have to go back and read the whole thing. For a typical debate I have about 100 different evidence files about 2-3 pages in length. There might be an article where the title might sound appealing, but after running Clipped, I can see the focus of the article is definitely not what I’m looking for. Last year for a debate on animal rights, I found a paper on animal rights–but it was targeted towards the philosophical side of why to respect animal rights. But for that specific debate, I was looking for evidence from the scientific side, research showing that animals can think as much as humans.”
Tandy does not believe anyone is too young to launch a product as long as the right people are around and ego does not go to a person’s head. Tandy just built a tool to make his life easier and was not looking for fame, but now he has a project that will appeal to college review boards. Also Google might be keeping an eye on him for future jobs.
Whitney Grace, January 18, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Big Data Infrastructure and Apps Work Together to Enable Real Time Information Access
January 16, 2013
Venture Beat published an important piece on the realm of big data technologies recently. In “The Future of ‘Big Data’ is Apps Not Infrastructure,” the author points to the land of opportunity for vendors and businesses – and venture capitalists.
This article calls for big data applications that integrate insights and deliver them to the widest group of users that are a part of the particular business process targeted. Emphasis is placed on the need for applications to enable the greatest number of employees to access and analyze information presented.
More context around the current state of big data in the media and beyond is offered:
It’s not just the media that has been focused on Big Data infrastructure, much of the recent venture and growth equity investment activity has gravitated towards the tools and platforms needed to manage Big Data and deliver analytic insights. However the largest wave of Big Data value creation is still to come and it will focus on exploiting the infrastructure to create new applications that analytically optimize business processes.
Software vendors that can deliver infrastructure and applications will be set in the current market. We have our eyes on PolySpot since they specialize in both and have been helping organizations in delivering information near real-time since 2001.
Megan Feil, January 16, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search.
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