
Microsoft Corporate Vice President Quentin Clark discusses data, data platforms, and more
The Data Platform Group at Microsoft does a lot, from SQL Server and their Hadoopey HDInsight offering through to Business Intelligence and analytics capabilities which sit in or on top of the humble Excel spreadsheet. I’ve touched upon pieces of this whole before, in a 2009 podcast on Azure with Amitabh Srivastava (then Corporate VP […]

Chasing That Killer Application Of Big Data
I often get asked, “what is the killer application of Big Data?” Unfortunately, the answer is not that simple. In the early days of enterprise software, it was the automation that fueled the growth of enterprise applications. The vendors that eventually managed to stay in business and got bigger were/are the ones that expanded their […]

Seeking Simplicity’s Sweet Spot
Albert Einstein, you may have heard, was a clever man. He scribbled equations on blackboards, thought big thoughts, and all of that. But, allegedly, he also said Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. These words have resonated with me recently, as I’ve heard pitches from one company after another, all […]

Visualisation – the key that unlocks data’s value?
As the Big Data hype machine continues its relentless attempt to gobble everything in its path, new business units and entire new domains buying into the promise find themselves faced with unanticipated data volume and complexity. They see the potential for data-based decision making, but still face (short-term?) challenges in actually managing, analysing or interpreting […]

Day #2 => Cloud Expo, A Few Pictures & Associated Thoughts
This first one is of Effective UI a company out of Denver, Colorado. You’re probably asking yourself, why are they at a cloud conference? I asked the same question and they brought up a really good point. Most cloud computing interfaces are horrible. I have to agree, most are or at least have been pretty […]

4 Big Data Myths – Part II
This is the second and the last part of this two-post series blog post on Big Data myths. If you haven’t read the first part, check it out here. Myth # 2: Big Data is an old wine in new bottle I hear people say, “Oh, that Big Data, we used to call it BI.” One […]

4 Big Data Myths – Part I
It was cloud then and it’s Big Data now. Every time there’s a new disruptive category it creates a lot of confusion. These categories are not well-defined. They just catch on. What hurts the most is the myths. This is the first part of my two-part series to debunk Big Data myths. Myth # 4: […]

Jaspersoft Adds Big Data Support
Jaspersoft (see previous CloudAve coverage), the San Francisco based BI vendor, today announced support for big data sources for Business Intelligence reporting. They recently released a ramped up version 4 targeting embedded BI market. With today’s release, Jaspersoft support native reporting for Hadoop, NoSQL and Massively Parallel Processing Analytics Databases. In this era of big […]

Jaspersoft Ramps Up Their Offering To Meet Embeded BI Market Needs
Jaspersoft, the San Francisco based Business Intelligence vendor, yesterday announced the newer version of their product, Jaspersoft 4, with embedded BI market in mind. Jaspersoft 4 leverages a new modular UI architecture which makes it easy to customize and embed, thereby making the BI tool more attractive to users. This version has a new GUI […]

BI OnDemand Wins Best of SaaS Award
Founder of the SaaS Showplace web site, THINKstrategies has an award program to recognize SaaS companies who are delivering solutions which produce measurable business benefits for their customers, including increased sales, lower costs, higher customer satisfaction, faster operations and greater profitability. SAP BusinessObjects BI OnDemand has just been named the latest winner of the award: […]

Challenging Stonebraker’s Assertions On Data Warehouses – Part 2
Check out the Part 1 if you haven’t already read it to better understand the context and my disclaimer. This is the Part 2 covering the assertions from 6 to 10.Assertion 6: Appliances should be “software only.”“In my 40 years of experience as a com…

Great Analytic Dashboards on the BlackBerry PlayBook
Corporate tablet alternatives to the iPad are now on the horizon.
At the recent Adobe Max 2010 conference, Mike Lazardis demonstrated SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards running on the brand-new Adobe-Flash compatible BlackBerry PlayBook.

Where Idiots Get Their Data: Other Idiots (Don’t Let it Happen in Your Company)
Bad data and bad conclusions are the scourge of “the internets” — don’t let it happen in your company, too.

Challenging Stonebraker’s Assertions On Data Warehouses – Part 1
I have tremendous respect for Michael Stonebraker. He is an apt visionary. What I like the most about him is his drive and passion to commercialize the academic concepts. ACM recently published his article “My Top 10 Assertions About Data Warehouses….

The Future Of BI In The Cloud
Actual numbers vary based on whom you ask, but the general consensus is that the Business Intelligence (BI) and Analytics in the cloud is a fast growing market. IDC expects a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.4% through 2013. This growth is pr…