Information management

CW Buyer's Guide: Big Data Infrastructure

Computer Weekly looks at the mindset and technology infrastructure businesses need to analyse big data. Continue Reading

Informatica looks up, despite down year in 2012

TechTarget's Wayne Eckerson reflects on Informatica after briefings with company execs. His take: It's poised to join the ranks of elite vendors. Continue Reading

Businesses and IT suppliers to collaborate on big data

Businesses are to collaborate to work out how to exploit the rapidly growing volume of data generated by social media, mobile devices and the internet of things. Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

How to manage the risk of the human factor in database administration

Fail to manage the risk of the human factor in database administration and you court disaster. DBAs, like air traffic controllers: work in pairs? Continue Reading

By

• Jon Reade, Contributor

DDN launches hScaler Hadoop appliance for enterprises

HPC and clustered NAS supplier Data Direct Networks aims at enterprise customers with Hadoop appliance comprising its SFA12K storage and commodity compute components Continue Reading

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• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Amazon is the new battleground for data analytics

Businesses should consider Amazon's Redshift data warehouse as a service platform, says analyst Nucleus Research. Continue Reading

Accenture Technology Vision 2013

Accenture's technology vision assesses the impact of digital technology on the enterprise in 2013 and offers action points for CIOs and business leaders. Continue Reading

Innovative business technologies in a converging world

This independently researched report investigates converging business technologies, including cloud computing, big data analytics and business intelligence. Continue Reading

IT budgets to grow in 2013 as economy bumps along

UK IT departments are planning to spend more on IT in 2013 despite the downturn, a worldwide survey of IT managers has revealed Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Business applications, data analytics can make business lean

Centralised business apps, such as ERP and CRM can frustrate, but also make a business lean. Data analytics has a fresh Six Sigma role to play Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Pritchard

Gartner: analytics will be more transparent, real-time and automated

Analyst firm Gartner has identified three trends for analytics and BI: transparency, real-time and automation Continue Reading

Skills Forecast: Big Data Analytics

This report analyses the projected demand for IT professionals with Big Data Analytic skills in the UK over the next five years. Continue Reading

Rugby Football Union uses IBM predictive analytics for Six Nations

IBM tries out predictive analytics software, TryTracker, developed in association with the Rugby Football Union (RFU) Continue Reading

By

• Simon Creasey

Oracle’s MySQL 5.6 spans to NoSQL to offer more agility

Oracle has released version 5.6 of MySQL, which will hit the “sweet spot of the web market” according to Tomas Ulin, vice-president of engineering Continue Reading

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• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

King.com gaming site unlocks big data with Hadoop

 Continue Reading

Sap business suite now available on Sap Hana

This analyst report from Nucleus Research assess the impact of SAPs decision to power SAP Business Suite by its SAP HANA in memory database technology. Continue Reading

CW Special Report on Oracle

This special report, updated for 2012, gives an independent view of the challenges facing Oracle, its financial performance, the services it offers, its place in the IT market and its future strategy. Continue Reading

Modelling the Insurance Enterprise

This report from the Open Group is aimed at managers, architects, and designers that serve the insurance industry or have an interest in integrating the TOGAF and ArchiMate standards. Continue Reading

Interview: John Harris, vice-president of global enterprise architecture, Aimia

Aimia, the organisation behind retail loyalty programme Nectar, is overhauling its IT to make the most of customer data Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

Process big data at speed

Low-cost solid state memory is powering high-speed analytics of big data streaming from social network feeds and the industrial internet. Continue Reading

By

• Tony Baer

Without analytics, it's 'big data, big schmada'

Data -- including big data -- has no value by itself, says TechTarget's Wayne Eckerson. It's what you do with data to gain business insights that counts. Continue Reading

Don’t make big data stand alone, warns Gartner

Gartner cautions organisations against treating big data as unique and criticises business intelligence suppliers for failing to exploit mobility Continue Reading

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• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

Digital app developer skills take centre stage in corporate IT

Digital information design skills, including building business apps, have assumed new importance in corporate IT over the past year Continue Reading

Enterprises bringing data back in-house for more flexibility, shows study

European enterprises are improving their internal datacentres and storing data in-house rather than on the external cloud Continue Reading

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• Archana Venkatraman, Datacentre Editor

Ferrari swerves SAP, adopts Infor LN to meet Chinese demand

Italian sports car maker Ferrari has turned to Infor ERP technology to respond to Chinese and Middle Eastern customer demand Continue Reading

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• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

Online gambling sector bets on business intelligence

Online gambling and gaming industries crave structured business data. Volumes can be huge and they need to react to customer behaviour Continue Reading

By

• Lindsay Clark

The human face of Big Data

Former Time, Life and national Geographic photographer Rick Smolan visualises and navigates the world of Big Data. Continue Reading

By

• Rick Smolan

The Human Face of Big Data: Data Driven

Software engineers are transforming the daily lives of hundreds of millions of people for good and for ill, writes Jonathan Harris. Continue Reading

The Human Face of Big Data: Pulse of the Planet

Big Data is about to radically transform our understanding of the planet, writes entrepreneur and commentator, Esther Dyson. Continue Reading

UK citizens unwilling to embrace big data

The public sector could improve services by imitating the private sector’s use of big data, but citizens are overwhelmingly against the idea Continue Reading

By

• Jennifer Scott, TechTarget

GE uses big data to power machine services business

GE, one of the UK's largest manufacturers, is using big data analytics with data generated from machine sensors to predict maintenance needs Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Betting site YouWin speeds response times with MongoDB database

Bookmaker WinUnited has deployed a MongoDB open source non-relational database from 10gen to help it better update betting odds in real time Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

SAP puts Business Suite on HANA, joins transactional to analytical

SAP has announced that its Business Suite software now runs on the HANA in-memory database Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

King.com gaming site unlocks big data with Hadoop

Online gaming company King.com replaced its MySQL database with Cloudera’s Hadoop distribution to cope with big data Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

CIO interview: Kevin O’Connor, Carlson Wagonlit Travel

As the new CIO at Carlson Wagonlit Travel, Kevin O’Connor is looking to bring in a new approach to the company’s IT strategy Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

Data to grow more quickly says IDC’s Digital Universe study

IDC’s annual Digital Universe study finds data set to expand to 40 Zettabytes by 2020. Emerging markets and machine-generated data will account for increasing proportions of it. Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Big data analytics set to confound conventional adoption curve in UK

Big data and analytics companies predict increased adoption in the UK. MapR, Cloudera, ParAccel and Pentaho sketch out the adoption curve Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

Conquering the sys-admin challenge

This report from Quocirca presents new data on how well organisations are able to automate their sys-admin procedures, manage the use of privilege and satisfy the requirements of auditors. Continue Reading

CW buyer's guide: The business advantages of big data

Big data may appear to be just another bandwagon, but it is important, and needs to be addressed carefully and sensibly. Continue Reading

Scrum methodology FAQ for Indian professionals

An agile software development methodology, SCRUM has become popular in India over the last few years. Get all your Scrum-related queries answered here. Continue Reading

By

• - Staff Writer, SearchBusinessIntelligence.IN

BI catch phrases you'll hear in 2013

TechTarget's Wayne Eckerson lists six slogans that he says BI, analytics and data warehousing professionals are likely to encounter in 2013. Continue Reading

Hadoop World: Just like data warehousing's early days

The buzz-filled Hadoop World 2012 conference reminded TechTarget's Wayne Eckerson of a data warehousing event he attended in 1997. Still to be seen: Can Hadoop live up all to the hype? Continue Reading

Tripartite structure best on BI 'center of excellence'

There are no rules on how to set up a business intelligence center of excellence, says TechTarget's Wayne Eckerson. But most of the ones he sees include executive, business and technical teams. Continue Reading

Data quality essential to master data management

It is possible to have a data quality initiative without master data management, but every MDM project must have a data quality element Continue Reading

By

• Andy Hayler, Information Difference

How to gather BI dashboard user requirements to nail business strategy alignment

Many analytical systems -- data warehouses, business intelligence systems -- fail because user requirements are not collected properly Continue Reading

By

• Mark Whitehorn, University of Dundee

Royal Free Hospital uses SAP BusinessObjects dashboards to fathom data

The Royal Free Hospital has implemented SAP’s Business Objects dashboard technology to fathom complex data more efficiently Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

DataDirect Networks takes aim at clustered NAS with SFA7700

DataDirect Networks (DDN) makes a play for clustered NAS customers with big data needs on its journey from HPC to scale-out supplier Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

German retailer Otto invests in neural software to net future sales

German retail giant Otto improves demand forecasting with neural network technology from Blue Yonder, a predictive analytics start-up Continue Reading

By

• Lindsay Clark

Scenes from EMC Momentum Vienna 2012

EMC Momentum took place in Vienna this year, at the Messe Wien Congress Centre. 1,100 EMC attendees descended on the conference for hands-on-labs and a selection of sessions. View photos from the event here. Continue Reading

By

• Kayleigh Bateman, Computer Weekly

Unilever enterprise data warehouse locked to business programmes

Unilever is building a global enterprise data warehouse (EDW) locked into the critical paths of high-profile business programmes. Continue Reading

By

• Lindsay Clark

West Midlands Police develops golden view of criminals, suspects

West Midlands Police, the second largest force in the UK, seeks to reduce risk to its officers and the public by using DataFlux software that gives a master record for criminals and suspects. Continue Reading

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• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

Teradata brings big data into the SQL family

Teradata addresses the issue of combining unstructured, semi-structured and traditional row-and-column data warehousing in a single architecture. Continue Reading

By

• Lindsay Clark

Analytics, Decision Making & Teams That Do It Right

Experts advise how to make the most of analytics in this report from SAS and the Harvard Business Review. Continue Reading

CW500: Managing the mobile workforce (part 1)

Mobile working has transformed Colt Telecommunications beyond recognition over the past three years Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Telefónica launches business to sell mobile data

O2 parent company Telefónica is to offer user data from customer's mobile phones to organisations who want to analyse customer activity Continue Reading

By

• Jennifer Scott, TechTarget

Cloud APIs at hand to connect to databases

The pros and cons of using cloud application programming interfaces (APIs) to connect users to databases via mobile or web Continue Reading

By

• Arif Mohamed

How to manage unstructured data for business benefit

The cloud offers some progress in the resource-sapping management of unstructured data, but it is critical to work back from the business case. Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Pritchard

Big data advice from big names, Coca-Cola and Lastminute.com

Coca-Cola's chief privacy officer and Lastminute.com's innovation head offer advice on data privacy at Big Data Europe Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna

Practical Data Migration: PDMv2

Data Migration expert Johny Morris, explains how organisations can use the PDMv2 methodology to overcome common data migration problems. Continue Reading

Big Data Analytics

IDC explores the initial impact that Big Data is having on organisations, its impact on IT architectures, delivery models and future roadmaps. Continue Reading

Big data: Lessons from the leaders

This research from the Economist Intelligence Unit assess how far companies have progressed in their use of big data and examines how they can turn it to business advantage. Continue Reading

Implement a data integration solution in six easy steps

This is the first installment of a two-part series expert-advice on data integration solution deployment. Continue Reading

By

• Dipthi Karnad & Kapil Tulsan

BI users slammed by IT as banshees and telepaths

Survey discovers IT professionals exasperated and world weary when confronted by BI users uncommunicative and exigent. Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

From the Editor: Advanced analytics full of promise, but hard to do

Advanced analytics technology adoption has been slow, but sports analytics has been brought to the fore with the London 2012 Olympics. Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

Star schema vs snowflake schema: Which is better?

Yahoo’s data and business intelligence architect, Rohit Chatter, answers the latest debate, Star versus Snowflake schema, by breaking down the differences, one aspect at a time Continue Reading

By

• Rohit Chatter, Yahoo!

Predictive sports analytics put in play for Wimbledon, Formula One

Predictive analytics in sports is proving itself in tennis and car racing. Can it make the leap to team sports, long the preserve of barroom anoraks? Continue Reading

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• Gareth Morgan, Contributor

Data virtualisation on rise as ETL alternative for data integration

The Phone House and Novartis have turned to data virtualisation from Denodo and Composite to gain a single logical view of disparate data sources. Continue Reading

By

• Gareth Morgan, Contributor

BI tool transforms planning, sales and service at TVS Motors

For TVS Motor, business intelligence tool deployment has enabled better production planning and improved sales and service. Here’s how the company did it. Continue Reading

By

• Mitchelle R. Jansen, TechTarget

BI platform standardization: Step-by-step approach

BI platform standardization is the key to improved data management and clarity on the cost per report. Follow these steps to standardize your BI with ease. Continue Reading

By

• Srinivasan Rengarajan

SAS: High-performance analytics frees data scientists to model faster

High-performance analytics on "big data" could aid European companies as they struggle to make headway in the recession, say senior SAS executives. All sectors are turning to big data, they claim. Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

Organisational design for analytics function needs governance

Scant are the absolute rules for the organizational design of the analytics function. It can be outsourced or in-house; sit within a business unit or run from the centre. But it needs governance. Continue Reading

By

• Lindsay Clark

Enterprise data warehouse deployment: A step by step tutorial

To be quick on the enterprise data warehouse technologies uptake, this tutorial gives you all the information you need. Continue Reading

By

• SearchBusinessIntelligence.IN

From the Editor: Big data arrives, but plagued by governance challenges and skills shortage

Big data offers big opportunities, but governance challenges and skills shortages could pose big problems. Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

Making money from data: Financial business intelligence at work

Finance professionals are heavy users of BI and predictive analytics software. Find out how a variety of European finance functionaries are analysing trends, cutting costs and finding new business. Continue Reading

By

• Kristina West, Contributor

Inmon or Kimball: Which approach is suitable for your data warehouse?

Inmon versus Kimball is one of the biggest data modelling debates among data warehouse architects. Here is some help to select your own approach Continue Reading

By

• Sansu George

Business analytics skills shortage provokes companies to cast net wide

Organisations face lack of business analytics skills. Smart companies cast the net wide for the broadest pools of talent, help analysts learn from each other and work to ensure they realize potential. Continue Reading

By

• Lindsay Clark

IBM users reveal five data governance best practices to remember

IBM customers Nationwide Insurance and Cardinal Health reveal five rules of thumb they learned while implementing highly ambitious data governance programs. Continue Reading

By

• Mark Brunelli

Zornes: Master data governance will fuse MDM to BPM

Master data governance tools are emerging to aid the orchestration of MDM and BPM, according to MDM expert Aaron Zornes. “Big data” is a distraction from the business basics of MDM, he says. Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

India CIO Salary and Career Survey 2012

Get an insight into the expectations of CIO for 2012 in the India CIO Salary and Career Survey 2012. Continue Reading

By

• SearchCIO.IN Staff

BI Masterminds, 2012

SearchBusinessIntelligence.in presents the winners of India’s only independent business intelligence excellence awards, BI Masterminds, 2012. Continue Reading

By

• Sharon D'Souza, Reporter

Your 10-step cloud database migration checklist

Thinking cloud database migration? Use this checklist to migrate your database to the cloud to avoid any issues such as security, latency, or integration. Continue Reading

By

• Devendra Murkute, Suraj Dubey

Enterprise software procurement done right can save companies millions

Software procurement is frequently poorly conducted, argues consultant Andy Hayler. Intelligent software evaluation processes and savvy contract management can pay huge dividends, he says. Continue Reading

By

• Andy Hayler, Information Difference

Predictive analytics used to cut costs in oil sector

Predictive analytics is being used in the oil and gas industry to better manage asset maintenance on capital equipment. And a more enterprisewide adoption of the technology is predicted. Continue Reading

By

• Lindsay Clark

In-memory database technology gains ground, but challenges remain

In-memory database technology improves specific application performance notably. But challenges need to be met before in-memory database becomes the norm. Continue Reading

By

• Sharon D'Souza, Reporter

Deloitte spots analytics trends, ethics and open data

Deloitte identifies four analytics trends: an increased focus on ethics, the rise of open data, new business models and a refusal to do analytics for its own sake. Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

European river managers delve into new knowledge management system

The UK’s Environment Agency has procured a semantic wiki based knowledge management (KM) system to aid river restoration across Europe. Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

BI reporting tools set to aid decision making at Elder Pharmaceuticals

BI reporting tools are known to buttress quick decision making. In this regard, Elder Pharmaceuticals plans to deploy BI tools for data mobility. Continue Reading

By

• Sharon D’Souza, Reporter

Advanced analytics key component for ‘decision management systems’

James Taylor, CEO of an independent consulting firm, discusses the need for advanced analytics to build “decision management systems,” which he believes are critical to staying competitive. Continue Reading

By

• Nicole Laskowski, Senior News Director

'Big data' technologies emerge to battle large, complex data sets

‘Big data’ technologies that allow the storage, management and analysis of big data are on stream: NoSQL, Hadoop, MapReduce. Mark Whitehorn explains the reasons for their emergence and how they work. Continue Reading

By

• Mark Whitehorn, University of Dundee

Shell enterprise MDM foundation proof of concept disturbs rulebook

Shell has laid a foundation for enterprise master data management, choosing SAP MDM over Microsoft. The major lesson was that IT can build an enterprise MDM system to which the business will come. Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

Record management standards improved

New standards by ISO assist with records management and can help you frame a storage strategy Continue Reading

By

• Anthony Caruana

Sybase: Data warehousing too slow for ‘big data’ analytics

Sybase EMEA business development director speaks about ‘big data’ analytics’ need for speed and pronounces traditional data warehousing “antiquated.” Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

Royal Mail delivers enterprise master data management

The Royal Mail has delivered a master data management programme stemming from a new electronic data warehouse and BI initiative. Project team leaders claim a people-plus-technology synthesis. Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

Shell HR gains from structured information quality programme

Oil giant Shell’s human resources function has been on an information quality journey since 2002, integrating historically decentralized businesses into one assured talent pool. Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

Improved debt collection with BI: An ICICI Bank story

Debt collection can gain immensely by BI. By powering this, ICICI Bank has effectively turned debt collection into a customer-relations management program. Continue Reading

By

• Sharon D'Souza, Reporter

Larry English calls for an information quality revolution

Larry English, in an interview, calls for an information quality revolution that will put the customer first. New rules are necessary for the “information age 3.0”. Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

BBC evolves digital asset management with Life

The BBC’s Life series marked an ongoing shift from film to digital media that is making the need for rigorous metadata and digital asset management in broadcast media more pressing. Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

Integrate your CRM application with BI for maximum benefit

Your CRM application need not stop after its growth after rollout. Integration with BI can helps organizations get the most from any CRM application. Continue Reading

By

• Rajendra C Mruthyunjayappa

BI software migration to give IndusInd Bank a leg up

IndusInd is undertaking BI software migration to consolidate data and make most of customer information. Read more about the software migration project. Continue Reading

By

• Sharon D'Souza, Reporter

Build an MDM hub with this step by step guide

Building a master data management (MDM) hub can be baffling. Use this step by step manual to build your own efficient MDM hub. Continue Reading

By

• Rajesh Parameswaran