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March 6, 2008

Evolution of RFID System Architectures and the Development of Pervasive Computing

I have posted a new article on my channel. It's "The Evolution of RFID System Architectures and the Development of Pervasive Computing" by Michael S. Shiff.

This is a very thoughtful piece about the evolution of RFID and how the centralized versus decentralized question frames up for RFID architectures. It starts "Although people currently think in terms of “RF” (radio frequency) tags that “ID” (identify) and track products and other assets through supply chains, RFID tags will eventually be thought of as very small computers that happen to have a built-in wireless networking capability. In other words, it is only a matter of time until virtually every item with a RFID tag can become a programmable/intelligent node on a private extranet, a private intranet, or the public Internet. What this means is that RFID tags are on a path to becoming the basic building blocks and the volume driver of pervasive computing."

The rest can be found on my channel .

Technorati tags: rfid

Posted by William McKnight at 9:08 AM | | Comments (0)

November 1, 2007

Where the largest databases will come from

In "Top 10 Largest Databases in the World", the author covers the top 10 largest databases in the world. Their sizes are impressive indeed.

Speaking of large databases, I recently commented in an article that "The amount of information uptake into a corporation when RFID is implemented can be unprecedented. The largest data stores in the world soon will be in manufacturing and will comprise mostly item movement data."

Continue reading "Where the largest databases will come from" »

Posted by William McKnight at 2:35 PM | | Comments (0)

December 15, 2006

RFID Expert Channel Launched

I've finally taken the plunge and launched a channel here at the B-eye-network on RFID. As I say there...This channel will focus on realizing the information potential of the automatic identification technology radio frequency identification (RFID). I believe that the value proposition for RFID will come in the mastery of the high volumes of data that the deployments will generate. Transformation of that data to actionable information, as has been done for ERP and numerous other operational systems, will be a high hurdle and require innovation.

Interrelated topics to the RFID information experience include master data management, techniques for managing large amounts of data and advanced levels of customer relationship management that come with detailed tracking capabilities. Stay tuned right here for knowledge to master the subject area of RFID and the innovation required to harness RFID information. I’ll use my background as an information architect and owner of numerous information management initiatives to create and share the relevant insights, advisement and commentary on the subjects, as well as other information management trends.

My blog will continue to discuss all information management topics. Please feel free to share your comments or content ideas with me at wmcknight@csiwhq.com.

Continue reading "RFID Expert Channel Launched" »

Posted by William McKnight at 1:43 PM | | Comments (0)

August 2, 2006

RFID podcast

I'm back from the Pacific Northwest Business Intelligence Summit where the energy and information sharing on our industry was at an all-time high. The topic I introduced from the panel was RFID. I know I've been blogging a lot about it, but if you want to hear about a 15-minute speil on RFID for the BI professional, check it out right here on the B-eye-network. I tried to distill an introduction to RFID, still needed for most BI professionals, and some learnings from my RFID-sourced BI projects into this podcast.

I also conducted the interview with Jeff Dandridge, President and COO of Infocentricity, found there. If you're interested in analytics, you can hear what he has to say about the industry there. Other podcasts from the summit are there as well.

Posted by William McKnight at 10:26 AM | | Comments (0)

January 9, 2006

RFID - the next big BI thing

I've been saying that RFID is going to have a major impact on data warehouses in the future and I still believe that. The future is now for some manufacturing companies.

The key is going to be learning how to utilize the information that is going to be collected. Now that RFID is hitting the mainstream with the Wal-Mart mandate, this will become a reality now since the data is being collected and the data deluge is demanding analytics well beyond the home-built analytical capabilities being built to support the data.

Gartner Inc. expects the radio frequency identification technology (RFID) market worldwide to reach $504 million in 2005, up 39 percent from the previous year.

Continue reading "RFID - the next big BI thing" »

Posted by William McKnight at 10:21 AM | | Comments (0)

October 17, 2005

DW/BI Market and RFID progress

While most are at least tepidly pleased with the progress of business intelligence and technology initiatives in general this year, future progress is not assured according to some recent indicators. I have (and remain) bullish on our industry, but it is good to take in data points that reflect as well as oppose that position.

Such is an article I read this morning at siliconvalley.com "Confidence at 2 1/2-year low in valley" and this one from echannel on a Forrester report: "Expect a significant drop in IT spending in 2007: Forrester." It begins "According to two new reports from Forrester Research Inc., there will be a significant slowdown in U.S. IT spending growth in 2007 before rebounding to near double-digit growth by the close of the decade."

One area that IS getting a lot of attention is RFID, which is a next big horizon for business intelligence. According to this article "RFID Gaining in Popularity", "Based on a survey of 500 companies, AMR Research expects corporate RFID spending to increase 16% from 2005 to 2006, and 20% from 2006 to 2007, up from the current annual average of just above $500,000." although "RFID Implementation Challenges Persist" according to this article.

Interestingly, the advice in these articles is much the same advice that DW/BI and CRM needed in their early days - have a business case, do iterative development and don't expect generic solutions to work for you out of the box. Some things don't change.

Posted by William McKnight at 9:58 AM | | Comments (0)