Blog: Ron Powell

Splunk IPO Energizes Big Data Market & Commentary from Don DeLoach at Infobright

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 12:00:00 -0700

What Splunk and Infobright have done is to take "what is possible" with machine-generated data and made it practical. As evidenced by the amazing success of the Splunk IPO last week, "big data" - as in machine-generated data - got a big lift.

According to Don DeLoach, CEO of Infobright, it takes him back to the late '90s when IPOs would double in a matter of hours. I asked Don why he thought that this was such a big event. He said that it is a data point that acknowledges the big data market is really coming into its own.

In my conversation with Don, he mentioned that emerging landscapes such as smart power grids and smart power management systems are indicative of where the explosion of machine-generated data is going. Don also talked about his respect for the other vendors in the big data space - including Splunk and IBM's Smarter Planet - and added that these types of systems will bring along another huge wave of usage of machine-generated data.

You can get the big picture on big data by reading my interviews with Don DeLoach of Infobright and Sanjay Mehta of Splunk to get the big picture on big data. (Clicking on the link for each company will take you to my interviews as featured on the BeyeNETWORK.)

It's going to be exciting to watch this big data space continue to grow, not only in size but also in capabilities!

A look at the history of business intelligence from Information Builders

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 16:00:00 -0700

Below is an infographic produced by Information Builders that provides a chronology of events for our industry. I hope you enjoy it -- I think it is cleverly done.

What is in store for business intelligence in 2012?

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 13:30:32 -0700

You have probably read a lot of predictions and resolutions about analytics and business intelligence - some good, some questionable. But the 2012 BI predictions from Information Builders are right on the mark. Here's what I learned from Jake Freivald, Vice President of Marketing at Information Builders, about their predictions for this year.

The first is that real-time is going to become much more mainstream. I agree because that's what everyone wants (historical data is important - but everyone is now realizing the value of real-time data), we now have the technologies to make real-time data capture and analysis a reality, and the benefits are too good to ignore.

Information Builders has long been focused on pervasive BI, and their second prediction is that operational employees are going to make a big push for BI capabilities so they can make smart decisions. I agree - provided these BI apps are easier to understand and use, and that certainly seems to be the direction of the industry.

According to Freivald, the third prediction relates to location intelligence. He indicated that they're seeing a surge in the number of people interested in using GIS in conjunction with BI technologies, particularly in retail, healthcare and law enforcement. And, thanks to mobile intelligence applications, location intelligence is more widely available and collectible.

The final prediction from Information Builders is a combination of the three I mentioned above. All of these will be working together to make BI more personal. This personalization will allow individuals to understand more about themselves, allow companies to better understand their customers, and even allow government organizations to personalize their interactions with citizens. I agree we're moving in that direction, but I feel it will be a number of years before we're really there. A couple of things, in my opinion, stand in the way: privacy concerns and the ability of organizations to integrate all of that information in real-time.

If you'd like to share what you think are the biggest BI trends for 2012, feel free to leave a comment on this blog.

What 2012 Resolutions are Realistic?

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 17:00:00 -0700

I'm sure you're reading lots of New Year's Resolutions -- I know I am. Some are personal -- stick to the diet, exercise more, travel more, etc. But the ones I consider more important are the resolutions that will help your company achieve greater success in 2012.

I don't usually share press releases in my blog, but I think the resolutions suggested by arcplan in their recent press release are sound suggestions that you should consider. Their press release lists 5 top BI resolutions, but I want to focus on two of them.

Mobilizing Business Intelligence. This is going to become even more strategic as use of smartphones and tablets continues to increase. You're going to have to be sure you have the plans and infrastructure in place to deliver BI via these devices -- safely and securely. If you haven't already made those plans, now is the time to do so!

Collaboration Tools - the Key to Success. I think this is definitely an idea whose time has come. Think of the hours that some of you spend trying to come up with the right information -- never realizing that someone else in your organization had already tackled a very similar problem. Incorporating collaborative capabilities into your BI solution is a great goal for 2012!

I'd love to hear any BI-related resolutions you have for 2012. You can add them as comments to this blog post or you can email me at rpowell@techtarget.com. (And if you'd like to read the other 3 top BI resolutions from arcplan, click here.)

Happy New Year to all of you!

BeyeNetwork Expert Develops Free BI Community for SMBs

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 10:30:00 -0700

How often can you get real value for free? I'm happy to tell you about how one of the BeyeNetwork experts is providing a resource for SMBs to learn about business intelligence and analytics and even identify approaches that really work.

Lyndsay Wise, BeyeNetwork expert on BI for the Mid-Market and President of WiseAnalytics, has developed an interactive community - BI4SMB - where you can find BI industry information that matches the reality of what smaller enterprises face on a daily basis, including how to optimize business visibility and metrics management.

According to Lyndsay, the goal over time of the BI4SMB community is to:

Provide a set of analyst services developed specifically for SMBs and driven by SMB-related needs
Provide a community for SMBs to discuss BI related challenges and projects
Deliver regular research, events, best practices, and BI insights based on the issues being faced by community members

This community is just for the SMBs - to share thoughts, challenges, collaborate with other companies facing the same issues. If you're part of an SMB, be sure to check out this community today.

Oracle is Buying Endeca to Bolster Unstructured Information Offerings

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 11:10:58 -0700

Oracle said it is buying Endeca Technologies, a move that will bolster its capabilities for searching and analyzing unstructured information. Endeca is a privately held unstructured data management and Web commerce software company.

Endeca provides an intuitive set of products that help companies analyze unstructured data, gain better business insights and deliver a superior customer experience for e-commerce. This is a very good move for Oracle as I believe that although Endeca was known as a leader in search and Web commerce solutions, they were still an unknown in what they could do with unstructured data and business intelligence. This is definitely a smart move by Oracle!

What is the Most Common Problem Surrounding Business Intelligence Implementations?

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:22:45 -0700

BARC recently announced the results of their BI Survey 10 - The Customer Verdict. They received nearly 3000 responses for this survey so it's quite a comprehensive look at the state of business intelligence.

One of the most interesting findings in their survey was that the most frequent problem encountered by BI teams is company politics. Last year data quality was the most frequently cited problem, but internal politics has now worked it's way to the top of the list.

There's long been talk about information democratization, but evidently the reality is that everyone is not on the same page when it comes to receiving maximum benefit from an enterprise's data assets. To me, this means that as BI professionals, we need to create better alignment with the executive team as we move business intelligence forward so that political issues can be mitigated and the true benefits of BI can be attained.

For more information about the survey, visit http://www.bi-survey.com/

In DC? Join Bill Inmon at Data Management Forum

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 15:17:10 -0700

Bill Inmon is heading to Washington, D.C. for the Data Management Forum on November 3rd and 4th. This is a great opportunity for you to hear Bill explain why data warehousing is changing and how the next generation data warehouses should be architected.

The actual conference is on November 4, but Bill will be presenting a one-day tutorial on November 3. Bill's pre-conference seminar should not be missed -- you'll learn everything you need to know to architect your enterprise to optimize business intelligence and data warehousing.

Bill's also presenting the keynote at the conference on November 4, Next Generation Data Warehousing: Strategies for Success. And there's a great line-up of other presenters too:

Juan Gorricho, Director of Data Warehousing and Analytics at Walt Disney World Parks & Resorts
Adrian Gardner, CIO and Director of Information, Technology & Communications,NASA
Peter Aiken, Founding Director, Data Blueprint, Associate Professor, VCU, President, DAMA International
Michael Hermida, President, K3MP Technologies, Past Lead Architect on Space Shuttle and Spacelab Programs, IBM Program Manager

Mark your calendars now and visit the Data Management Forum website for more details about the presentations.

Interested in a one-on-one discussion with Bill Inmon?

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 14:34:22 -0700

I want to tell you about a unique opportunity to spend 60 minutes talking personally to Bill Inmon about your data warehouse issues. At the upcoming Advanced Architecture Conference that's being held on September 26-28 in Genesee, Colorado, you could do just that. Or you could spend an hour with any of the other presenters at that conference.Here's a partial line-up of the speakers available for private discussions:

Bill Inmon on data warehousing and unstructured data
Dan Lindstedt on data vault
Hans Hultgren on data vault
Krish Krishnan on data warehouse architecture
Derek Strauss on DW 2.0
Ross Leher on taxonomies
Steve Hitchman on Agile data warehousing
Thomas Groh on BI and the cloud
Bill Bird on real world architecture issues
Larissa Moss on data warehousing
Patty Haines on data warehousing and unstructured data

Visit the conference website to register for the conference and book your one-on-one sessions while there are still open slots.

My Q&A with Scott Staples of MindTree

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 13:29:40 -0700

I recently talked with Scott Staples, one of the co-founders of MindTree and President of the Americas, about the slow adoption of analytics by some companies. We covered a lot of ground in the Q&A, and one of the things we talked about was how companies are benefiting from analytics. Scott explained that while financial services and CPG companies have been using analytics successfully for quite some time, other companies and industries aren't jumping in with both feet. We discussed the reasons for that and also the challenges that companies face as they evolve to analytics-driven organizations. You can read about that and the other things we discussed here.

Advice on customer analytics

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 13:25:33 -0700

I recently had the chance to interview Julio Hernandez, Executive Partner and the Global Lead for Customer Analytics within Accenture Analytics. We talked about the various types of customer analytics, why an organization's leaders must understand "the art of the possible" if they want to succeed with analytics, and much more that I know you'll find helpful.

You can read the interview here.

Don DeLoach weighs in on the future of big data and analytics

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 08:50:00 -0700

I had a great spotlight interview with Don DeLoach, CEO of Infobright. We talked about a lot of things including Hadoop, columnar databases, big data, analytics and the new capabilities of Infobright 4. Don even provided his prediction about what we can expect in the future regarding big data. Here's part of what he had to say:

"I do believe that people are starting to realize that there's not going to be one silver bullet. It's not going to be one specific technology that solves everybody's problems, but it's more likely to be a coexistence of technologies put together in the right way, in the right combination, to solve the right problems tomorrow better than they could have today."

Here's a link to the full interview.

Business Intelligence for SMBs

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 12:15:52 -0700

Lyndsay Wise, the BeyeNETWORK's expert on business intelligence (BI) for SMBs, is currently researching how SMBs are adopting and using BI. If you are part of an SMB, please participate in Lyndsay's survey. The goal of this survey is to identify BI usage patterns and performance gaps, as well as overall trends and challenges. Survey participants receive a copy of the final report and much more.

Let your voice be heard - take this survey today.

I talked to Tony Fisher about Baseline Consulting acquisition

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 15:43:45 -0700

If you haven't had time to read my interview with Tony Fisher, CEO of DataFlux, take a minute or two to hear what Tony had to say about why they acquired Baseline Consulting and how customers are reacting to the acquisition.

Global Survey of Business Intelligence Usage

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 09:00:30 -0700

Each year, BARC (Business Application Research Center) conducts The BI Survey, the largest global survey of business intelligence usage. The survey gauges feedback from approximately 3000 BI professionals and provides a wealth of information on the factors - strategic and product-related - that contribute to the most successful BI implementations.

If you are in the market for a BI tool, or you simply want to see how your product compares to the rest of the market, I encourage you to take part in this year's survey - The BI Survey 10. You have to act quickly because the survey will close soon. (All participants receive a summary of the findings and have a chance to win a $50 Amazon gift card.)

Just click here to take part in The BI Survey 10.