News

News

• April 13, 2016 13 Apr'16

  Hadoop market consolidation continues with Pivotal's exit

  Pivotal Software dropped out of the Hadoop distribution business in favor of reselling the Hortonworks version of the big data framework -- and the market consolidation moves may not be over.

• April 01, 2016 01 Apr'16

  Streaming analytics puts data in motion at Strata + Hadoop 2016

  Moving streams of data is a must in many modern applications. As a result, streaming analytics systems with Spark Streaming, Kafka and other components are coming to the big data forefront.

• March 31, 2016 31 Mar'16

  Hadoop core components may not be central to big data future

  At Strata + Hadoop World 2016, Hadoop co-creator Doug Cutting said the core of the distributed processing framework is likely to see its position at the center of big data systems diminish.

• March 25, 2016 25 Mar'16

  Unstructured data is a misnomer

  Nowadays, the term unstructured data pops up everywhere. It owes its popularity for a large part to the success of big data, to successful technologies such as NoSQL and Hadoop, and to formats such ...

• March 24, 2016 24 Mar'16

  Strata + Hadoop World 2016: Hadoop and Spark in spotlight

  The Strata + Hadoop World conference focuses on big data management and analytics technologies, in particular the Hadoop distributed processing framework and Spark processing engine.

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• March 16, 2016 16 Mar'16

  Social media startup uses NoSQL Redis Cloud to 'scale to infinity'

  Because of growing data demands, and the need to nimbly scale up and down, a startup social networking platform chose a Redis Labs NoSQL database management system running on AWS.

• March 02, 2016 02 Mar'16

  Hortonworks Hadoop distribution goes to two release tracks

  Looking to better balance system stability and innovation, Hadoop distribution provider Hortonworks will follow two release 'cadences' for different component sets in its HDP package.

• February 29, 2016 29 Feb'16

  Apache Spark architecture speeds data jobs, ousts MapReduce

  Its collection of big-data processing features is priming the Apache Spark architecture for wider deployment. One key trait: Spark performance outpaces MapReduce in many Hadoop use cases.

• February 24, 2016 24 Feb'16

  AtScale Benchmarks Three SQL-on-Hadoop Engines

  Numerous SQL-on-Hadoop engines are available for accessing data stored in HDFS using the familiar SQL language. They all look promising, they all support a rich SQL dialect, but which ones is the ...

• February 24, 2016 24 Feb'16

  Spark Streaming update to address growing torrent of big data

  Amid the buzz at Spark Summit East 2016 in New York was word that the Spark data processing engine's stream processing architecture will be overhauled in the upcoming version 2.0 of the open source software.

• February 04, 2016 04 Feb'16

  HR metrics and analytics bring opportunity, concerns

  HR personnel oversee many of the perks that come with a job, such as paychecks and benefits; the elements that most people would rather avoid, such as firings and employee conflicts; and all things in between, such as education and training. Now, ...

• February 04, 2016 04 Feb'16

  SQL-on-Hadoop platforms open brave new analytics world

  Hadoop has been slowly plodding through the big data jungle, but SQL's integration may put a spring in the elephant's step.

• February 03, 2016 03 Feb'16

  NoSQL revs up to the tune of the Spark connector

  Attention's been placed on Spark running on Hadoop, but there are Spark connectors for NoSQL that usher in a new class of operational analytics.

• January 29, 2016 29 Jan'16

  Data quality metrics a governance must, managers say

  Data governance managers who spoke during an online conference said that tracking business-oriented metrics on data quality improvement is a key to success in governance efforts.

• January 28, 2016 28 Jan'16

  Co-creator Cutting assesses Hadoop future, present and past

  In a Q&A as Hadoop reaches one 10-year milestone in its development, co-creator Doug Cutting talks about the adoption of the big data framework, and the history and future of Hadoop.

• January 27, 2016 27 Jan'16

  Geospatial data is on the map for Hadoop, Spark

  Software architect Mansour Raad is at the center of activity as geospatial data melds with Hadoop -- and soon, Spark.

• January 14, 2016 14 Jan'16

  MapR adds 'Streams' messaging to its Hadoop data pipeline

  MapR's Hadoop distribution will add a message system to feed a streaming data pipeline. It takes a cue from open-source Kafka technology.

• December 29, 2015 29 Dec'15

  Data governance process taxed by self-service BI, big data

  The increasing adoption of self-service business intelligence tools and big data analytics applications is complicating data governance programs, BI Leadership Summit speakers and attendees said.

• December 28, 2015 28 Dec'15

  IBM Watson APIs hold key to broader cognitive computing use

  In 2015, APIs for IBM's Watson system were front and center as a means to bring cognitive computing applications to a broader corporate audience.

• December 21, 2015 21 Dec'15

  Spark: It's the word of the year in 2015 for data analytics

  This episode of the 'Talking Data' podcast looks at the word of the year in data analytics and management. In 2015, Spark joined Hadoop and MapReduce at the top of the list of trending big data technologies.

• December 21, 2015 21 Dec'15

  Kirk Borne on data science and big data analytics, data literacy

  In a Q&A, big data and data science expert Kirk Borne discusses new data processing and analytics technologies and the growing importance of data literacy in organizations.

• December 09, 2015 09 Dec'15

  Concurrent app management tools work on Hadoop and Spark

  If Hadoop and Spark are to sneak into the enterprise, they will need to be manageable. With Driven, Concurrent Inc. takes a stab at the problem.

• December 02, 2015 02 Dec'15

  Analysts and Data Scientists Need SQL-on-Everything

  Business analysts and data scientists no longer restrict themselves to internally produced data that comes from IT-managed production systems. For their analysis they use all the data they can lay ...

• November 16, 2015 16 Nov'15

  The Weather Co. buy boosts IBM big data analytics push

  IBM's planned purchase of The Weather Co.'s data operations may be a bellwether event from which data professionals can learn.

• October 30, 2015 30 Oct'15

  IBM goes all-in on Spark analytics with new service, apps

  At its Insight 2015 conference, IBM featured Apache Spark, releasing a cloud-based Spark service to support analytics applications and detailing Spark use in some of its own tools.

• October 27, 2015 27 Oct'15

  Dell links with Syncsort to tune Cloudera Hadoop for offloaded ETL

  Dell and others have a new ETL reference architecture. Its purpose is to ease migrations to Cloudera Hadoop. Also: Dell buys EMC; Syncsort is acquired.

• October 19, 2015 19 Oct'15

  Big data applications to drive Walmart reboot

  We may have outlived the era of killer apps in some part defined by Walmart, but Hadoop big data applications may help the giant's quest for more growth.

• October 13, 2015 13 Oct'15

  MapR does JSON format; Teradata goes on AWS

  MapR takes JSON format data into Hadoop, while Teradata places its flagship database on AWS.

• October 12, 2015 12 Oct'15

  Big Data Myth 4: Big Data is Unstructured Data

  Not so long ago I attended a session in which the speaker was very clear on what big data is and what it is not. In his opinion, big data is unstructured data and unstructured data is big data. ...

• October 07, 2015 07 Oct'15

  Core Hadoop components get more company as vendors diversify

  Tracking 'What is Hadoop?' is getting more complex as the potential components of Hadoop systems increase -- and core elements such as HDFS are augmented by possible alternatives.

• October 05, 2015 05 Oct'15

  Big Data Myth 3: Big Data is Too Big for SQL

  The third big data myth in this series deals with how big data is defined by some. Some state that big data is data that is too big for a relational database, and with that, they undoubtedly mean a ...

• September 30, 2015 30 Sep'15

  MongoDB 3.0 rides WiredTiger engine to boost database speeds

  The latest version of MongoDB finds the NoSQL database running on a new WiredTiger storage engine. Better performance and data compression are among MongoDB 3.0's touted benefits.

• September 30, 2015 30 Sep'15

  DataStax Cassandra moves ahead with Azure deal and graph store

  The DataStax Cassandra engine, officially called DataStax Enterprise, is now Spark-certified. The move is one of several for the NoSQL database on a possible upswing, further evidenced by a new deal with Microsoft.

• September 28, 2015 28 Sep'15

  Strengthening Data Preparation with Data Virtualization

  Self-service analytics allows users to design and develop their own reports and do their own data analysis with minimal support by IT. Most recently, due to the availability of tools, such as those ...

• September 22, 2015 22 Sep'15

  Madsen looks at shift in big data analytics applications

  At a TDWI Boston Chapter meeting, Mark Madsen says some notions of information become outdated in the face of big data analytics. This is part one of two.

• September 22, 2015 22 Sep'15

  New models of processing stalk big data analytics applications

  Operations and big data analytics applications are beginning to blend, causing changes in data strategies, Mark Madsen tells a TDWI Boston Chapter meeting. This is part two of two.

• September 22, 2015 22 Sep'15

  Big Data Myth 2: Analytics Requires Big data

  In Part 1 of this series on big data myths I indicated that the goal of most big data projects is analytics. In other words, big data systems are almost always developed to improve the analytical ...

• September 18, 2015 18 Sep'15

  Big Data Myth 1: Big Data is the Goal

  Big data is an incredibly popular topic. Plentiful articles, books, and blogs have been written on this topic and countless sessions have been presented that discuss some aspect of big data. I am a ...

• September 10, 2015 10 Sep'15

  Alteryx software targets Amazon big data

  The latest Alteryx analytics engine gets enterprises close to Amazon big data, with nods to spreadsheet aficionados and R language.

• September 09, 2015 09 Sep'15

  Evaluating SQL-on-Hadoop tools? Start with the use case

  In a Q&A, Clarity Solution Group CTO Tripp Smith says to base SQL-on-Hadoop software decisions on actual workloads. Some Hadoop tools target batch jobs, while others are intended for interactive ones.

• August 31, 2015 31 Aug'15

  IBM pushes MPP engine to boost cloud database services line

  IBM has added massively parallel processing and R language support to its dashDB software -- important steps for a data warehouse database tailored for distributed cloud computing.

• August 18, 2015 18 Aug'15

  Finding a way off data isolation island

  New technology is supposed to eliminate problems. With data isolation, new business tools are only making the longstanding issue worse. Companies are amassing on-premises tools and cloud applications. And those cloud apps come in many varieties: ...

• August 18, 2015 18 Aug'15

  Vertica 'Excavator' release adds Kafka messaging and more

  HP's Vertica analytics platform update will include better streaming data support via Kafka, and SQL-on-Hadoop improvements.

• August 14, 2015 14 Aug'15

  DataTorrent data ingestion tool aims to speed Hadoop feeds

  A new data ingestion and extraction tool supporting the Hadoop Distributed File System is at the heart of startup vendor DataTorrent's efforts to broaden its big data analytics engine's appeal.

• August 13, 2015 13 Aug'15

  Don't throw out design principles when jumping in Hadoop data lake

  In a Q&A, data warehousing expert Joe Caserta explains why a new generation of developers building Hadoop clusters and other big data systems may need an introduction to some fundamental rules of ETL.

• August 07, 2015 07 Aug'15

  Take measured steps to build a Hadoop cluster architecture

  RelayHealth's Raheem Daya described the path he took to deploy and expand a Hadoop cluster for distributed data processing during a presentation at the 2015 TDWI conference in Boston.

• July 31, 2015 31 Jul'15

  Stonebraker points to data curation as next integration step

  Database pioneer Michael Stonebraker told an MIT conference that data curation tools offer a step forward on data integration. Others said things are already progressing through other means.

• July 31, 2015 31 Jul'15

  Couchbase NoSQL database addresses mobility, synching issues

  Couchbase offers an embedded version of its NoSQL database, which can fit on a smartphone. That feature turned out to be a plus for air carrier Ryanair.

• July 27, 2015 27 Jul'15

  Metanautix Quest follows Dremel path to virtual data marts

  Metanautix Quest 2.0 is an upgraded query engine and data integration platform. Its designers helped create Google Dremel, a precursor for new big data query tools.

• July 02, 2015 02 Jul'15

  Convergence of Data Virtualization Servers and SQL-on-Hadoop Engines?

  Hadoop has become a popular and powerful platform for data storage and data processing. Data stored in Hadoop can be used by a wide range of applications and tools and for a wide range of use ...

• June 30, 2015 30 Jun'15

  Warehouse is purpose-built for JSON data

  SonarW is a columnar data warehouse built especially to handle JSON data. It can support data warehousing for MongoDB systems and some data lakes.

• June 30, 2015 30 Jun'15

  The Data Strategy is the Puzzle

  In the history of IT, the number of times that IT departments proposed to top management to invest in a new technology, a new data quality program, or a new design technique, but were not able to ...

• June 16, 2015 16 Jun'15

  New tools tap SQL skills in bid to boost Hadoop platform adoption

  In many organizations, Hadoop is still pushing to go beyond proof-of-concept projects. Some vendors hope new tools that enable familiar SQL querying will lead it to broader adoption.

• June 15, 2015 15 Jun'15

  Sales intelligence tools shape strategies, customer experience

  Sales intelligence is making brainiacs out of sales reps. As companies look for ways to capture the attention of customers new and old, many are turning to analytics tools and data to help seal the deal.
  
  Some use data to shape sales ...

• June 09, 2015 09 Jun'15

  MongoDB enters world of swappable data storage engines

  MongoDB 3.0, which now has swappable data storage engine support, gained much attention at MongoDBWorld 2015, even as MongoDB 3.2 details emerged.

• June 08, 2015 08 Jun'15

  Embarcadero XE7 data models adapt to Agile methods

  Embarcadero’s XE7 ER/Studio tool suite intends to make data models a more intrinsic part of Agile development projects.

• May 29, 2015 29 May'15

  CTO looks to open source big data tools to help take company higher

  Big data technologies have become vital to online ad platform developer Altitude Digital. And as the tools have evolved, CTO Manny Puentes has learned some lessons about using them.

• May 29, 2015 29 May'15

  Book author says big data NoSQL databases need proper application

  Consultant Dan Sullivan, author of "NoSQL for Mere Mortals," discusses some of the pertinent points for IT shops to consider before entering the new world of NoSQL databases.

• May 28, 2015 28 May'15

  Neo4j software update focuses on NoSQL database engine room

  The latest release of Neo Technology's Neo4j graph database boosts the NoSQL software's performance and scalability through faster processing of both data reads and writes.

• May 28, 2015 28 May'15

  Talking Data podcast goes to data journalism and analytics school

  In this episode of the Talking Data podcast, TechTarget editors report on their experiences learning to do data journalism, including all the work needed to get data ready for analysis.

• April 29, 2015 29 Apr'15

  SQL-on-Hadoop startup JethroData releases 1.0 engine

  Startup JethroData's namesake Version 1.0 software is an index-based, SQL-on-Hadoop engine that forgoes full scans of Hadoop data sources.

• April 27, 2015 27 Apr'15

  Spark helps power Paxata big data preparation platform

  Count Paxata among startups set to apply machine learning to problems of big data preparation.

• April 24, 2015 24 Apr'15

  New thinking needed in IT to make NoSQL data modeling process work

  As NoSQL databases become more prevalent in enterprise processing, designing data models for the flexible-schema systems is a looming challenge for data architects and developers.

• April 15, 2015 15 Apr'15

  How Self-Service BI is Changing Data Modeling

  There was a time when data models were only touched by experts in white coats wearing soft cotton gloves while carrying them around. The data models were kept in a vault that Fort Knox would have ...

• March 31, 2015 31 Mar'15

  Polyglot Persistence and Future Integration Costs

  Polyglot persistence must be the ugliest term we have ever come up with in the IT industry. It means that different persistency technologies (read data storage technologies) are used to store data. ...

• March 31, 2015 31 Mar'15

  Data Virtualization and Data Vault: Double Agility

  Data vault is a modern approach to design enterprise data warehouses. The two key benefits of data vault are data model extensibility and reproducibility of reporting results. Unfortunately, from a ...

• March 25, 2015 25 Mar'15

  Couchbase, VoltDB pursue more database scalability in big data apps

  New database updates address large-scale applications. Included are Couchbase Server 4.0 with multidimensional scaling support and VoltDB 5.0 with links to Hadoop data streaming tools.

• March 02, 2015 02 Mar'15

  MapR Hadoop update plies data center waters; Azure learns new tricks

  Hadoop vendor MapR's latest release puts the focus on database replication across data centers. Also, Microsoft has built a Python-friendly Azure service for machine learning in the cloud.

• February 24, 2015 24 Feb'15

  Ferment accompanies new Hadoop ecosystem initiative

  The Open Data Platform has arrived, but not all Hadoop vendors are on board. The initiative, aimed at boosting interoperability, formed a backdrop for discussion at the Strata + Hadoop World 2015 conference.

• February 20, 2015 20 Feb'15

  Western Union connects the dots to enable enterprise Hadoop use

  Building and running enterprise Hadoop applications takes more than data crunching. First, Hadoop data must be absorbed into company processes, a Western Union IT manager says.

• February 17, 2015 17 Feb'15

  Hadoop data lakes must get more efficient, less 'messy' to oust EDWs

  In a Q&A, Forrester analyst Mike Gualtieri said Hadoop-based data lakes can become an alternative to enterprise data warehouses. But first, faster I/O and better data governance are needed.

• February 06, 2015 06 Feb'15

  Hadoop data lake not a place for just lounging around

  A new Gartner report says the storage repository isn’t the trouble-free panacea many observers hail it to be. New data governance practices -- and new skills -- are critical.

• January 30, 2015 30 Jan'15

  Initiative targets Hadoop data management, better data policies

  Hortonworks forms a data management initiative with Merck and others. Meanwhile, SQL and NoSQL may blur a bit.

• January 22, 2015 22 Jan'15

  Oracle GoldenGate updates; Xplenty, Segment in deal

  An update to Oracle's GoldenGate replicator is on tap. And, Xplenty and Segment connect on Hadoop processing in the cloud.

• January 20, 2015 20 Jan'15

  IBM works to deliver on Watson's cognitive computing promise

  Watson Analytics and a Watson school competition look to bring IBM cognitive computing initiatives to the commercial sphere.

• January 16, 2015 16 Jan'15

  Data management plan with integration focus drives healthy analytics

  Don't let the buzz around analytics fool you. Solid data management capabilities are required to enable advanced analytics, as an example from the healthcare sector attests.

• January 06, 2015 06 Jan'15

  Data warehouse software not ready for retirement in age of big data

  Hadoop clusters, NoSQL databases and other modern technologies have roles to play in business intelligence and analytics environments. But traditional data warehouses still do, too.

• July 29, 2014 29 Jul'14

  Agile data warehousing casts business light on dark process

  At the TDWI Executive Summit in Boston, users talked about the benefits and challenges of incorporating Agile development methodologies into data warehouse and business intelligence projects.

• June 18, 2014 18 Jun'14

  Apache Kafka committer Jay Kreps on the way of the log

  To keep big data in motion, LinkedIn developers devised Apache Kafka, a publish-and-subscribe message dispatcher based on the concept of logs.

• June 04, 2014 04 Jun'14

  Apache Spark goes 1.0, looks to improve on MapReduce performance

  The Apache Software Foundation released Version 1.0 of Spark, a processing framework aimed at outpacing MapReduce for machine learning and other uses.

• May 22, 2014 22 May'14

  Former shadow IT worker helps bring analytics data into the light

  Ryan Fenner worked in a shadow IT unit at Union Bank for years. Now he's helping lead an IT effort to better manage BI data created in those shadows.

• May 08, 2014 08 May'14

  Big data charge could turn data management profession on its head

  Discussed at DAMA's EDW 2014 were more flexible approaches to the data management profession. That's in response to growing mountains of diverse data.

• April 10, 2014 10 Apr'14

  Think Big Analytics' Bodkin: Big data adoption means breaking silos

  Hadoop has the ability ultimately to break down siloed data stores, Ron Bodkin says in a Q&A.

• March 31, 2014 31 Mar'14

  Chief information architect: A compass for information management

  In a Q&A, author William McKnight discusses the importance of building a robust information architecture -- and having the right person in the lead.

• October 15, 2013 15 Oct'13

  Google's big data infrastructure: Don't try this at home?

  Google's Jeromy Carriere spoke about the search engine giant's big data infrastructure at a recent TDWI meeting. Should it influence other efforts?

• July 02, 2013 02 Jul'13

  Evolving Hadoop ecosystem presents new ways to program big data apps

  Change is on tap as Hadoop 2.0 spawns new development options. At Hadoop Summit 2013, the potential for big data innovation was vivid.

• May 07, 2013 07 May'13

  Data warehouse performance killers -- and how to avoid them

  In a podcast Q&A, consultant William McKnight offers advice on steering clear of common hazards that can puncture the performance of data warehouses.

• April 16, 2013 16 Apr'13

  Would-be Softie embraces another IT leadership path

  He could have been part of Microsoft's meteoric rise in the 1980s, but Quintiles Inc. global IT director John Poonnen seized another day.

• March 28, 2013 28 Mar'13

  Wikibon analyst scopes big data market, predicts explosive growth

  Big data technologies challenge the status quo. In this Q&A, analyst Jeff Kelly sorts through the issues and sees big-time growth in new methods.

• March 07, 2013 07 Mar'13

  Motorcycle icon Yamaha updates dealer site with fast database drivers

  Database drivers are sometimes an afterthought. But JDBC drivers came to the fore when Yamaha Motor Europe rebuilt its e-commerce website for dealers.

• March 01, 2013 01 Mar'13

  Confronting MapReduce, Hadoop problems and complexities

  The challenges of using Hadoop and its MapReduce programming model confront big data users. But taking some good first steps can help avoid problems.

• January 10, 2013 10 Jan'13

  'Big data' in motion: Where does it make sense?

  Data architects creating operational business intelligence applications may need to put streams of Hadoop data into a fast messaging infrastructure.

• December 18, 2012 18 Dec'12

  Gartner Magic Quadrant: Customer MDM market maturing despite confusion

  This year's Magic Quadrant for customer MDM software reveals a market nearing maturity, yet still brimming with diverse products and vendors.

• October 11, 2012 11 Oct'12

  IT pros reveal benefits, drawbacks of data virtualization software

  Attendees at Composite Software's Data Virtualization Day conference had plenty of advice for companies considering a data virtualization project.

• August 19, 2012 19 Aug'12

  Make communication, purpose priorities in a data governance program

  Data governance can be all bureaucracy and no benefit. To avoid that, managing the process effectively is a must, says consultant Danette McGilvray.

• August 12, 2012 12 Aug'12

  Decision time: Automated data integration tools versus manual coding

  In many companies, data integration remains a manual task -- by choice. But it might be time to automate that process, says consultant Rick Sherman.

• August 08, 2012 08 Aug'12

  Mission impossible? Data governance process takes on 'big data'

  Effective governance can help companies get the most out of their "big data" environments. But at this point, there's no formula for how to do that.

• July 28, 2012 28 Jul'12

  Internal data quality standards not just a game for business users

  Ensuring that business users follow corporate standards when entering and updating data is vital to the success of data quality improvement efforts.

• July 03, 2012 03 Jul'12

  Zornes: MDM software vendors struggling with data governance

  Master data management vendors and practitioners face some difficulties in linking MDM and data governance initiatives, consultant Aaron Zornes says.

• June 18, 2012 18 Jun'12

  Decision makers plan to spend big on 'big data' projects

  Two surveys found that many companies are moving to become more data-driven and that "big data" initiatives are among the items on their to-do lists.