« March 2007 | Main | May 2007 »
April 29, 2007
I have seen the future of BI and it is…Desktop RIA
LinkedIns new Toolbar for Outlook gives us a glimpse into the future of BI. Whats so unique and exciting about this little desktop utility is it takes an application you already use and adds some very useful information without any additional effort.
A few days ago, I received an unsolicited email that normally I would force myself to read perchance that its from someone I know or a referral , in which case I make it a point to respond even if the email is a blatant sales attempt.
The LinkedIn integrated window (which comes back instantaneously) told me that the email is from someone whos job is lead generation (so it wasnt specifically addressed to me), second the person is 3 degrees away from anyone I know and as an aside, the person is actually in LA even though his signature read PA.
Whats exciting about this utility is that it marries a desktop application (Outlook) with a web service (LinkedIn Website) and in the process eliminates any disconnects that current desktop-only and web-only applications tend to have.
In order for Business Intelligence to undergo a similar revolution in usability and productivity, two things have to happen:
- Databases need to become more web friendly (Michael Franklins presentation which touches on DataSpaces)
- A desktop Rich Internet Application platform (such as Adobes Apollo) is needed to truly bridge the gap between the web and the desktop
This is how an Adobe blog describes desktop RIA
Apollo enables people to more easily maintain a connection with information in their web applications. Just like a desktop app, Apollo applications have an icon on the desktop, in the Windows start menu, or in the OS X dock. Also, when you’re running a web application today, it’s a separate world from your computer. You can’t easily integrate local data with your web app. For example, you can’t just drag and drop your local contacts onto a web-based mapping application to get directions to your friend’s house. With Apollo applications you will be able to this kind of integration as it bridges the chasm between your computer and the Internet.
Adobes commitment to desktop RIA will make #2 into reality in the very near future. #1 is going to be much harder. The folks that you would expect to be innovating in these areas are still obsessing over spindle speeds and cpu cycles.
Share:
Posted by Arshak Navruzyan at 2:07 AM | Comments (0)
April 24, 2007
If at first you don't succeed, try, try again! Business Objects acquires Cartesis
Less than two years after acquiring SRC (Aug &'05), Business Objects has announced its intention to acquire another enterprise performance management (EPM) player, this time it's Cartesis S.A. As an indication of how serious BO is about getting into EPM, it paid $100M for SRC; now BO is raising the stakes by paying $300M for Cartesis a French company with its roots in Compagnie Générale des Eaux and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Unlike Cognos' acquisition of Adaytum, the BO/SRC/Infommersion combination didn't seem to get a lot of traction in the market and coupled with the recent Oracle acquisition of Hyperion, BO management probably felt pressured to revisit EPM.
It remains to be seen how well Cartesis will integrate into the BO stack, which other than a database, now has one (or two) of everything. Furthermore, although Cartesis certainly had Global and US based customers, the core of the customer base appear to be European companies and if there is one thing that is fairly unique between regions it's finance systems: planning, consolidation, statutory reporting, etc.
Share:
Posted by Arshak Navruzyan at 2:37 AM | Comments (0)
Lingua Franca for Event Stream Processing
Event Stream Processing (aka: Complex Event Processing) enables companies to monitor event streams, detect and analyze event patterns, and cause actions. Although not entirely dissimilar to rules-based engines such as Corticon, Blaze Advisor and ILOG with ESP emphasis is placed on processing events "mid flight i.e. as they occur in originating sources and before they hit any type of permanent storage. Tower Group estimates that spending on ESP will grow tenfold from $67 million in 2006 to over $600 million by 2010.
An application that clearly demonstrates the benefits of ESP is Algorithmic Trading on Wall Street. An ESP application can take data coming from ticker plants and route the first arriving quote from across multiple exchanges that meets a traders specific criteria.
As ESP is still in its infancy, vendors have developed very distinct approaches for how ESP processes are set up. The one approach that stands out is that of SteamBase, which by working with various academic groups, has created a language called StreamSQL. StreamSQL syntax is similar to relational SQL and both Data Definition (DDL) and Data Manipulation (DML) elements are present however unlike relational SQL which returns query results upon reaching an "end of table condition, StreamSQL relies on time windows to return results when desired conditions are met.
Other predominant approaches are that of products such as Aleri, Apama (now part of Progress), Coral8 and Portware which orchestrate ESP through either a proprietary scripting language or a set of APIs for a handful of environments such as Java or .NET.
Aside from providing the familiar paradigm of SQL, StreamSQL also has the potential of being generated by third-party products such as tools for data visualization and analysis. Although some vendors (for example Apama) have chosen to provide "complete solutions themselves including the IDE for orchestration and dashboards for monitoring, StreamBase welcomes third-party generated StreamSQL as evidenced by a recent statement by Richard Tibbetts an Architect
Share:
Posted by Arshak Navruzyan at 1:42 AM
| Comments (0)
