Standards and enterprise-grade platforms will continue to be important, but individual BI tools with the functionality to show a single version of the truthwill trump standards.

Enterprises will learn to live with multiple BI tools.

Business Intelligencewill continue to move away from the IT team and into the hands of the business user.

Self Service BI will bring decision makingto the desktop and will become the name of the game.

Mobile BIwill go mainstream. Tomorrows decisions will need to be made when and where they need to be made, not “when I get back to the office”.

Cloud BIwill continue to chip away at on-premises BI, but it’s still a long road ahead.

BI-specific DBMSes(in-memory, others) will go mainstream.

Big datawill start to move out of silos and into enterprise IT. IT will start to learn how to live with it.

BI users will start demanding and vendors will start delivering Bi tools that integrate with email and collaboration platforms. Just integrating BI with Excel is no longer enough.

www.c24.co.uk

Why? Poor design (obviously) and the fact that my waist is not quite what it used to be. Like it or not, I’m gradually expanding…

I read an interesting article today that was titled “Getting Rid of Data — Why is it so hard” and for some reason found some parallel in what’s happened with my jeans…

The article is about Information Governance and how important it is to have good processes and policies in place so that you know with confidence what data needs to be retained and what data can be disposed of — stopping the burgeoning, un-wielding growth of data (or my waist as I continue to try to draw some sort of parallel…)

Some of my previous blogs have been talking about the Tsunami of data from social media — Supersized data that is both difficult to make sense of and expensive to retain.

It’s easy to understand why doing a bit of data spring clearing can clear out some space and enable you to carry on cramming stuff into what ever storage is currently available (my jeans again) just in case you need it some time in the future.

However… More than ever, technologies are changing and evolving as data continues to grow and grow.

Disks are cheap and with the adoption of “big data” solutions such as Hadoop and our own search engine based technology CXAIR, size is less and less of an issue.

When I started in IT back in 1987, I was working on mainframe systems written in Cobol and IDMSX. I was working on hospital Patient Administration Systems where due to limitations in hardware we were always extremely careful of data storage and retention. We used to hold current data and historic data for about 3 months before it was archived off to tape and microfiche.

These days we can slap it on disk and keep it there virtually indefinitely. With all of the laws around compliance and transparency, keeping your data available is a good and comforting thing.

The only issue is when you do need access to some old data, how do you find it?

If it’s stored in an old legacy database, then expect to have to get IT on the case and wait for hours for the data to come back.

If it’s stored in something like a search engine then users can search around perform ad—hoc queries and analysis across the data themselves and get results back in seconds.

Times are changing and the way we store access and retain data is going through a technical revolution at the moment.

Data Governance is important but so is the ability to keep hold of data for historical analysis and that “just in case, ad-hoc” requirement that bites you on the backside as soon as you’ve deleted or made the data less accessible.

So what choices do I have?

Get rid of some of the excess (go on a diet) or buy some bigger (more scalable) and more appropriately designed (latest technology) jeans.

Time to get the credit card out…

Thu, 17/11/2011 – 11:12 — Richard Lewis

CenturyLink has released the following infographic that highlights the exponential increase in data, and the implications of Big Data on enterprises. It is predicted that video and mobile devices will be major contributors in driving the creation of 7.9 zetabytes of data in 2015. Big Data will entail 1.5 times more IT professionals managing 75 times more data moving through enterprise data centers. Image via CenturyLink Find the original post and image here. Related articles Infographic: Data Deluge – 8 Zettabytes of Data by 2015 (readwriteweb.com) Big Data and Little Data (forbes.com)

spotted on a little bit of this, a little bit of that

However, today there is a variety of ways in which cloud solutions providers i.e. vendors, resellers and Managed Service Providers (MSPs), can near-guarantee data security and among the most sophisticated near-guarantee of security is encryption. This is a simple yet effective process that will put many customers’ minds at rest, and is therefore a powerful tool for the channel.

Before data leaves the end user’s datacentre it is encrypted at the source and it stays so while it gets transmitted to the cloud, essentially the data is encrypted at rest and in flight to ensure the data remains secure, where it also remains encrypted. Therefore, anyone trying to intercept this data while it is being transferred would only capture encrypted files; access to confidential content is hence not possible.

In order to access data in its un-encrypted form, it needs to be unlocked and the only key resides with the customer, ensuring that the stored version of the data is as safe and secure in the MSP’s datacentre as if it was in-house. Depending on the required level of security, keys can have between eight and 32 digits. So far, so secure.

Safeguards can be applied at various levels to ensure the security of customers’ data from cradle to grave including encryption key escrow management capability. This allows for an additional security provision to be put in place should a customer lose or forget their encryption key. Measures of security (or lack thereof) will often be a deal breaker so any reseller or cloud service provider looking for that extra element of differentiation should certainly look into having as many of these security measures in their portfolios. Amongst the most important factors is to ensure that the underlying technology vendor has a third-party certification of the encryption elements in its products, like a governmental body. It is not enough that a vendor claims their product is secure and it incorporates some form of cryptology. The real question is whether anyone has actually verified that the encryption was implemented properly so it cannot be defeated. This is the comfort level that a recognised third-party certification provides.

In the cloud data centre itself, the security of the data is protected even from datacentre operations staff due to its encrypted format. Cloud operations personnel do not have unauthorised access to the decryption key, meaning that customers should feel safe in the knowledge that their data is visible only to them. Building a level of trust such as this is “key” (excuse the pun) when establishing channel relationships, as trusted resellers are the ones to whom happy customers will return, and will be recommended to others.

It is details such as this that give good relationships the advantage; in order to provide the best possible service it is necessary to understand the technology being utilised and leverage it to each customer’s advantage. Thus, fears about the security of data in the cloud should be greatly reduced. Customers who feel happy with the level of security, support and flexibility provided are the ones with whom relationships will flourish.

1. It’s going to be all about getting things done!
2. Standards and enterprise-grade platforms will continue to be important, but individual BI tools with the functionality to show a single version of the truth will trump standards.
3. Enterprises will learn to live with multiple BI tools.
4. Business Intelligence will continue to move away from the IT team and into the hands of the business user.
5. Self Service BI will bring decision making to the desktop and will become the name of the game.
6. Mobile BI will go mainstream. Tomorrows decisions will need to be made when and where they need to be made, not “when I get back to the office”.
7. Cloud BI will continue to chip away at on-premises BI, but it’s still a long road ahead.
8. BI-specific DBMSes (in-memory, others) will go mainstream.
9. Big data will start to move out of silos and into enterprise IT. IT will start to learn how to live with it.
10. BI users will start demanding and vendors will start delivering Bi tools that integrate with email and collaboration platforms. Just integrating BI with Excel is no longer enough.

IBM CMO Study (by IBMIBV)

IBM releases its inaugural 2011 Global Chief Marketing Officer Study with insights from 1,734 CMOs, spanning 19 industries and 64 countries. How prepared are CMOs to manage the data explosion, social media, and the growth of channel and device choices?

To download a copy of the study visit http://www.ibm.com/cmostudy

What is becoming more apparent is that big data is turning into big money, for enterprises and small businesses alike. So how can channel partners and cloud services providers (CSPs) help customers to manage navigate this trend?

With the development of big data trends and forecasts, a number of companies and groups have been formed to help manage, analyze and leverage it. According to an article by Stefan Groschupf, mining big data for business intelligence has led to the development of innovations like FlightCaster, a company that is able to predict flight delays by factoring in real-time conditions and using historical information on domestic flights.

In addition, many experts believe analyzing large datasets can be the precursor to more practical and cost-effective ways of doing business. A report by the McKinsey Global Institute, for example, estimates that retail firms that ‘maximize their use of big data’ could ‘increase operating margins by more than 60 percent…’.

The report mentions how Wal-Mart used electronic data to give suppliers a view of demand in its stores. With the collection of even more information on each store and buying habits of customers, retail chains like Wal-Mart can use the information they gather to tailor their business to the customer and improve operations.

And in a recent blog post on how companies are making money from the growth of data, Loraine Lawson noted that large tech security companies are crediting big data in part for boosting their company’s revenues.

Perspectives for Channel Partners

Executive Vice President at Asigra, Eran Farajun, says that cloud service providers are partly responsible for the explosion of data. With cloud computing and cloud services becoming more popular, the general public and small businesses are creating more and more data online, thanks to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and others, being solely based online requires all the information created on those sites to be stored online.

So while data is being made, monitored and mined, who’s worrying about what happens if and when that information is lost?

Although most small businesses might not be thinking about big data problems now, Asigra’s Senior Director of Strategic Alliances, Ashar Baig says that in five to 10 years, big data is going to be a problem. In addition, having more, highly valuable information increases the vulnerability of what happens when that data is destroyed in an accident, irrecoverable or hacked. In this sense, being able to protect, backup and recover information becomes akin to insuring your house and car.

The debate over whether or not the public cloud is the answer to big data storage problems continues to unfold. For end-users, security in the cloud is already a touchy subject, much less backup and recovery. But with big data issues coming to the forefront,security becomes even more divisive.

Standardizing encryption in the cloud backup and recovery field is a start to ensuring the cloud can meet the demand that huge datasets will put on cloud storage providers, as more and more businesses rely on the cloud to store big data.

Considering the issues outlined above, cloud storage providers need to ensure their data encryption standards are consistent with industry leaders, such as the National Institute of Science and Technology in the United States, to be prepared for the oncoming challenge of big data.

Thanks to the guys at Asigra for the post.

Related articles

• In the Pipeline: A Tidal Wave of Data (datacenterknowledge.com)
• How business taught scientists about big data (gigaom.com)
• Talk on the privacy bargain, big data, and human sensors versus human barcodes (boingboing.net)

The best of breed Bi solutions can:

• add a column to a report in 4.3 hours - Bi24 can do this in under 5 minutes
• create a new dashboard in 3.8 days - Bi24 can do this in under 1 hour

Check out the video http://youtu.be/ecqI_7SYmE8

Agile Bi

The other day, a colleague said to me:

“Well what do you expect, you can’t expect a Turkey to vote for Christmas”

True words indeed!

Selling software that is going to make things easier, reduce the impact on IT and empower the business user is a hard sell if you’re talking to the head of IT… less so if you are talking to the CEO or FD where the bottom line and share holder value are more important than propping up the job market.

People’s perception of software is changing.

For the current generation of School and College leavers using software is an every day way of life.

Whether playing Angry Birds on your phone, posting a YouTube link on someone’s wall, writing a Thesis or keeping track of your finances, we are all using software to make life easier and entertain ourselves most of our waking and working day.

People expect things to be simple, people don’t expect to go on a training course when they download the latest phone app or try out the latest Social Media gizmo over the Web.

If things don’t work or are too complicated to use, people won’t use it. They’ll look elsewhere. People are more and more independent and want to choose their preferred laptop, OS, mobile phone and applications and won’t much care for people pushing their own preferences, as there is so much choice.

So when it comes to business, who decides on what applications and gizmos you use on a day-to-day basis? Who decides what’s best for you?

Traditionally there has always been a gatekeeper when it comes to buying software.

… the IT department.

The IT department has to support the system therefore the IT department must be involved in the buying process.

This all sounds very reasonable however the motives of IT and the business can be at conflict with one another. Is efficiency top of the requirements for IT?

Is empowering the business user to be able to service their own information requirements top of the bill? If there is an option to buy in a product or service that will benefit the business by taking money away from the IT budget and potentially reducing the demand on IT seen as a priority?

There is a lot more choice out there today but for the traditionalists, the IT department still has a hold over which external products and services are purchased because IT in general is still regarded as “technical” and “too specialist”.

The new generation is a lot more IT savvy and is going to want a much bigger say in decisions over what to buy and what not to buy.

These new business users are measured on productivity, increasing sales and generating profit. These users won’t want to be held up by having to use antiquated, one style fits all products that need the nod and assistance from IT whenever the business user wants to find out something that isn’t serviced by a standard screen or report.

Our Business Intelligence product Bi24 is written for business users. Business users just get it… It uses search technology. It’s self-service BI. It’s easy and looks like and behaves like all of the other modern applications that are being used today.

So where am I going with this?

When we demonstrate our software, we demonstrate it to the business user not IT. Trying to get IT to propose a solution that reduces the need for their services is a bit like getting a Turkey to vote for Christmas.

Unlikely to happen at best and pretty fool hardy from a Turkey’s point of view.

Fri, 29/07/2011 – 16:28 — Richard Lewis