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Business Intelligence + Big Data
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July 2013 Welcome to our monthly newsletter, iOLAP iNSIGHTS. Our goal is to provide you with news, tips and information that will be of value to you in your daily job. We hope you enjoy it and welcome your feedback and ideas.
The iOLAP Team Business Intelligence + Big Data
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 iOLAP iNSIDER Select Articles, Blogs, Whitepapers and Presentations from the iOLAP Team
Avoiding Big Failure with Big Data, written by Doug Slemmer, iOLAP President and CEO. Click here to download the full article in PDF format. Are Those Data Clouds on the Horizon?, written by Steven Crofts, iOLAP VP of Marketing. Click here to read the full article on our blog. The Clash of the Titans: Data Scientists vs. Business Intelligence Pros, written by Austin Tidmore, iOLAP Business Intelligence Consultant. Click here to read the full article on our blog.
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 Trends, News and SoundBytes
Yellowfin Announces V6.3. Collaboration is a major part of the new release. Analysts and customers have described Yellowfin's new Timeline module, the centerpiece of Yellowfin 6.3, as "Facebook for BI." Click here for more information.
AWS (Amazon Web Services) makes Redshift Data Warehousing generally available. Claiming 90% reduction in traditional data warehousing costs, AWS Redshift is now available. Click here for more information. MicroStrategy announces general availability of Version 9.3.1. Additional self-service analytics in a Enterprise-grade BI platform. Click here for a summary of new features.
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 What's On My Mind: Is Amazon Redshift a Game Changer? Mark Steen, iOLAP Managing Partner
Now and then new technologies, ideas, and even buzzwords come along that fundamentally change the way people look at the IT game. When Amazon first released Amazon Web Services (AWS) it changed the game of cloud-based data centers by introducing pay-as-you-go pricing for servers and storage. By replacing large up-front capital infrastructure expenditures with much lower costs that people could scale as their businesses grew, Amazon grew their own business by fostering many more entrants into the e-commerce space that in many cases also turned to Amazon logistics and fulfillment services. That was a game changing moment that was definitely a win-win for all parties.
In February of this year, AWS brought that same game changing perspective to the world of data warehousing by releasing Redshift. Redshift is a new, petabyte-scale data warehouse-as-a-service (DWaaS) platform that offers the same low cost, cloud-based, pay as you go model available with other AWS products.
Click here to read the full article in the iOLAP blog.
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 Tech Tip: A Better Data Warehouse Benchmark Charles Yorek, iOLAP Managing Partner
We often work with clients to benchmark database performance during the vendor selection process and as a result have become experts at working with the various standardized testing data sets available to the public. Almost anyone who has been involved in a performance test is familiar with the Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC) tests - in particular the TPC-H (see http://www.tpc.org/tpch/default.asp) which is geared towards decision support systems performance testing. This test provides a great starting point for database platform and configuration testing, but recently we have begun to utilize a newer testing suite which we feel provides a better representation of actual use case scenarios - the Star Schema Benchmark (SSB) (see https://github.com/electrum/ssb-dbgen).
SSB is a variation of the TPC-H benchmark that has been modified so that it represents a 'Kimball' style database design (i.e. fact tables that consist mainly of keys and very few, if any, text fields). If you're familiar with utilizing the dbgen tool from the TPC-H test then you won't have any issue converting to using SSB. As with all performance testing, it's best to have a game plan as to what exactly your typical use case will look like so that you get the most out of your testing cycles. iOLAP has deep experience in helping develop test case scenarios and overall performance testing projects to help with DMBS platform selection. If you need some help, give us a call.
For detailed information on the SSB tool please reference this whitepaper from the test authors at http://www.cs.umb.edu/~poneil/StarSchemaB.PDF.
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Upcoming Events
Yellowfin Webinar on "The Real-World State of the BI Market," July 15, 2013. Clic k here for details.
Mobile BI Webinar presented by iOLAP on, "The Importance of Mobile BI User Interface (UI) Design," September 5, 2013, hosted by Charles Yorek, iOLAP Managing Partner. Click here for details and to register.
iOLAP presents IBM's Big Data Solution, September 8, 2013. We will be hosting the event at the Dallas Cowboys opening night game vs. the New York Giants. Please email scrofts@iolap.com for details.
iOLAP presents IBM's Big Data Solution, October 12, 2013. We will be hosting the event at the TopGolf facility in Allen, Texas. Please email scrofts@iolap.com for details.
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About Us
iOLAP, Inc. is a Dallas-based strategic data consultancy specializing in Data Warehousing (DW), Business Intelligence (BI) and Big Data strategy and solutions.
We are completely focused on these markets and bring a client-centric and business-focused perspective to all of our engagements. iOLAP has been in business since 1999 with in-depth expertise across all DW and BI technology areas, including the newest leading-edge Business Analytics and Big Data architectures. We serve some of the world's largest companies across all major industries.
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iOLAP is a frequent contributor to important global thought leadership on Business Intelligence and Big Data.
or call us at (214) 618-5000
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