The current Holy Grail of analytical systems is the Unified Data Architecture: a management layer that connects people and systems to all the appropriate information sources, both structured and unstructured, across the entire enterprise. The idea is to provide a strategic view of information assets, ideally with an intelligent metadata layer that helps users align salient data sets, thus enabling a big-picture perspective that fosters insight, collaboration and improvement. Register for this episode of The Briefing Room to hear veteran Analyst Krish Krishnan explain why we're closer than ever to achieving this holistic perspective for data assets.  

There's a good reason why so many people are talking about analytic platforms these days. The surge in popularity of Big Data, coupled with the need to reconcile this new source of insights with Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing, has fueled a wave of innovation for synthesizing analytical capabilities. What are the latest innovations in analytic platforms? Register for this episode of Hot Technologies to find out! Veteran Analysts Mark Madsen of Third Nature and John O'Brien of Radiant Advisors will offer their insights on what to look for in a robust analytic platform. 

As the information landscape expands with all kinds of Big Data, businesses are searching for ways to unite their traditional analytics with this new source of insight. One ambitious approach involves federating access to multiple data sources, even across various operating systems. The idea is to take analytic processing to the data, then intelligently assemble the results for a business user. 

Could this be the long-awaited alternative to data virtualization? Register for this episode of The Briefing Room to hear veteran Analyst Robin Bloor explain how federated access to data sources can pave the way for a truly integrated data fabric.  

The implementation of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) turned a lot of heads, not so much because the government was offering financial assistance, but because it did so at such an enormous scale. Now in its third year, many are left wondering: how successful has the program been and what unforeseen consequences emerged because of it? Register for this episode of Federal Spending to hear former TARP regulator Amy Poster review the program's successes and shortcomings.