Twin Fin appliance raises the bar
I had the pleasure of attending the Enzee Universe in London last week. It was a fabulous affair and the new twin fin appliance was unveiled. With twin fin, Netezza have again raised the bar from the price/performance perspective.
Although I have only had a brief overview of the new architecture the key difference is the move to commodity hardware in the form of Intel based blades, making the technology much more approachable. The FPGA technology is still present thus retaining Netezza's "secret ingredient" and one of the key components that deliver the outstanding performance.
Netezza have also been busy building a set of "on the box" match ups with other vendors and one I am particularly enamoured of is the new KONA platform. KONA is a marriage of Kalido and Netezza and for anyone considering a new warehouse or re-architecting a legacy platform this is very much worth a look. Kalido's ease of set up and long term maintenance and Netezza's performance is a potent mix indeed. It is, in effect, a whole data warehouse in a single box which is very attractive prospect from a management perspective. At the moment this offering is geared towards specific verticals, however I would anticipate it being opened out in time.
So all in all a great day and once again Netezza are continuing to demonstrate the forward thinking that has made them the market leader in appliance technologies.
www.emunioconsulting.com
Friday, 2 October 2009
Friday, 4 September 2009
Cost-effective data integration software
Rick Barton, Emunio MD, thinks data integration software doesn't have to cost as much as it does. Find out why by signing in for our latest infocast at www.emunioconsulting.com
Thursday, 30 July 2009
Supporting Agile Data Integration
Those closest to me know that I’m passionate about doing the right thing. Sometimes that means making hard, pragmatic decisions. The right thing is not necessarily the best possible thing – it means the right decision for right now – making a tactical decision in pursuit of a bigger strategic direction.
That’s why the whole ‘Lean/Agile’ software development process resonates so closely with me. I learned a great deal from Nancy Van Schooenderwoert of Lean Agile Partners while working on a large scale data warehouse re-architecting programme, and the lessons have stayed with me ever since. I now find myself looking for ways to eliminate waste wherever I look. This includes deploying, as far as possible, techniques including automated test harnesses (a big and long time theme within Emunio), inspect and adapt philosophies, close customer involvement with the development, multi-disciplined teams, necessary and sufficient documentation, etc.
You’ll understand my excitement about joining Emunio because of the breadth and depth in the quality of the solutions that Emunio offers – especially when using technologies that support the above techniques. Of course it’s easy to get nerdy and geeky about cool tech, but that must offer pragmatic, real, hard value to the business. Technology like Kalido’s Dynamic Information Warehouse (DIW) manages to be really cool from a techy point of view, but also offers massive, demonstrable and credible business value. Using Kalido, Enterprise Data Warehouses can be built from scratch in as little as 8 weeks. Yes, that’s right – 8 Weeks.
How?
Kalido has a semantic technology at it’s core, so the data warehouse build is largely automated based upon a business model. This business model is abstracted from the way the data is stored under the covers so, as the business evolves along with the business model, the semantic abstraction means that changes can be applied much more rapidly than with conventional technologies. Fundamentally, this lends itself very much to an agile delivery method: quickly make changes and get timely feedback from the business (inspect and adapt) = rapid high quality delivery. Kalido allows your data warehouse to change along with your business.
But to get the best out of this great technology you still need to apply it with a mix of great processes and great people. Kalido stand behind over 250 implementations of their software and supply a wealth of best practice processes to complement their best of breed technology. But any data warehouse project inevitably demands a rich mix of data integration skills alongside the agile themes above (automated test harnesses, multi-disciplined teams, inspect and adapt philosophies, etc.). That’s where a data integration partner like Emunio comes in. I’m not afraid to boast about it – we are the data integration experts.
So when your business has to make some hard, pragmatic decisions about building a data warehouse, it’s worth seriously considering Kalido. That way you can do tactical (build quickly and iteratively) and strategic (responsively change the your business model) by making one choice.
That’s why the whole ‘Lean/Agile’ software development process resonates so closely with me. I learned a great deal from Nancy Van Schooenderwoert of Lean Agile Partners while working on a large scale data warehouse re-architecting programme, and the lessons have stayed with me ever since. I now find myself looking for ways to eliminate waste wherever I look. This includes deploying, as far as possible, techniques including automated test harnesses (a big and long time theme within Emunio), inspect and adapt philosophies, close customer involvement with the development, multi-disciplined teams, necessary and sufficient documentation, etc.
You’ll understand my excitement about joining Emunio because of the breadth and depth in the quality of the solutions that Emunio offers – especially when using technologies that support the above techniques. Of course it’s easy to get nerdy and geeky about cool tech, but that must offer pragmatic, real, hard value to the business. Technology like Kalido’s Dynamic Information Warehouse (DIW) manages to be really cool from a techy point of view, but also offers massive, demonstrable and credible business value. Using Kalido, Enterprise Data Warehouses can be built from scratch in as little as 8 weeks. Yes, that’s right – 8 Weeks.
How?
Kalido has a semantic technology at it’s core, so the data warehouse build is largely automated based upon a business model. This business model is abstracted from the way the data is stored under the covers so, as the business evolves along with the business model, the semantic abstraction means that changes can be applied much more rapidly than with conventional technologies. Fundamentally, this lends itself very much to an agile delivery method: quickly make changes and get timely feedback from the business (inspect and adapt) = rapid high quality delivery. Kalido allows your data warehouse to change along with your business.
But to get the best out of this great technology you still need to apply it with a mix of great processes and great people. Kalido stand behind over 250 implementations of their software and supply a wealth of best practice processes to complement their best of breed technology. But any data warehouse project inevitably demands a rich mix of data integration skills alongside the agile themes above (automated test harnesses, multi-disciplined teams, inspect and adapt philosophies, etc.). That’s where a data integration partner like Emunio comes in. I’m not afraid to boast about it – we are the data integration experts.
So when your business has to make some hard, pragmatic decisions about building a data warehouse, it’s worth seriously considering Kalido. That way you can do tactical (build quickly and iteratively) and strategic (responsively change the your business model) by making one choice.
Friday, 17 July 2009
Breaking down the barriers to rapid integration
3 months to introduce a new data feed? I know our MD, Rick Barton, reckons that’s outrageously long, but I’ve worked in enterprises where 3 months was the fast track method, and somewhere from 9 to 18 months is the norm. But Rick is 100% correct in asserting that businesses should not accept even 3 months delay in meeting the business' need for integrating a new information source.
The question is how do today’s enterprises build in the capability to respond in days or weeks to such business requirements?
A mixture of people, process and technology is required, but process and technology must be tied into the business needs. IT architecture is fundamental, and needs to be flexible, extensible and scalable because many architectural features are very difficult to change once deployed. Choosing the right architecture is not a one size fits all decision, but there are some basic questions you need to ask the hardware and software vendors (more about those in a future blog). This needs to be combined with people who understand their position and value to the organisation alongside best practice processes, governance, standards and methods. Even then a way must be found to understand what is out there in the enterprise without a business analyst spending weeks or months researching data sources.
From a technology perspective, tools are now emerging to help complement the pillars of people, process and architecture. Tools like Composite Software’s Discovery. Such technologies give you ‘point and click’ ability to explore the enterprise and, most importantly, discover the relationships within the data – without writing a single line of code. The point and click capability is vital – the ability to auto discover relationships you probably didn’t know were there is the foundation stone for understanding the relevance and value of that data, so you can then feed it into your business information processes in order to better understand how to profit from it.
For more information visit www.emunioconsulting.com
The question is how do today’s enterprises build in the capability to respond in days or weeks to such business requirements?
A mixture of people, process and technology is required, but process and technology must be tied into the business needs. IT architecture is fundamental, and needs to be flexible, extensible and scalable because many architectural features are very difficult to change once deployed. Choosing the right architecture is not a one size fits all decision, but there are some basic questions you need to ask the hardware and software vendors (more about those in a future blog). This needs to be combined with people who understand their position and value to the organisation alongside best practice processes, governance, standards and methods. Even then a way must be found to understand what is out there in the enterprise without a business analyst spending weeks or months researching data sources.
From a technology perspective, tools are now emerging to help complement the pillars of people, process and architecture. Tools like Composite Software’s Discovery. Such technologies give you ‘point and click’ ability to explore the enterprise and, most importantly, discover the relationships within the data – without writing a single line of code. The point and click capability is vital – the ability to auto discover relationships you probably didn’t know were there is the foundation stone for understanding the relevance and value of that data, so you can then feed it into your business information processes in order to better understand how to profit from it.
For more information visit www.emunioconsulting.com
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
New partners, bright future
Here at Emunio, we’re very excited to announce our strategic partnership with Composite Software, the data virtualisation leader. Emunio’s consultants are impressed with Composite’s ability to rapidly meet the business need for integrating a new information source. Click here for more information.
And our relationship with expressor software goes from strength to strength. We’re helping our clients to discover how they can tackle the complexity and cost of enterprise IT projects with semantic data integration. The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI) recently produced a report on operational data integration, which we’d like to share with you here – please note you’ll need to log into our site to view the report.
The addition of both expressor and Composite to the Emunio portfolio broadens our client offering and enables us to bring cost-effective, agile DI solutions to our clients. Please do get in touch with us to discuss your data integration requirements.
Gill Hawkins
And our relationship with expressor software goes from strength to strength. We’re helping our clients to discover how they can tackle the complexity and cost of enterprise IT projects with semantic data integration. The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI) recently produced a report on operational data integration, which we’d like to share with you here – please note you’ll need to log into our site to view the report.
The addition of both expressor and Composite to the Emunio portfolio broadens our client offering and enables us to bring cost-effective, agile DI solutions to our clients. Please do get in touch with us to discuss your data integration requirements.
Gill Hawkins
Monday, 29 June 2009
Emunio Consulting
Emunio provides data integration consultancy and delivery services that enable IT to provide business data faster and reduce costs by using cutting edge tools and techniques.
We will help you to process data more efficiently, reduce time to market for your IT initiatives and create headroom on existing hardware.
We specialise in the architecture, design and delivery of high speed and high quality, data processing, migration, warehousing and integration solutions.
Our experts will work in partnership with you. In conjunction with our best of breed technology and offshore partners, we will deliver solutions that are cost effective, fit for purpose and highly scalable.
Watch this space for news and views on the latest technologies, software and techniques for bringing fast, agile and cost-effective data integration to your organisation.
www.emunioconsulting.com
We will help you to process data more efficiently, reduce time to market for your IT initiatives and create headroom on existing hardware.
We specialise in the architecture, design and delivery of high speed and high quality, data processing, migration, warehousing and integration solutions.
Our experts will work in partnership with you. In conjunction with our best of breed technology and offshore partners, we will deliver solutions that are cost effective, fit for purpose and highly scalable.
Watch this space for news and views on the latest technologies, software and techniques for bringing fast, agile and cost-effective data integration to your organisation.
www.emunioconsulting.com
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