Aweekstweets August 17-24 2009 @jameskobielus

AWEEKSTWEETS Aug 17-24 2009

1. My godbro Howie and I discussed the absurd stigma that the culture has attached to data mining--a very valuable sales/marketing tool.about 11 hours ago from TweetDeck
• JK2--Judicious use of data mining, data warehousing, and customer relationship management is key to well-targeted, tuned business strategy.

2. Was chatting with godbrother Howard Brubaker about his consulting mainstay: system conversions. Faster platform evolution = more conversions3:22 PM Aug 22nd from TweetDeck
• JK2--Good to have somebody in the family to talk shop with. Nobody else in my extended family that I can truly say is in the same biz as me, though we have very different jobs.

3. RT @CompositeSW "@jameskobielus boris [& leslie] had fun with dual meaning title in "BI Polishes its Crystal Ball" jk--Not double entendre.10:09 PM Aug 20th from TweetDeck
• JK2--I’m curious what “dual meaning” Bob is referring to.

4. RT @mhweier IBM's SPSS deal will spark BI industry consolidation http://bit.ly/1bnwpZ (From FORR report by @jameskobielus BEvelson & LOwens)10:06 PM Aug 20th from TweetDeck
• JK2--This doc was definitely a co-authorship. My name came first in the credits, but Boris and Leslie definitely contributed a lot.

5. RT @jswanhart "Monopoly manual has accumulated player rules over time." jk2--No game-maker has monopoly on strategy (http://bit.ly/43dXCu)2:24 PM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Monopoly, played according to the official rules, is tedious. Need a Speed Monopoly edition. Is there one?

6. RT @jswanhart "Monopoly manual has accumulated player rules over time in special section." jk--Cuz no game-maker has monopoly on ingenuity.2:22 PM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Monopoly is all about real estate. Is there a cyber-version that’s all about accumulating virtual estate, such as domain names?

7. Learn from games: many games are abandoned if players can't make own rules as they go. Who knows chapter/verse of written rules of Monopoly?1:29 PM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--I suspect that most people lost or threw away the rules sheet that came with their Monopoly sets. Everybody knows the rules to this game--or knows as much as they need/care to know.

8. RT @dhinchcliffe "Information Architecture of Social Experiences" (http://bit.ly/4iKwBr): jk--Schweet! My fave rule is "learn from games"1:16 PM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Number one rule: keep social networks fun. As fun as the proverbial break room with donut box and morning chit-chat at the office. If it’s fun, people will flock there and, believe it or not, engage in “shop talk” and, before long, “shop work.”

9. RT @mhweier: "Just opened up your BI report and am looking forward to reading it." jk--Call me anytime, Mary, to discuss.12:49 PM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--I see she wrote an article about it. Haven’t read her article yet.

10. "Hive, Pig fight for Hadoop supremacy" (http://bit.ly/10p8Us): jk--Is it just me, or does this sound like a cartoon sci-fi plot synopsis?12:48 PM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--It’s awkward when the serious topics that occupy our days have odd names that feel a bit too fun.

11. "Amazon's data shipping goes both ways now" (http://bit.ly/tzb8Q): jk--Amazon EC2/S3 for DW staging/BAR layer in cloud?12:06 PM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--BAR is “backup and recovery.” Chats with my godbro Howie Brubaker indicate that Amazon EC2/S3 is getting greater traction all over, for many apps.

12. "Microsoft issues SQL Azure, CEP platform previews" (http://bit.ly/hny63): jk--SQL Azure suited for disposable cloud analytical data marts?12:04 PM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Data marts are by definition limited: in subjects, apps, users--even time-to-live.

13. Always fun to see which vendors have R&D groups more active than marketing. Surfeit of overstuffed jargon-laced data sheets and powerpoints.11:19 AM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--On those occasions, it’s awkward to point out to otherwise top-notch innovators that industry analysts--whose job it is to understand this stuff--are perhaps the only people who in fact do understand it. Customers? We don’t need no stinkin’ customers!

14. Recent FORR doc pub in June: "Massive But Agile: Best Practices For Scaling Next-Gen EDW" (http://bit.ly/O9x3v). Oleh Jakobus Kobielus saja.9:41 AM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--This one has been particular popular with our customers. It triggers many inquiries, especially among the more tech-savvy.

15. Nu-ish FORR doc pub last mnth: "Mighty Mashups: Do-It-Yourself Business Intelligence For The New Economy" (http://bit.ly/40wVA8). Just JKob9:38 AM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--This one has more of a business focus that many of many docs, but doesn’t skimp on the technical discussion where appropriate.

16. Nu FORR doc pub last wk: "Refresh Your Information Management Strategy To Deliver Business Results" (http://bit.ly/i02ZY) RKarel & JKobielus9:37 AM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--This one is very popular with our customers, and I suspect that many of the downloads are by and for CIO-level readers.

17. My latest FORR doc just published: "BI Polishes Its Crystal Ball" (http://bit.ly/GqcDs). Co-authors: Boris Evelson & Leslie Owens.9:35 AM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--What it all means: future-oriented analytics--statistical analysis, predictive modeling, data mining, text mining--coming into core BI solution stacks everywhere.

18. Always fun to see which vendors have marketing departments that are much more active than their R&D groups. Surfeit of empty press releases.8:31 AM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--In such cases, it’s not so much a matter of the products lacking differentiation and sophistication. More often, it’s a matter of long times between product enhancements, with the marketing department having little “news” to sell other than “customer A is realizing awesome ROI from deploying our leading-edge product” messages. Marketing is, in fact, an essential, and tough, job. Part of my core job is to digest their messages--but digestion of some substance that lacks nutritional content is a fast track to indigestion.

19. "Commodity Hardware Aiding DW Appl Perf, Costs" (http://bit.ly/Pz8nG): jk--Misquoted. I estimated Netezza's pre-TwinFin pricing at half that8:17 AM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Jeff Kelly is one of my favorite reporters. But he needs to recheck his notes from this phone interview.

20. Doing a podcast next week with Dana Gardner and the good folks of Kapow on Web data services.7:04 AM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--I’ll bring the “data mashup” side of “mighty mashups” into the discussion of “Web data services.”

21. RT @jilldyche "Don't force social conversation; join an in-process conversation" @smcseattle #socialmedia: jk--But then I'm Mr. Buttinsky10:00 PM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Here’s a key thing about “social conversation.” It’s a bit like Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle: observing (i.e., “joining in-process”) tends to distort the phenomenon being observed, and sometimes to derail it entirely. You can’t force others to include you. You can’t force the conversation to live long after you butt in. By that time, it’s become a different conversation. Or, perhaps, nothing at alll.

22. RT @sapscene: Dana Gardner's BriefingsDirect: BriefingsDirect analysts discuss ... http://bit.ly/hr5ee: jk--Yes, indeed, IDS Scheer has BI.9:30 PM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Almost every vendor has BI, or at the very least a BI-like functional slice (e.g., reporting). Hence, the term “BI” is becoming almost useless to differentiate among vendors. However, some vendors are in well-focused, promising BI niches. For example, IDS Scheer is one of a reasonably small subset of vendors of products in support of BI mashup with CEP.

23. "Parents Twittering During Childbirth " (http://bit.ly/4ZRaO): jk--If they were tweeting while birthing AND driving, then I'd worry. '-)1:38 PM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--I had a micro-cassette tape recorder in the pocket of my hospital scrubs when I was in the delivery room for the births of my two kids. I understand the desire to record the moment. BTW, I have no cassette player to listen to those first infantile cries.

24. RT @lancewalter: "re: BAM w/ social networking. SQLStream promotes this as a use-case and may have a case study" jk--Thanks for the tip!12:58 PM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--They left me a message upstairs. Need to respond. Lots of Monday morning tasks.

25. "Goofus & Gallant Do Tech" (http://bit.ly/VTViO): JK--A ref that non-Boy Scouts in 60s/70s are sure to get. Goofus was our Eddie Haskell.10:56 AM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--And Eddie Haskell is a boomer reference that also needs to be explained.

26. RT @johnperrybarlow "Socrates worried writing would obliterate memory." jk--Hey, Soc: next-gen DW: all-in-memory'll obliterate write-to-disk10:37 AM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Ah yes, remember that quaint thing called a hard drive, back in day?

27. RT @craignewmark @edyson: #focas09 "journalism [role] 'comfort afflicted & afflict comfortable'" jk--Nope: it's report analyze contextualize10:06 AM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Journalists aren’t revolutionaries or missionaries--unless they choose to be. But why should they be?

28. BAM is totally Venn-diagram mkt segment: convergence of BPM, CEP, BI, GRC, CRM, and service management.10:02 AM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--That’s “business activity monitoring.” If you’re not in the tech biz, the others are easy to decipher through a few quick Googles (or Bings).

29. RT @scottros: "both 'blogger' & 'journalist' remain useful words." jk--More generally, I think "analyst" is best. Sans it, reportage suffers9:56 AM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Reporting is the key calling. It’s more than repeating. It’s also ripping a topic down to its core and rebuilding it into a more comprehensible story, with all necessary nuance.

30. RT @scottros: "is it time to retire term 'blogger'?" jk--Time to retire the term "journalist"? Other than WSJ, who writes for "journals"?9:36 AM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Definitely, “blogger” already feels archaic. As you can tell, my own blogging activities have evolved toward a more diffuse tweeting, facebooking, and blogging multicasting.

31. I'm looking for some good case studies integrating social media with business activity monitoring (BAM) tools. Anybody?9:34 AM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Still looking.

32. "Informatica offers DI software by the hour on Amazon EC2" (http://bit.ly/4ClH4): jk--And "throwaway" data marts will become common on cloud7:17 AM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Clouds precipitate analytic brainstorms.

33. MSFT product news: upcoming "private preview" for SQL Server "Madison"; "limited preview" of "Gemini"; "first CTP" of SQL Azure Database.7:12 AM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Full slate of important releases for Microsoft coming up.

34. Tweeting consistently, event-driven, is the best generator of fresh material.6:54 AM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--The week moves by too quickly for me to catch my breath till the following weekend. A week’s tweets encapsulate my rushing sense of what’s worth flagging--and commenting on now and later--as it whizzes by.

Aweekstweets August 10-17 2009 @jameskobielus

1.RT @JeromePineau: "My DB is smaller than your DB! http://jeromepineau.blogspo..." jk--Vertica V-Stick: Mini-DW? Micro-mart? Nano-cache?about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck
JK2--Full URL at http://jeromepineau.blogspot.com/2009/08/oh-yeah-well-my-database-is-smaller.html. V-stick is essentially a USB-flashdrive-based data warehouse (DW) appliance platform for very small, very portable, very subject-, application-, and/or role-specific data marts. But it’s more than that: it’s also potentially a complete business intelligence (BI) appliance in a thumb drive, considering that, currently, it also includes Apache/Tomcat Web Server, LogiXML Dashboard Reporting, and sample data and dashboards. Dock a bunch of these micro-marts in any portable client with multiple USB drives and, voila, an enterprise DW hub with prebuilt analytic applications. Plug some USB-based extract transform load (ETL) software in another port and you’ve got a portable EDW for rapid branch-office provisioning.

2.Taking briefing from text mining/search pure-play Cormine right now. Geared to crawling Web-based market intelligence.about 4 hours ago from TweetDeck
JK2--Web-based market intelligence--gushing from the ever-enlarging fountain called social networks--beats any customer focus group for candor. Yes, it’s the same mix of flames, bias, lies, manipulation, distortions, ignorance, and herdthink as the rest of human creation. But it’s organic. It just flows and flows from spontaneous interaction.

3.By the way, why are some Twitterers still greening their photos? Hey gang-green, Iran democracy's a tough nut. Stop holding your breath.about 5 hours ago from TweetDeck
JK2--I have my own opinions about the legitimacy, or lack thereof, of various governments in power around the world. I prefer not to let any of them color the face I present to the world.

4.Weird when Twitter gives you a quick status update on the BPM market and your grown children living elsewhere in a single glance.about 5 hours ago from TweetDeck
JK2--You realize that your own life is just an event cloud, blurring into others, some of them reaching very high into the heavens, others a tad ominous.

5.RT @lancewalter "for spending time in airport...and MCO (Orlando) has bars and free wi-fi." jk--Re free wi-fi, try Phoenix Sky Harbor.about 6 hours ago from TweetDeck
JK2--I find Sky Harbor’s gates fairly quiet and relaxing. I can sit there for hours, focus, and de-stress.

6.RT @kexpplaylist: Cannonball by The Breeders #KEXP: jk--Of course you crank this as loud as speakers/ears allow. Perfect powerdrink songabout 6 hours ago from TweetDeck
JK2--This was a mid-90s rock-radio song that caught my attention after a 10-year-period of not listening to rock radio. Helped to revive my interest in music made by people a half-generation younger than me.

7.RT @joeharris76 "re highschool class...disappointed at how little people change views " jk--Not surprised. Highschool's where adults congealabout 8 hours ago from TweetDeck
JK2--Highschool’s where you sense people’s true political and sexual orientations. Adulthood’s where they’re confirmed.

8.Taking briefing from Jedox, German vendor of in-memory real-time collab s.s/brwsr-oriented BI, OLAP, perf mgt w/ open-sc & cloud...very coolabout 10 hours ago from TweetDeck
JK2--This is one of many vendors who are pioneering the next generation of collaborative, self-service, mashup-style BI.

9."Obsolete Technology: 40 Big Losers" (http://bit.ly/ndCEx): jk--Most of it unlamented. I do miss record stores, though. Great hangouts.about 11 hours ago from TweetDeck
JK2--Here’s Obsolete Technology #26 “Putting in a Videotape to Watch a Movie... Status: On life support” Yeah, and the home movies of my children’s entire childhood are thereby imperiled. Thank you technological advance.

10.Noticing how my highschool graduating class splits down the liberal/conservative spectrum.about 12 hours ago from TweetDeck
JK2--Very few surprises there. I sensed a lot of that back then. I’m more liberal and felt disenfranchised when Reagan and the Bushes won. Some are more conservative, and hate both Clinton and Obama. Funny how people let this crap stand in the way of something as simple as being nice to each other.

11.Hmmm. Morning’s sports headlines: “Tiger Woods Loses to Virtual Unknown at PGA.” When will the story NOT be about Tiger?about 12 hours ago from TweetDeck
JK2--The media is essentially running with Tiger Woods as an ongoing hero-worship story, an odyssey in which his every failure somehow burnishes his legend with sanctifying struggle. Oh, please! It’s just a guy whacking a little ball into a cup from a long distance.

12.I also saw signs that the analytics industry, not hard hit by the recession, is tighter, more focused than ever. Plenty of vision.10:53 PM Aug 15th from TweetDeck
JK2--One sign of that is their relentless focus on ever greater scalability, performance, and affordability.

13.What I saw this week on my consulting trip impressed me that key DW appliance vendors are taking the next evolutionary leap.10:52 PM Aug 15th from TweetDeck
JK2--The next leap is toward the DW appliance as core architectural component of scalable, flexible, virtualized analytic cloud in which complex application logic will be embedded with rich content.

14.RT @stoweboyd: Frozen River, directed by Courtney Hunt, with Melissa Leo & MIsty Upham -- awesome: jk--Yes. Excellent native American drama.10:48 PM Aug 15th from TweetDeck
JK2--The frozen river is, I believe, the St. Lawrence in winter, forming a solid drive-able smuggler-friendly border between the US, a Mohawk nation, and Canada.

15.North American airports. Which is most pleasant to spend any time in? My vote goes to Minneapolis. Best shopping/dining mall environment.10:22 PM Aug 15th from TweetDeck
JK2--Any airport with a Quiznos Subs is my favorite. No they didn’t pay me to blog this. I do indeed love their sandwiches, all of which are delicious and filling--perfect for grabbing quick and eating on the plane--or just relaxing at the gate listening to my Zune.

16.Bounceback is something I’m teaching my knees and spine, in particular. They’re the weak links in the whole upright biped hominid bit.10:16 PM Aug 15th from TweetDeck
JK2--It’s all about knowing how to keep them balanced, when to keep them soft, and how to roll your gait to keep them from feeling concussed by the repetitive rhythm of life on the go.

17.I've noticed that my nervous system bounces back more quickly from long road trips, ever since Egidia and I got serious on yoga.10:08 PM Aug 15th from TweetDeck
JK2--Ah, yes, I’ve become the most insufferable yoga prig.

18. One of the other nice things about doing work administrivia on Saturday night is that tedium frees the mind to roam where it will. Try it.10:06 PM Aug 15th from TweetDeck
JK2--Where it will is, more often than not, is inattention.

19.Love nothing more than to submit an expense report on Saturday night. At least it gives excuse to shut self away, sip wine, listen to music.10:05 PM Aug 15th from TweetDeck
JK2--Love something more. Which is to do the last two things but not the first two things.

20.Wondering how childhood buddy William "Biz" Reynolds ended up a folksinger. Facebook pops surprises. Somehow, Kobielus ended up in high-tech10:03 PM Aug 15th from TweetDeck
JK2--Waiting for Biz’ response. Perhaps he sings rock. The photo with acoustic guitar and beret suggests almost anything these days.

21.Thinking about the pool party tomorrow at Juan & Mel's...the perfect party house with a great Maryland-side view of the mighty Potomac.10:00 PM Aug 15th from TweetDeck
JK2--It was certainly a cool party. Didn’t realize how close they are--walking distance--to the river, and National Harbor, site of October’s Teradata Partners Conference. I’ve never seen the Wilson Bridge from that vantage before. Surprised the feds never built a fort there back in the day, or maybe they did. They built one downriver at Fort Washington, I know.

22.Definitely was a good week of west coast consulting with leading & innovating DW vendors. My most forward thinking fell on receptive minds.7:10 PM Aug 15th from TweetDeck
JK2--Never quite sure who’ll respond to my most forward thinking. Sometimes people get it right away and see the obvious practical import. Others call it “theoretical.” I take my chances.

23.Congrats to Sonya, and kudos to Virginia DMV, for granting her her driver's license on the first try. Way to go girl!3:14 PM Aug 14th from TweetDeck
JK2--The girl’s got wheels now. Glad I don’t have to chauffeur her to GMU in the fall.

24.Ah...with all the other Twitterers I’m following, my TweetDeck “all friends” column is now an absolutely incongruous jumble--perfect!!!!!!!3:12 PM Aug 14th from TweetDeck
JK2--Don’t stare at your TweetDeck columns--or try to search for specific tweets--you’ll go blind.

25. Always pushing myself to see how many distinct tasks I can accomplish in a tight space, tight time, tight constraints.3:05 PM Aug 14th from TweetDeck
JK2--All of which explains why I’m the twisted little man that I am.

26. RT @fastcompany: Les Paul Guitar Legend http://su.pr/2QDBZF: jk--Electrifying he gave guitar penetrating power to outbrass the brass section9:30 AM Aug 14th from TweetDeck
JK2--I heard an NPR interview with him. The man was brilliant, fearless, determined, indefatigable, upbeat--the Thomas Edison of music! The modern age would sound very different now--and not half as exciting--if it weren’t for Les Paul.

27. "Stop the presses! 40% of tweets are 'pointless babble'" (http://bit.ly/1u8l2X): jk--Stop the presses! 90% of social life is small talk.7:39 AM Aug 14th from TweetDeck
JK2--Pointless babble is a big part of the creative process. Random stimuli spark the unanticipated.

28.ORCL HQ campus purely symbolic. Grid parking ramps = data centers. Glass towers = storage. Lagoon = resource pool. Fountain = data streams.8:24 PM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Oracle’s George Lumpkin and Peter Urban saw this tweet and mentioned it over dinner/drinks that evening. Clearly, I’m far from the first person to entertain these thoughts.

29. Check my Facebook for my cameraphone captures this morn round ORCL's lagoon. BTW, MGMT is name of band. "Oracular Spectacular" their album.7:50 PM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Standout MGMT song from “Oracular Spectacular”: “Electric Feel.” It just shimmers with multicolored electronic power-pop choral funk.

30. Just completed a fine advisory day with Oracle. Presented my thoughts, research on the DW market etc. @nyuhanna on the DBMS market.7:48 PM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--I love the simplicity of their on-campus conference center. A two-story L-shape on the outer road, with an inviting glass atrium.

31.IT vendors’ us-uber-alles strategies vs. more limited, less grandiose, but undeniably innovative efforts. “In-niche-atives.”5:41 PM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Idle wordplay. A minor conceptual doodle.

32. Every market’s a prediction market. Predicting demand & placing bets. Doing “predictive analytics,” i.e., shifting mix of SWAGs and/or stats5:35 PM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Here’s a good article in today’s Wall Street Journal: “The New, Faster Face of Innovation” (http://bit.ly/2ZyII). Nutshell: “Technology is allowing companies to test new ideas at speeds—and prices—that were unimaginable even a decade ago.” In other words, predictions are tested in real-time through decision support technology (i.e., data warehouses, data mining, predictive modeling, interactive visualization) that drives in-the-field limited projects in such areas as merchandising, marketing, pricing, and supply chain management), which return immediate feedback on what actually works. A way of hedging riskier business bets before major resources get committed.

33.RT @metadaddy: “Searching for the Young Soul Rebels by Dexy’s Midnight Runners: 1980...remote now” jk--I bought it on vinyl: now THAT’S OLD!5:28 PM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--I think I sold that one long ago. But I still have a hardcore of cherished vinyl that, unfortunately, I have no working phonograph to play.

34.RT @gappy3000 “Will is a conservative for sure, but “thoughtful”?” jk--I like George Will’s columns in the WashPost. Thought provoking.5:23 PM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Charles Krauthammer is good too.

35. Forrester's BT Forum, Oct. 8-9 in Chicago. Learn how to tap into technologies that propel Lean IT: http://snipurl.com/ptsp55:22 PM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Natalie Petouhoff and I will be speaking on the convergence of social media and BAM.

36. "NYT: Solid-State Drives Get Warmer Reception From Businesses" (http://bit.ly/L3ktN): jk--SSD "hottest" drives from ILM/multi-temp POV too.5:21 PM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--SSD/flash drives will become the core storage tech for all enterprise data warehouses within the next 2-3 years.

37. RT @sdutCustomer “Thank you for the compliment.” Jk--And thanks for the great morning reading to accompany my Starbucks experience.5:17 PM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--That’s me giving further kudos to the San Diego Union-Tribune. Maybe I shouldn’t treat Starbucks as an “experience.” Morning alone in a café with coffee--that’s an experience that, say, Caribou or Panera or Dunkin could stoke just as well. What’s with dark color schemas at Starbucks? I prefer more lemony fresh.

38.RT @NeilRaden “thoughtful [conservatives]...Ike,Kissinger,George Will,WFBuckley” jk--Agreed. Need more analysis, less anal-ness, from r-wing2:42 PM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Somehow, the public faces of the Republican party are all screaming and snarky, arranged in a split-screen on a 24x7 cable news channel that usually includes one attractive female and one balding white middle-aged male (I, by the way, fit that latter description).

39. RT @areyoustanding: "listening to media" jk4--I'll advise you to advise your friend RLimbaugh to have constructive proposals for a change.10:35 AM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Seriously, when was the last time Rush Limbaugh actually engaged in a thoughtful debate with someone, even someone of his ideological leaning?

40. RT @areyoustanding "listening to media" jk3: The media's bought into Republican "borrow&spend" as preferable to pay-as-go "tax& spend."
JK2--Somehow, defense spending, which the right wing does with great wasteful megabucks abandon, never qualifies as “government spending:” when the discussion turns to the budget and deficit. The military is, in fact, the largest branch of the US government by budget.

41. RT @areyoustanding: “you seem to be listening to the media” jk2--Fox is hopeless case. Ever notice that Lou Dobbs is still employed at CNN?10:30 AM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--If that xenophobic anti-immigrant trumped-up issue wasn’t bad enough, now Dobbs is aiding and abetting the “birthers” without having the decency to admit that it’s clinically insane.

42. RT @areyoustanding: "you seem to be listening to the media" jk--That's the problem. The media is largely conservative. Especially TV/radio.10:29 AM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Even when supposedly “liberal” viewpoints are allowed to express themselves on cable news channels, they’re always paired up with some conservative counterpointer who essentially attempts to shout them down. But conservative commentators, such as Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, and Lou Dobbs, more or less rule the roost on their televised pulpits.

43.RT @kexpplaylist: Kashmir by Led Zeppelin #KEXP: jk--This classic languid-Donovan-meets-stalking-steroid-blues rock riff just stays ever ...10:27 AM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Stays ever-boss.

44. RT @areyoustanding “not talking to your conservative friends. I wonder, do you have any?” jk--Does extended family count as “friends”?10:25 AM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--That Twitter attack was from the usual “liberals are divorced from real America” lunkheads. There are conservatives on both my father and mother’s sides of the family. Yes, I’m well aware of their views on all matters political and cultural. Have long been. Thanks for your concern.

45. For another, healthcare insurance coverage needs to be portable. Wish we could roll it over like we can a 401k to an IRA--without gap.10:17 AM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Right. It’s not so important that I can roll it over to a government-run vs. private-sector health-insurance plan. A range of private-sector choices is fine. As long as my health insurance doesn’t get de-provisioned when my employment ends with this or that firm, as if it were, say, equivalent to a corporate e-mail account.

46. If nothing else, this "pre-existing condition" exclusion needs to be banned by law.10:15 AM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--That’s absolutely essential. If no health insurer could impose a pre-existing condition exclusion, then no health insurer will suffer financially, net-net, from a great horde of very sick people coming onto their rolls.

47. Republicans seem to be pretending that the US healthcare system is perfect. When any of our daily personal experience argues otherwise.10:14 AM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Just the complexity of the policies, restrictions, and the like is daunting. It’s not quite as complex as the US tax code, but it’s not far behind.

48. Just noticed: Julia Child looked and sounded a bit like Hyacinth Bucket from BBC series "Keeping Up Appearances."9:41 AM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--“Richard, Richard, come here, dear, Sheridan’s trying to cook blancmange and he’s asking mummy for advice! Oh, isn’t that precious, Richard!”

49. "What Does MapReduce & In-db Tech Mean For Data Warehouses?" (http://bit.ly/NAdCl): jk--My commentary. What does MR mean for app servers?9:01 AM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--MapReduce, as the first open framework for defining advanced-analytic application logic for virtualized, federated data/content warehousing environments, is paving the way toward evolution of the EDW into an analytic application server.

50. My advisory day with Aster Data yesterday confirmed for me one truth: My intuitions about in-database analytics’ evolution are sound.8:54 AM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--It also confirmed that visionaries still abound in Silicon Valley.

51. RT @morefromalan “yeah, cheer up, Thom. Why so glum?” jk--TYorke of Radiohead without his glum would be unrecognizable probably unlistenable8:14 PM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--Thom is to gloom what Andy Partridge of XTC is to sarcasm.

52. RT @alyswoodward "wouldn't it be a bit damp to live in a cloud?!" jk--"in" a cloud? No. View's better on top. Also, closer to the Big Cheese8:09 PM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--I laugh to think I started calling my defunct Network World column “Above the Cloud” in 1995. By the time cloud computing got going, the column was history. Hence I’m not only above the cloud, but I’m covering it from all sides. Soon, we’ll all be beyond the cloud.

53. RT @samanthastone "but I'm still a big user of AOL IM, largely for work related communications" jk--FORR uses Windows Messenger internally.8:07 PM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--IM networks, like social networks, go through their life cycles. At one point in the late 90s, it seemed like AIM would rule. Now, just like AOL as a whole, it’s definitely seen better days. I have to catch myself now and then and remind myself that somebody named “Steve Case” on Twitter used to run that place--and got a major media company to buy it and put “AOL” first in their company name. What, indeed, were they thinking?

54. RT @kimstanick "that explains the aura - u r in town. Sorry for da clouds. Next time a beer..." jk--Kim--a lowercase oracle with an aura?8:07 PM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--Next time, Kim, next time.

55. Just completed an advisory day with Aster Data. Wow! It's going to be an eventful fall announcement season.8:05 PM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--It certainly will. Lotsa folks working on lotsa cool stuff.

56. Obligatory tech snark of the morning: Calling your new product version “next generation” is like calling your newborn child that. Oh...ok.10:21 AM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--Have to keep reminding ourselves that “next generation” is essentially a version control and configuration management designation: your version 1.0 becomes a 2.0--voila, the next coming of whatever junk you dished out last time around.

57. My obligatory music musing of morning: Listening to new Radiohead "Harry Patch (in memory of)." Thom Yorke is one lonesome English choirboy.10:17 AM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--My guess is that Thom will also live into his 100s. You can never tell. He looks sickly, but I’ll bet that’s an illusion.

58. Sorry for the clouds? Who says clouds are anything to be sorry for? Some day we’ll all live in the clouds? At least it’s cushy in there.10:16 AM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--Not only cushy, but flush with VC money these days.

59. I’m wondering how the tallest redwood tree compares in height to, say, yonder Foster City tower where Forrester has Bay area offices.10:14 AM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--I wonder if they can genetically engineer a tree, maybe splice some bamboo DNA in there, to sprout up to skyscraper proportions in weeks or months.

60. Were there ever really redwood trees in what is now Redwood City/Redwood Shores CA? Isn't that all north of the Bay?10:13 AM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--Someone tweeted that redwoods are south of the bay as well. The wife and I definitely need to explore the California coast one of these days.

61. Sitting here overlooking one of those lagoons in Redwood Shores CA, the gleaming towers of Oracle in the near distance.10:12 AM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--Excuse me, but “lagoon” always suggest Gilligan’s Island. My bad. My generation.

62. Doing an advisory with Aster Data today. Among other distinctions, they have a MapReduce DW appliance for scalable in-database analytics.10:10 AM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--DW appliances will increasingly be custom-optimized for a long list of analytic pipeline processes--including regression analysis, transforming, profiling, cleansing, etc.

63. First I get idiotically lost on my way to the hotel. Then my mouse screws up. Then TweetDeck goes nuts. What next? (yikes, shouldna asked).1:43 AM Aug 12th from web
JK2--My nerves recovered quickly. The mouse was better in a few days. Otherwise, the trip went well. Whew!

64. NYT story by Brad Stone: "Technology takes over morning rituals": "After 6-8 hours of network deprivation--also known as 'sleep'". LOL!!!!!9:26 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--However, my body has taken back one morning ritual. I’m more inclined now to wake up before the alarm clock rings. Is that a good or bad thing?

65. I love southern California weather maps. Their jumble of microclimates. The sharp temperature, barometer, precip gradients. Coastal oblivion9:23 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--California really feels like a subcontinent on North America.

66. Does anybody read USA Today online? I mean for real. I don't. I barely read the paper version. It's just a complimentary time-filler. Pulp.9:19 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--Name a columnist you read regularly in USA Today? Name an article you clipped and kept?

67. San Diego Union-Tribune: Excellent. Full of interesting stories. Well-written, edited, laid out. Can't say same for every big city paper.9:13 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--They had an excellent graphics/text spread that morning on some scientific topic. Something to do with the environment. It’ll come back to me if I think long and hard.

68. Spending an advisory/briefing day with the fine people of Teradata. Their turf.9:07 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--Rancho Bernardo CA. The outer reaches of San Diego. A very pleasant community in its own right.

69. “Data Mining & Stock Market” (http://bit.ly/fVGlC): jk--Blogger puzzled at SPSS “PASW” solution rename. Makes me wonder. “IBM SPSS PASW”?8:05 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--Product nomenclature is the most painful, least rewarding sub-branch of marketing. Good luck, folks!

70. RT @cnn: Breaking: Eunice Kennedy Shriver is dead at 88. http://bit.ly/ATO3D #eunice (via @cnnbrk): jk--Great lady. My favorite Kennedy.7:49 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--Special Olympics was a truly transformative institution. It enfranchised and gave long-overdue self-respect to a people--in our families, our neighborhoods--who have been treated, in almost every culture, as not fully human. Talk about civil rights initiatives: this beats anything her brothers ever accomplished.

71. "SAP CEO Apotheker Says No Hardware In SAP's Future" (http://bit.ly/ex30q): jk--What other solution segments is SAP never going to enter?7:48 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--This time next year, I’d like to hear what Leo has to say, after Oracle absorbs Sun and leverages that hardware vendor into its DW, BI, advanced analytics, and other solution portfolios.

72. I had two formative writing teachers in highschool. Mr. Quick instilled my inner editor. Mrs. Hacker unleashed my inner idiot.7:43 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--The best written work is always a dialogue--or hissy fit--between the two.

73. Would it be premature to pronounce AOL Instant Messenger dead? My buddy list has mostly gone dark. Can't remember last time I got/sent AIM.1:27 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--Then again, can’t remember the last time I got an e-mail--rather than a Facebook status update--from a family member.

74. Thing is, my Indonesia relations are most active now....there's no resting for the extended global Kobielus/Aliman clan.1:25 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--Asia is totally plugged in. And leading the way in many areas of the online experience.

75. Far past my east-coast bedtime, here on the west coast. Graphically outlining my thoughts on basic vs. advanced analytics. Boris/Leslie?1:24 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--Look for the upcoming Forrester report, authored by myself, Boris Evelson, and Leslie Owens.

76. Never thought I'd use the word "sepulchral" as a compliment. But Bon Iver (good winter) is the most sepulchral folk sound I've ever heard.11:18 PM Aug 10th from TweetDeck
JK2--Yes, I do keep www.merriam-webster.com nailed up in a browser window.

77. RT @NeilRaden "Will HP acquire Cadbury-Schweppes?" jk--Neil, are you tweeting all this from a party somewhere?11:07 PM Aug 10th from TweetDeck
JK2--Tweets are so impulsive, and so embedded in somebody’s current local/head situation, that they’re always slipping out of any context you try to assign to them.

78. RT @NeilRaden: "It's a good thing it's late in the day and mo one is reading this" jk--That's why I tweet my poems. Nobody reads, so why not11:05 PM Aug 10th from TweetDeck
JK2--Haven’t written any of those in a while. Why? Haven’t written any blog posts in a while. Why? No, this one doesn’t count. Why not? Twitter is usurping all other forms of Kobelian conceptual noodling--stop this madness, now!

79. RT @NeilRaden "Is there an incompleteness proof for 3rd Normal Form?" jk--Yes--the very existence of 4th & 5th normal forms.11:04 PM Aug 10th from TweetDeck
JK2--Deep sustained meditation is what will get you to the 6th normal form and beyond.

80. Just had very pleasant dinner on the veranda here in Rancho Bernardo with Teradata's Bobby D'Arcy & Angie Norris. Shivered, but with delight10:57 PM Aug 10th from TweetDeck
JK2--That twilight summertime golf course behind us was so California it almost made me cry with joy!

Poem Facet

FACET

Mirrors and mynah
birds remind us appearance
and hearing are it.

Are as much us as
mind and the id and all that
vain superstructure.

Much as the compound
eye our inner insect trains
on its abdomen.

poem Flick

FLICK

everything teeters
the universe reels
woofers & tweeters
undoing the deals.

FORRESTER blog repost IBM Goes Deeply Predictive, Announces Acquisition of SPSS

IBM Goes Deeply Predictive, Announces Acquisition of SPSS

By James Kobielus

IBM dropped a big bombshell at the start of any already action-packed day for the analyst community. At this moment, I’m sitting, along with several dozen of my peers from Forrester and other firms, at the IBM Smart Analytics System launch event in Hawthorne NY. I’ll blog on IBM’s other announcements in a separate items.

The bombshell was IBM’s announcement that it’s acquiring SPSS, a long-established, leading provider of predictive analytics (PA), data mining (DM), statistical analysis, and text mining tools. The acquisition, subject to the usual shareholder approvals and regulatory reviews, is expected to close later this year. But, even in advance of that near-certain consummation, IBM’s bold move has already sent shockwaves throughout the analytics market.

Most important, IBM has acquired the second largest vendor of PA/DM solutions, dwarfed only by privately held SAS Institute. In this segment, IBM’s proposed acquisition is having the same impact that its Cognos buy had on the business intelligence (BI) market two years ago. In many discussions with Forrester customers, SPSS is often mentioned as a key solution provider for predictive modeling and statistical analysis against structured, semi-structured, and unstructured content.

For IBM’s competitive standing in the data management market, this acquisition represents one of the last missing pieces of its Information On Demand (IOD) portfolio. By acquiring SPSS, IBM has acquired a substantial PA/DM brand with a very loyal set of longtime customers who have build their customer churn, supply chain optimization, and other predictive models on its best-of-breed platform. SPSS recently underlined its feature-comprehensive value proposition through re-branding around the “Predictive Analytics Software” (PASW) family name. But longtime customers didn’t need to be reminded, of course, that what used to be known as “Clementine” defines a functional high-bar in this solution segment.

IBM would probably be the first to admit that it took its focus off the PA/DM market over the past several years as it build out the BI, data warehousing (DW), and other pieces of its IOD portfolio. IBM had never really exited the PA/DM market, but casual observers might have thought otherwise. However, the vendor three years ago chose to de-emphasize its Intelligent Miner tools--which support mining of structured data--as stand-alone offerings. It essentially buried these solutions, moving them into its InfoSphere Balanced Warehouse family, where they are now offered as features of its Enterprise Edition DW software, rather than as stand-alone tools that would be enhanced and evolved independently.

IBM and SPSS’s respective customer bases should rest assured that overlaps among their respective product portfolios are not extensive. Once the acquisition closes, IBM is almost certain to build out its SPSS brand and, over the coming 1-2 years, phase out the Intelligent Miner technology within its InfoSphere portfolio. One tricky issue is which text analytics solution family--SPSS’ or IBM’s OmniFind solutions--will prevail as the parent converges these offerings in its IOD portfolio. Another issue is how IBM will integrate the SPSS offerings into its still-evolving in-database analytics roadmap for InfoSphere Balanced Warehouse. Hopefully, IBM will maintain and extend SPSS’ already extensive in-database analytics integration with a broad range of vendor DWs, including such Big Blue rivals as Oracle, Microsoft, Sybase, and Teradata.

Who loses from IBM’s acquisition of SPSS? Fundamentally, one can’t help think that SAP missed the boat by not seizing the opportunity to acquire partner SPSS, whose Clementine technology it OEMs, has integrated with its BI technology, and sells as SAP BusinessObjects Predictive Workbench. PA/DM is an increasingly key component of a full-fledged BI solution stack. However, the remaining field of vendors with stand-alone, horizontally applicable PA/DM vendors consists primarily of vendors who are large but proudly and stubbornly independent (especially, SAS Institute); high-quality but much less widely adopted (e.g., KXEN, ThinkAnalytics); or specialized on customer, financial, scientific, or other specialized analytics (e.g., Unica, Fair Isaac, Accelrys).

Some IBM rivals in the BI space already have strong PA/DM tools, most notably Oracle (Oracle Data Miner) and TIBCO/Spotfire (the Insightful tools). Among BI vendors, Microsoft, MicroStrategy, and Information Builders have PA/DM capabilities, but they are not to a SAS or SPSS level of sophistication. These and other BI vendors should also be scouting for strategic acquisitions.

What do you think? Will IBM’s acquisition of SPSS lead to further merger and acquisition activity in this space as other leading BI players strengthen their PA/DM solutions?

FORRESTER blog repost BI, Analytics, and CEP: Some Fruitful Potential Follow-Ons from Software AG’s Acquisition of IDS Scheer

BI, Analytics, and CEP: Some Fruitful Potential Follow-Ons from Software AG’s Acquisition of IDS Scheer

By James Kobielus.

Yes, of course, Software AG is buying IDS Scheer primarily for the latter’s ARIS family of business process management (BPM) tools. I’ll leave it to my Forrester colleagues who focus on BPM--on both the IT and TI sides of the house--to call out the ramifications for Software AG’s positioning in that market.

But, believe it or not, this deal will also launch Software AG into the growing markets for business intelligence (BI), analytics, and complex event processing (CEP) solutions. We bet you didn’t realize that IDS Scheer has ARIS solutions in these fast growing markets, but in fact they do--and they’re continue to evolve those offerings.

It’s no surprise that IDS Scheer’s BI, analytics, and CEP offerings supplement and extend its BPM portfolio. Its CEP solution, ARIS Process Event Monitor, supports business activity monitoring (BAM). Its analytics offerings, ARIS Process Performance Management and ARIS Performance Dashboard, support visualization, dashboarding, scorecarding, drilldown, and alerting on process key performance indicators (KPIs), both historical and real-time. And its forthcoming BI offering, ARIS MashZone, will support self-service user development of reports, dashboards, and other views of process and business metrics.

IDS Scheer has little market share in these non-core segments. And the vendor is no immediate threat, by itself or under its future corporate parent, to the leaders in the BI, analytics, and CEP segments. Indeed, its forthcoming mashup-oriented BI offering only provides a subset of the features available from market leaders such as SAP Business Objects, IBM Cognos, and MicroStrategy. But the fact that Software AG will soon be able to provide its own offerings in those segments, rather than rely wholly on partners, represents an important step in its attempt to field a full service oriented architecture (SOA) solution stack.

As noted in a blog entry a year and a half ago, BI is the crown jewel in any comprehensive SOA solution portfolio. SOA suites cannot be considered feature-complete unless they incorporate a comprehensive range of BI features. This acquisition continues the ongoing SOA solution build-out strategy that motivated Software AG to acquire webMethods in 2007.

But it’s not clear yet whether Software AG plans to flesh out its BI, analytics, and CEP strategies going forward and thereby confront SAP, Oracle, IBM, Microsoft, and other SOA full-stack vendors head-on in these segments. It is also unclear how much effort or expense Software AG would incur in extricating the IDS Scheer offerings from the larger ARIS portfolio in order to make them more general-purpose and less BPM-centric. Nevertheless, Software AG will at the very least have a strong set of enabling technologies to support any such strategy in the near future.

What’s most exciting, and potentially differentiating, about the Software AG/IDS Scheer BI portfolio is the combination of CEP with mashup and an in-memory architecture to support truly real-time, interactive analytics. In other words, Software AG/IDS Scheer could take a page out of the book of another SOA full-stack vendor: TIBCO and its Spotfire product group. In doing so, Software AG/IDS Scheer would also be well-positioned to duke it out with SAP, IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle, all of which are beginning to emphasize in-memory CEP-enabled BI strategies. As we noted in a report from late 2008, in-memory architectures are coming to dominate the BI arena. Likewise, Forrester has called attention in a recent report to the growing adoption of CEP for truly real-time BI.

Whether Software AG capitalizes on the opportunity to expand its SOA solution stack into BI remains to be seen. Considering that it took Oracle more than a year to publicly declare how it will position BEA’s CEP and data federation technologies within its own SOA stack, we may have to wait a while before Software AG and IDS Scheer craft an equivalent roadmap--if they ever do.

But if they wait too long, the newly merging vendors may find that the dynamic SOA, BI, and CEP markets have passed them by.

poem A Mortal Mutters

A MORTAL MUTTERS

Sun will shine without
my skin to receive it. Yes,
the sun will remain.

Green will gleam. The leaves
and the slime will all be fine.
As before my time.

Before this blessed
me could conceive that he too
would be forgotten.

poem Terror

TERROR

A studious girl's
laboratory acid burn
continues to sting.

Ears and attention,
fingers also wobble, they're
axes x y z.

Every potion steams,
every motion screams out its
margin of error.

poem Churchgoing

CHURCHGOING

Material as
heavy as religion kills
in the aggregate.

Please pardon me for
preferring the cool air in
empty cathedrals.

An enormous room.
My solitary breath. The
infinite echo.

poem High-Relief Phoenician Sarcophagal Frieze

HIGH-RELIEF PHOENICIAN SARCOPHAGAL FRIEZE

Alexander rears,
points his spear of air into
a prone Persian heart.

Alexander's mount,
all equine response and white
brute alabaster.

In middle assault,
the flanked warriors are all
nude and helmeted.

poem Workend

WORKEND

Sun and day are blank
as Eden, a pleasure dream
free of imagery.

The only pressure
is past: the embossing of
odd sleep positions.

Atlas carried the
atmosphere with grace, as a
cold world's counterweight.

FORRESTER blog repost BI Mashup Maturity Model? Oxymoron? Au Contraire Mon Frère!

BI Mashup Maturity Model? Oxymoron? Au Contraire Mon Frère!

By James Kobielus

In one of my recent tweets, I commented that Forrester has developed a maturity model for enterprise adoption of mashup-style, self-service development of business intelligence (BI) applications. Indeed, we have, and it will appear in my forthcoming Forrester report, “Mighty Mashups: Do-It-Yourself Business Intelligence for the New Economy.”

Another tweeter--an astute, but sadly, non-Forrester BI analyst--scoffed that “BI mashup maturity model” is an oxymoron. Respectfully, I must disagree. Enterprises are adopting self-service BI approaches for many reasons--principally, to cut costs in a tight economy, to unclog the development backlog, and to speed delivery of actionable, targeted intelligence to decision makers. Also, companies are providing users with BI tools to do interactive, deeply dimensional exploration of information pulled from enterprise data warehouses (EDW), marts, cubes, transactional applications, and other systems. Furthermore, organizations everywhere have adopted browser-oriented BI environments that leverage the full Web 2.0 interactivity and collaboration.

Sitting at the convergence of those trends is BI mashup, which Forrester sees as the new paradigm for truly pervasive decision-support systems. What throws off some people is the term “mashup,” which sometimes gets pigeonholed as simply referring to using, say, Google Maps to display geocoded performance metrics and sundry Internet-sourced data in a browser-based dashboard. Yes, BI mashup encompasses that approach to presenting and integrating diverse data, but its application is much broader.

Just as important, BI mashup is not bleeding edge. Rather, BI mashup leverages the in-memory BI clients, semantic virtualization layers, data federation middleware, automated data discovery, and other next-generation BI tools and platforms.

No one vendor or user has yet put together an end-to-end BI environment that is entirely focused on mashup-style self-service development. However, Forrester sees the BI industry converging toward as mashup-oriented architecture over the coming 2-3 years. With that in mind, we sketched out a BI maturity model that encompasses the following four levels (the first 3 of which are represented in case studies in the upcoming report):

• Level 1: Lightweight presentation mashup against transactional applications: This basic maturity level is for companies that have no prior BI or EDW; have little in-house BI expertise; and are comfortable with allowing casual users to use their browsers to customize parameterized reports from data from packaged business applications.
• Level 2: Deep presentation mashup against EDW: This level is for organization that do have prior BI and centralized EDWs, but have an understaffed BI development group and/or power users and data modelers urgently require the ability to mashup and explore historical and current data within sophisticated BI workspaces.
• Level 3: Full BI mashup in federated environment: This level is for organizations that have decentralized, dynamic data management environments, and have the expertise to design reusable, composite data services to seamlessly mashup internal and external information.
• Level 4: Full collaborative mashup with IT governance: This level is for organizations that want to encourage subject matter experts and operational users to collaborate on analytics created through mashup, but who are also concerned that all mashups be controlled, governed, and monitored in accordance with enterprise policies and best practices.

As I said, it will take a few years before we see a substantial number of enterprise case studies that implement the pinnacle of collaborative mashup with tight governance. Nevertheless, when you follow the evolution of next-generation solution portfolios from leading BI vendors such as SAP, IBM, Microsoft, and others, it’s clear that self-service user-centric mashup, to varying degrees, is a core theme.

BI mashup has such a strong business case that we’re confident it’s more than simply a “down economy” theme. It will almost certainly grow in importance for information and knowledge management professionals as the economy improves.

poems Some Detroit-inspired/inflamed pieces from past years

AT THE STRAITS

Detroit riots and rots,/deteriorates and/resists resurrection.//Detroit's distraught, a rut/of debt and death, a depth/charge of desolation.//Dry as snot. A driven/disaster. A drag to/avoid. My home. Destroyed.

URBAN PINES

An immense metropolis: The wary mother of an internal forest.

ZUG GROSSE BELLE AND A TOWN CALLED HELL

Downtown once was fresh. Environment once pristine. Ten millennia plus since last glacier retreat. River brought sweat salt gravel hope bootleg rum and not-so-distant ancestors. Indigenous people were just shunted aside. Our kind built dangerous dump. Tell the ice come back.

FORRESTER blog repost Database Religions Dissolve into the Big Billowing Virtual Data Cloud

Database Religions Dissolve into the Big Billowing Virtual Data Cloud

By James Kobielus

Virtualization is a venerable old computing concept that has achieved new life in recent years.

Virtualization brings to life a new world of more flexible service provisioning while cleverly emulating the old world that is being replaced. Virtualization refers to any approach that abstracts the external interface from the internal implementation of some service, functionality, or other resource.

The promise of virtualization is that, no matter how scattered and diverse, all pooled resources behave as if they were a single unified resource, both for usage and administration. In a sense, this is the practical magic that Arthur C. Clarke identified with advanced technology. The external interface may conceal various facts about the implementations of the underlying resources. The virtualized resources may run on diverse operating and application platforms;have been deployed on nodes in diverse locations; have been aggregated across diverse hosting platforms (or partitioned within a single hosting platform, either through virtual machine software, separate CPUs, or separate blade servers); and have been provisioned dynamically in response to a client request.

When Noel Yuhanna and I presented on enterprise database virtualization last week at Forrester IT Forum, we took pains to point out that is not a radically new paradigm. In fact, database administrators (DBAs) have been doing virtualization for a long time and not realizing it. We’re all familiar with such database virtualization approaches as policy-based server clustering, massive parallel processing database grids, and enterprise information integration. In these environments, you can identify the virtualization layer as “single system image,” “semantic abstraction,” or some other approach.

What all these approaches share is that they make two or more repositories behave as if they were a single database for unified access, query, reporting, predictive analytics, and other applications. If you wish, I could drill down further into the layers of database virtualization--data virtualization, transaction virtualization, and platform virtualization--but that would be too much for a mere blogpost.

One twist that I didn’t have time to explore in depth last week is the notion that the traditional hub-and-spoke enterprise data warehousing (EDW) architecture is itself a form of database virtualization. The hub-and-spoke model transforms analytic data to a common “spoke-side” semantic access model, such as star schema or columnar. As such, this approach abstracts from the data models (usually 3NF relational) implemented at the EDW hub tier, the staging tier (perhaps file-based), and OLTP sources (perhaps hierarchical, XML, or what have you).

When you realize that each data-persistence approach has its optimal deployment sphere, you’re thinking database virtualization. At that point, you start to realize that the various database religions--relational is supreme, columnar is king, and so forth--are not absolute truths. They’re simply sectarian texts in a tradition of longer vintage: the evolution of truly all-encompassing data virtualization clouds.

Yes, I’m using “cloud” in this context because it best describes this new paradigm. Cloud-based virtualization is beginning to seep into analytic infrastructures. To support flexible mixed-workload analytics, the EDW, over the coming five to 10 years, will evolve into a virtualized, cloud-based, and supremely scalable distributed platform.

What are the outlines of this new paradigm? The virtualized EDW will allow data to be transparently persisted in diverse physical and logical formats to an abstract, seamless grid of interconnected memory and disk resources and to be delivered with subsecond delay to consuming applications. EDW application service levels will be ensured through an end-to-end, policy-driven, latency-agile, distributed-caching and dynamic query-optimization memory grid, within an information-as-a-service (IaaS) environment. Analytic applications will migrate to the EDW platform and leverage its full parallel-processing, partitioning, scalability, and optimization functionality. At the same time, DBAs will need to make sure that cloud-based DW offerings meet their organizations’ most stringent security, performance, availability, and other service-level requirements.

I won’t opine here and now on how much enterprise data will be persisted in public clouds vs. private environments that incorporate many of the same platform virtualization technologies. I’ll save that discussion for the upcoming Forrester reports that Noel and I are developing in virtualization of transactional and analytic databases, respectively.

Expect those in Q3 or thereabouts. Thanks everybody who attended our preso last week in Vegas!

poem Tormé

TORMÉ

Faux Paris is as
good as being there. People
kiss oblivious.

Faux New York is so
obviously not to scale.
The model city!

Walking Mel Tormé
Way I supply the missing
melody and fog.

poem The Hard Rock

THE HARD ROCK

Big Deb the Vegas
waitress with the colossal
lungs could really sing.

Deb and the twenty-
first birthday girlie gave it
their best Benatar.

Earned a big tip by
saying nothing to me. Just
refreshing my tea.

poem Unspeakable

UNSPEAKABLE

Vegas: the best god
damned museums anywhere.
The names, anyway.

Atomic Testing
Museum: Should I risk it?
Leadline my eyeballs?

Or the Erotic
Heritage: Endure a long
grinding and blinding?

TWEETLOG Mon May 18-20 so far

RT @jilldyche: #haiku @haikulove @twaiku. Haiku du jour: jk--"ANTIMAY: Memorial Day. It's honorary Summer. Spring's sunburned demise. "6 minutes ago from TweetDeck

RT @CompositeSW: #FITF09. Jim sees lots of opportunity in "database" virtualization: jk--Noel Y. and I copresenting on Fri on DB virt'zn.22 minutes ago from TweetDeck

RT @mikojava: Arrived in Las Vegas for #FITF09 in the cab on the way to venue: jk--Oh no, Miko's almost here.
Don't tell him SOA's dead.about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

Newsgathering is rampant in Web 2.0. Newsvetting is everywhere as well. Newsreporting is ubiquitous. News"papers" not. Paper not essential.about 8 hours ago from web

#FITF09: Interop 09 happening a mile-plus down the Strip at Mandalays. I don't find Interop interesting anymore. Easy "temptation" to avoid.about 8 hours ago from TweetDeck

#FITF09: This morning Forrester founder George Colony speaks.about 8 hours ago from TweetDeck

#FITF09: Preparing for a busy day of 1:1s at Forrester IT Forum. Multitasking these plus other tasks/projects I
brought on the road.about 8 hours ago from TweetDeck

Twitter's char-count constraints lead some to think it can't both report and critique. I usually attempt former in first 70, latter in last.about 8 hours ago from TweetDeck

Tweeting from field is news gathering and reporting in one swift gesture. Vulnerable to "mindless real-time stenographic reportage" syndromeabout 9 hours ago from TweetDeck

RT @lorita: Just finished a great report from @forrester "To BW or Not To BW." jk--Thanks Lorita. Boris Evelson and I co-authored that one.about 9 hours ago from TweetDeck

Any flack can "report" what others say--govt officials & official lies, vendors & self-serving PR. True pro reports what they find on own.about 9 hours ago from TweetDeck

Twas then I realized that reporting not core of news biz. Gathering is. Hunting-gathering fresh meat/fruit. Stalking/slaying the news beast.about 9 hours ago from TweetDeck

Jerry ter Horst had me doing archival news searches a Google would nail these--nice guy (quit Ford admin over Nixon pardon)--smelly pipeabout 9 hours ago from TweetDeck

Ah yes, I remember my internship at the Detroit News Wash. Bureau in summer 1978; twas Jimmy Olsen-Kobielus, cub reporter, reading the wiresabout 9 hours ago from TweetDeck

Slower tech newsday on the wires than yesterday, now settling into the summer slough, next newsrush day in early/mid Septabout 9 hours ago from TweetDeck

RT @alyswoodward: @jameskobielus I'm only usually [in LV) for 72 hours!: jk--And then you're whipsawed by timezone and climate disruptions!about 9 hours ago from TweetDeck

RT @alyswoodward: @jameskobielus ahh, the sun over the desert, love it. The dry eyes/mouth/lungs, ugh. jk--Takes 48 hrs min to acclimate.about 9 hours ago from TweetDeck

Twittering about Twitter is like writing poetry about poetry: grooving on your own nerdishness.about 9 hours ago from TweetDeck

RT @kexpplaylist: People Got A Lotta Nerve by Neko Case #KEXPabout 10 hours ago from TweetDeck

Listening to Neko Case "People Gotta Lotta Nerve" from her great new album "Middle Cyclone." She says she's the brass section in any group.about 10 hours ago from TweetDeck

Another dry morning in Vegas, following a night of continual waking to re-hydrate, irrigate the inevitable cottonmouth.about 10 hours ago from TweetDeck

@JAdP : Architecture is the bridge. Alignment anchors the bridge to terra firma at both ends. Vision ensures it connects the right ends.about 10 hours ago from TweetDeck in reply to JAdP

@rschmelzer: A lone wolf howling attracts more attention than one in unison with in or out crowd. If howls in odd harmonic with both, best.about 10 hours ago from TweetDeck in reply to
rschmelzer

Realizing that crowds, in or out, crowd, i.e. cramp, and are to be avoided, unless need ferment of friction/discourse, then go mosh/mash.about 22 hours ago from TweetDeck

RT @rschmelzer: ... feel like part of the out-crowd. ...struggle to be accepted. What's the secret? jk--Realizing the out-crowd's a crowd.about 22 hours ago from TweetDeck

Thanking Shadi for Advils, taking a breather upstairs, getting ready for Sybase dinner, listening to Bill Callahan "The Wind and the Dove"about 22 hours ago from TweetDeck

RT @JoeBarkan: @jameskobielus There's no such thing as "too guitar-rocky." #FITF09: jk--I beg to differ. Guitar-band rock can easily overdo.5:04 PM May 19th from TweetDeck

RT @markmadsen: Five Reasons to NOT follow someone on Twitter: jk--Have no control over who we FOLLOW. Depends on each follower's view.4:35 PM May 19th from TweetDeck

#FITF09: Another shameless self-plug, related to previous tweet, but calling out my (guilty?) love of Enya's vibes (http://bit.ly/ZKMce).4:26 PM May 19th from TweetDeck

#FITF09: Another closing thought on that session. Theme music was too guitar-rocky. No, I don't want hiphop or electronica. One word: Enya!4:24 PM May 19th from TweetDeck

#FITF09: Post-mortem on Cameron talk: Value-based architecture? No. Instead, value-based alignment. Architecture is tail, shouldn't wag dog.4:23 PM May 19th from TweetDeck

RT @passion4process: IT also needs to adopt bus. processes that monitor/track IT bus. value .

#FITF09: jk--BI applied to IT org/iniatives4:06 PM May 19th from TweetDeck

#FITF09: "Definition of [IT's business value] will change over time...As regards what the metrics are, ask business." Business POV rules!4:04 PM May 19th from TweetDeck

RT @passion4process: Bobby Cameron's purple bow tie -.... #FITF09: jk--It's cocked at jaunty, Sinatrian angle. How's that for Vegas cool?!4:01 PM May 19th from TweetDeck

#FITF09: Cameron: "Embedding key IT roles in the business orgs is what we see happening anyway." "Need to help by embedding resources."3:57 PM May 19th from TweetDeck

#FITF09: Cameron: "Challenge for CEO is based on how plugged-in they are.....When talking to CEO, should be focused on growth, EPS, etc."3:55 PM May 19th from TweetDeck

#FITF09: Cameron: "Wonderful opportunity for IT...to bring clarity to the problem [of which services should be shared vs. localized]."3:53 PM May 19th from TweetDeck

#FITF09: Cameron: "Can't optimize in our job unless you're connecting with the business." Optimization = alignment.3:50 PM May 19th from TweetDeck

RT @merv: Designing my template for PPT - easy to get swept away by the possibilities. Simple, simple, keep repeating....: jk--Pictoreality!3:48 PM May 19th from TweetDeck

#FITF09: IT talking in the business terms. Essential, but always a challenge, especially as IT deep-ends on nouveau clouds, virtz'n, SOA.3:47 PM May 19th from TweetDeck

#FITF09: Forrester's role-based avatars resemble a pantheon. Incarnations of the same principle: IT serves the business role.3:44 PM May 19th from TweetDeck

RT @jameskobielus: #FITF09: I see tweets by @passion4process, @mgualtieri, @gleganza, @pleclare, @rbkarel, @lauraramos, @akarlin, & yrs trly3:42 PM May 19th from TweetDeck

RT @gcolony: Cloud computing is over-stated. Cloud and local devices will share processing.

#FITF09. jk--Cloud's the resource pool.3:41 PM May 19th from TweetDeck

#FITF09: Any way to batch transform all of my previous tweet hashtags to the correct one?3:37 PM May 19th from TweetDeck

#FITF: I see tweets by @passion4process, @mgualtieri, @gleganza, @pleclare, @rbkarel, @lauraramos, @akarlin: multiple Forrester tweetstreams3:31 PM May 19th from TweetDeck

#FITF: How does business POV shape perception of IT? Remember J. Fallon on SNL as jerk IT support guy? A bit scary, a bit reassuring.3:27 PM May 19th from TweetDeck

#FITF: Bobby Cameron on "Making Value Core to IT's Business." Wants us to comment on "scary vs. reassuring" images. POV-shaped perception.3:24 PM May 19th from TweetDeck

#FITF: Tom's telling them about the legendary gauntlet that Forrester analyst candidates must run. Grueling. Excellent pre-onboarding.3:22 PM May 19th from TweetDeck

#FITF: Tom's striped tie doesn't do it for me. Accost him in the hallways and give him a piece of YOUR minds on the matter.3:20 PM May 19th from TweetDeck

#FITF: We give you actionable next steps to take back to your companies. We provide practical guidance. Take us up on 1:1s, you'll see.3:19 PM May 19th from TweetDeck

#FITF: Attendees will notice that every Forrester preso has upfront and closing slides that nail the value prop of that particular tech.3:18 PM May 19th from TweetDeck

#FITF: A lot of people in this room. Good turnout.3:16 PM May 19th from TweetDeck

#FITF: Protecting and promoting innovation. Uber-theme for Kobielus/Yuhanna Friday preso on enterprise DB virtualization (shameless plug).3:15 PM May 19th from TweetDeck

#FITF: At UPS, no technology strategy apart from business strategy. That's the fundamental value prop: IT entirely instrumental to business.3:14 PM May 19th from TweetDeck

#FITF: IT-role-based definitions of value? Value specific to your business contribution? How do you measure /communicate that? Justify job?3:12 PM May 19th from TweetDeck

#FITF: Value defn's: Pos: We're building a future we actually want. Neg: We prevent you from being the next headline on CNN.3:10 PM May 19th from TweetDeck

#FITF: "Redefining IT's Value to the Enterprise." Uber-theme of this year's Forrester IT
Forum. What's "value"? Is it indispensability?3:07 PM May 19th from TweetDeck

#FITF: Tom Pohlmann says we're tired of the economy gloom and doom. Yes, for sure. A lot of the moaning is hypochondriacal overreaction.3:06 PM May 19th from TweetDeck

#FITF: Wow. Side-by-side Forrester analysts co-tweeting the event. Mike Gualtieri tweeted the music issue on my mind. Sting's insinuation?3:04 PM May 19th from TweetDeck

@AskMrsHR: "Yoga, where have you been all my life. I feel great". jk--Same effect here. You can never be too calm, flexible, tensile.11:38 AM May 19th from web in reply to AskMrsHR

#FITF: "Expressamente Illy" over on first level. European-based company, or faux Europa, like so much Vegas? Mongrel Euro-American, like me?11:29 AM May 19th from TweetDeck

#FITF: Amazing the burst of energy/concentration that a little coffee buys you. The caffeine rush is the next best thing to an analgesic.11:26 AM May 19th from TweetDeck

#FITF: Noting the crush of press releases today. This week is the last of the spring season of vendor announcements. Prepare for summer lull11:23 AM May 19th from TweetDeck

"Larry Fulton... to Present on Six Principles for Addressing the Unique Challenges of Multi-site Integration" ( http://bit.ly/ZFlkU)11:21 AM May 19th from TweetDeck

Last year's Vegas poems: "Jade" ( http://bit.ly/oxeNP)11:16 AM May 19th from TweetDeck

Last year's Vegas poems: "Neural Carpal" ( http://bit.ly/m8Kcu)11:15 AM May 19th from TweetDeck

Last year's Vegas poems: "These Plains" ( http://bit.ly/VcTXQ)11:14 AM May 19th from TweetDeck

Last year's Vegas poems: "Center of Conventions Exhibitions Conferences and Expositions" ( http://bit.ly/106hnE)11:13 AM May 19th from TweetDeck

Listening to XTC "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead," by the deliciously misanthropic Andy Partridge. "Dear God" "Making Plans for Nigel" etc.11:10 AM May 19th from TweetDeck

@chaskielt: I use "secret sauce" ironically. It's a multi-DB world, behind virtualization layer. Told Sybase that. No monoculture.11:06 AM May 19th from TweetDeck in reply to chaskielt

@alyswoodward: It was too noisy at the "Dos Caminos" restaurant for others to listen in. Could barely hear my own voice, over head pain.11:04 AM May 19th from TweetDeck in reply to alyswoodward

@mikojava: Miko: the tweetup was last night. But I'd very much like to see you again. Give me a holler when you get here.11:03 AM May 19th from TweetDeck in reply to mikojava

#FITF: Strong attendance and customer interest, in soft economy, shows that Forrester events deliver value. We don't take that for granted.11:02 AM May 19th from TweetDeck

#FITF: Great opportunity to meet Forrester analysts, and for us to meet each other. We're so big and diversified, not all of us have met.11:00 AM May 19th from TweetDeck

#FITF: I've always found industry events a superb opportunity for deep-dive research. Even better when top analysts present latest research.10:58 AM May 19th from TweetDeck

#FITF: Today, e.g., various cloud (Hammond, Rymer, Staten, Wang), storage (Reichman), green IT (Mines), EA (Gilpin, Heffner, Leganza) topics10:56 AM May 19th from TweetDeck

#FITF: Forrester has an exciting agenda for this event. Many analysts have great topics. I'm still working out which ones I can attend.10:52 AM May 19th from TweetDeck

#FITF: Anybody who wants a preview of mine and Noel's preso, "Enterprise Database Virtualization," is urged to engage us in 1:1 sessions.10:51 AM May 19th from TweetDeck

#FITF: Doing work outside Zeno, waiting for the event to formally open. Checking my 1:1 requests: data warehousing, advanced analytics, BI.10:49 AM May 19th from TweetDeck

Wondering why TweetDeck won't load this morning. Wondering when columnar database vendors will stop trying to promote that as secret sauce.9:28 AM May 19th from web

@akarlin @pleclare: Thanks for hosting the Forrester TweetUp. Let's do more.1:15 AM May 19th from web

At TweetUp, Friedberg talked up Kognitio's "trusted cloud" notion. I call it "transparent cloud." See right thru: hosting, security etc.1:13 AM May 19th from web

Wondering how Steve Momorella of @cvillenews got my Twitter name. Probably through @ohjko. I doubt that latter's sister Sonya will follow.1:00 AM May 19th from web

Dodged the usual crazy foot traffic on Strip. Showed 'em a lilttle of my Red Grange moves. Had my music: Arthur and Yu: "Lion's Mouth."12:50 AM May 19th from web

Had to bug out early, splitting headache. Tried my walk outside for air. Didn't help. Did I mention that Vegas is an oven? Even at night.12:47 AM May 19th from web

At TweetUp, met with Steve Friedberg, @StevePR104. Steve's a networker's networker. Also writes articles for TDWI, other pubs. Good guy.12:46 AM May 19th from web

Brought my laptop to the TweetUp, in a restaurant/bar. Learned we were to do everything there but tweet. Beginner's misunderstanding.12:44 AM May 19th from web

Tonight at Forrester TweetUp, chatted with Laura Coronado: @lollieshopping. Asked if she's a "fashion victim," when I meant "fashionista."12:41 AM May 19th from web

Expecting strong turnout for Forrester IT Forum. Everybody's starting to emerge from the recessionary funk. IT budgets starting to perk up.12:38 AM May 19th from web

Did some Forrester internal bonding. LIFO more useful than Myers-Briggs. White wine more fish-friendly than red. Las Vegas hotter than hell.12:35 AM May 19th from web

Yesterday wore me out, but my son graduated in cold rain at UVa, has the Camry, is going to new acting job10:40 AM May 18th from TweetDeck

In transit to Forrester IT Forum, Detroit airport, helping daughter long-distance with anti-virus, not eating yet, working on webinar slides10:37 AM May 18th from TweetDeck

poem Antimay

ANTIMAY

Memorial Day.
It's honorary Summer.
Spring's sunburned demise.

poem Embalm

EMBALM

Spirit is second-
hand balm, recycled mist of
communal refresh.

Spent energy is
the release of pent-up breath
and remembered hurt.

The exhalation
returns the body to its
natural blackout.

FORRESTER blog repost Self-Service Business Intelligence Depends on Automated Data Discovery

Self-Service Business Intelligence Depends on Automated Data Discovery

By James Kobielus

If you tuned into my Forrester teleconference yesterday, you heard me discuss the end-to-end infrastructure necessary to fully support mashup-style self-service business intelligence (BI).

One of the key features for BI mashup is automated source-data discovery, which spares information workers from having to find new data sources or fresh updates from existing sources. Instead, the user simply relies on the BI and back-end data virtualization infrastructure to perform these critical activities as ongoing background tasks. Once new sources and feeds are discovered, transformed to a common semantic model, and published to a BI-mashup registry, all the user needs to do is drag and drop them visually into their mashed-up reports, dashboards, and other analytics.

Automated discovery is not only key to BI mashup, but to trustworthy data as well, because it helps detect and remediate anomalies across disparate data sources. Only a few vendors on the market today provide strong features for automated source discovery. One of them is Composite Software, which recently released an appliance that performs these functions. Another is Exeros, which is the closest thing to an automated-data-discovery pure-play in the market today.

Or, rather, was the closest thing, until IBM announced this morning that it is acquiring Exeros. I’ve been following Exeros for several years and have long considered them a strong candidate for acquisition by a leading BI, data warehousing (DW), data integration (DI), or data quality (DQ) vendor. On IBM’s part, this acquisition makes great sense as a complement to its InfoSphere and Optim portfolios on the data management and governance side of the house.

It will also fit nicely with IBM’s Cognos portfolio as a key enabler, potentially, for BI self-service mashup. As I stated on my teleconference, some vendors are further ahead on putting together a completely mashup-enabling end-to-end BI solution, and Cognos is among them. You can download the teleconference slides from Forrester’s website, listen to my streaming audio, and/or wait for my forthcoming report for more in-depth thoughts on this topic.

Now the ball’s in IBM’s rivals’ courts regarding whether, when, and how they plan to add automated source discovery to their BI portfolios.

TWTR-EXTRA imho Hardcopy news won’t vanish but like hardcopy photos will materialize only when we hit print, which will be seldom

All:

Like all of you, I’ve been following the decline of traditional journalism, and the increasingly frantic efforts of the industry to save itself in the face of the greatest nemesis of all: the Internet. Just this evening, I read excellent discussions on all this by the ever-stimulating Jason Pontin and Clay Shirky.

Just today I noticed that the New York Times is threatening to close down the Boston Globe (didn’t realize the former owned the latter) if the Globe’s unions don’t make serious contract concessions. I have no position on this dispute, but, after seeing longtime Seattle and Denver papers bite the dust, it’s clear to me that the days of every major city having its own dedicated daily newspaper are coming to a close. Why is this unthinkable? Does every major city have its own major league baseball team? Its own world-class research university? Its own internationally renowned symphony orchestra? Its own locally owned chain of department stores?

In the newspaper business, what’s coming is almost certainly a new order where we have national daily papers with city-specific local news sections. Just as Macy’s grew into a nationwide department store chain in large part by acquiring shaky local store-chains, it’s not inconceivable that the New York Times might become a truly national newspaper, inserting, say, a substantial daily Boston section for distribution in New England, a Detroit section for southern Michigan, a Dallas-Fort Worth section for north Texas, and so on. This is not unprecedented: indeed, the Washington Post has an excellent array of local news sections for communities throughout the District of Columbia, Maryland, and northern Virginia. Like many people, I often turn primarily to my region’s section (Fairfax County) and only get to the “A” section (national and international) later, or not at all, on any given day.

Another, almost inevitable feature of the coming order is that some of us will continue to pay for the convenience of having a daily hardcopy of a subset of the news that most interests us dropped off at our residence first thing in the morning--or at various intervals. There are plenty of reasons why we may want this to continue, such as having it to read over breakfast. But there are also many reasons why we will insist on not being delivered sections that we never read and don’t want (e.g., I’ve long since lost interest in sports, and routinely toss it unread; others don’t care for business; many people couldn’t care less about international; and op/ed pages are almost never looked at in most households). Many of us would gladly scale back to a weekly hardcopy paper that only publishes a summary of the news and features we care about--and only comes, say, on Sunday, when we actually have spare time to read it, and only comes bundled with coupons, comics, special glossy magazines, and other cool things.

But most of us will prefer to access most of our news most of the time online, and only online. Many people will only desire a hardcopy now and then, and only of particular stories. In those cases, that hardcopy will issue from their own printer, not from huge printing presses staffed by contentious union members.

Newsgathering will still be done by large institutions, descendants of today’s newspapers and magazines, but will become more of an aggregation of loosely shifting groups of “reporters,” sometimes known as bloggers. Opinions and analyses will come from this same huge global pool of knowledgeable individuals, many of whom will make little or no money directly from their published viewpoints. Many, if not most, of these “journalists” will multitask that work alongside paying “day jobs,” doing so to further some personal passion or supplement some other business model. For example, IT industry analysts have long contributed articles to trade papers in order to strengthen their “branding” as analyst/consultants, while making only a pittance from their “journalistic” activities.

I see that as an important model of future journalism. For years, I’ve had trouble explaining to people how my graduate degree, M.A. in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin, prepared me for my ultimate career as an analyst. I’ve never actually had a paying job as a journalist, though I’ve been a freelance IT writer for many years. More and more, though, it feels like I’ve never really left the field I trained for.

Instead, my field has returned to me.

Jim

TWTR-EXTRA Imho IT analysts & journalists the same--skills, place in industry ecosystem--folks move back and forth between

All:

I’ve been noticing the recent tweet-backs between Curt Monash, Lance Walter, and Seth Grimes on the topic of what constitutes an IT analyst vs. an IT journalist. I thought I’d replay their tweets for you (stripped of time-sent and reply-to dimensions...sorry ‘bout that, but I’ve kept, per each tweeter a sequence from most to least recent). Then I offer my summary commentary of all that:

Their tweets:

• @CurtMonash: "That's the main benefit I see to being categorized not just as an analyst, but as a journalist too." "I want companies to be supportive if I pick a news-cycle approach to publishing on some specific story or topic." "Not sure I know when I'd want a big analyst firm to view me as a journalist. What am I missing?" "Exactly. I break news now. And a lot of the commentary published by the trade press is subcontracted to working analysts." "I don't mind being categorized as both press AND analyst. (And increasingly that's happening.) It's the either-or that causes trouble."
• @lancewalter: "I think a lot of "pure" analysts are also blurring the journalist line (good thing) cuz of blogs, syndication, death of print..."
• @SethGrimes: "I suspect some analyst firms don't want to legitimize rival, independent analysts so they ignore us as journalists."

Now Kobielus’ kommentary:

There’s no such thing as a “pure analyst” and never has been. IT analysts and IT journalists play the same role in the industry ecosystem. There’s no clear demarc between the two fields.

We all publish or perish--that’s our primary business model. We’re all essentially reporters--in other words, we research, analyze, publish, and speak on the new things that are going on in the IT world. Clearly, there are many distinctions among us: some “reporters” (analyst/journalist) have more specialized beats than others, some report on a more regular basis than others, some go a bit deeper and broader in the research than others, some do more consulting and speaking than others, some have bigger firms marketing their offerings than others, some are better known than others, some have better access to the movers/shakers than others, some have more industry/vendor background than others, some have more corporate IT background than others, and so forth.

The working relationships among IT analysts and journalists are entirely symbiotic. One open secret in this industry is that many IT analysts began as journalists, and many have essentially stayed journalists by continuing to publish widely in the trade press. Another is that IT journalists are often excellent analysts; if they weren’t, their reportage would be subpar and they wouldn’t stay in that line of work for long. Yet another is that IT journalists often rely on IT analysts for perspective setting, information, leads, and quotes. And, of course, analysts “market” ourselves in great part on our ability to be featured prominently in journalists’ stories.

As I said above, we all play the same basic role in the IT industry ecosystem. From vendors’ point of view, analysts/journalists are a key channel for getting their go-to-market messages out to customers. From users’ point of view, analysts/journalists are a key channel helping them to make sense of those messages. Clearly, as an intermediary in this flow, analysts/journalists, as a community, provide an “information brokering/filtering” role that is indispensable.

Some analysts/journalists have more influence than others--no one denies that. We’re a huge community of many voices. Each of us, analyst/journalist (individually and/or as firms, large and small), is in a constant struggle to get our viewpoints out and to strengthen our brands. Hence we turn to blogs, podcasts, Twitter, and other channels to underline those brands. Each of us is in business as well--these are our careers. None of us is “the final word” on anything.

That said, I’m a huge fan of most other analysts/journalists in the industry. There are lots of smart people who do excellent work, and I’m constantly learning from everybody else. This is an extraordinarily stimulating line of work to be in.

Curt, Lance, Seth: Tweet’s back in your courts.

Jim

poem Bankruptcy Sonnet

BANKRUPTCY SONNET

Suddenly vacant space. So suddenly
the landlords haven’t vacuumed. So very
vacant the brokers are at a loss for
adjectives. Special and spacious, this place
represents a rare opportunity
to make your statement in a property
that towers over the Interstate. So
special you and your partners can claim your
respective pieces of executive
real estate, sleek and smart, catercorner
suites overlooking the soon-to-be heart
of whatever new business you now must
build to play a part and have a shot at
being there when the economy swells.

FORRESTER blog repost Oracle’s Sun Acquisition Accelerates Push into Data Warehousing Appliances

Oracle’s Sun Acquisition Accelerates Push into Data Warehousing Appliances

By James Kobielus

Last fall, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison announced that his company was getting into the hardware business, but I think he misspoke. At that time, he was referring to the new HP Oracle Database Machine with Exadata Storage, a high-end data warehousing (DW) appliance that incorporated hardware from his partner, as well as intelligent storage software technology from that partner--and even had the partner’s name first in the product name. If that was the criterion for “getting into the hardware business”--i.e., running on someone else’s hardware--then every software vendor on earth is in the hardware business, by my reckoning.

But today’s Oracle announcement is the real deal. Oracle is acquiring longtime partner Sun Microsystems, putting the software powerhouse fully into the hardware business--and hitting the DW industry like an earthquake. I’ll let my Forrester colleagues blog on the other implications of this deal--for the open source, Java, middleware, SOA, and other markets that Sun is in--and give you a few quick thoughts on the deal’s implications for the DW market.

For starters, this deal will give Oracle the ability to engineer a completely integrated DW appliance composed of all Oracle components, including hardware and software. Now Oracle will be able to take on Teradata and IBM--both of which have long offered their own integrated solutions--more aggressively with high-performance DW offerings. Just as important, Oracle will be able to leverage Sun’s manufacturing scale economies to bring its all-Oracle DW appliances below the $25K-per-terabyte threshold needed for penetration into the midmarket.

Also, Oracle will now have another widely adopted transactional database, the open-source MySQL, that it can--and should--consider tweaking and packaging on an DW appliance. To the extent that Oracle gives customers a choice of DBMSs on a DW appliance platform, it can gain a differentiator that Teradata, IBM, Microsoft, Sybase, and Netezza lack (you have to go to a startup such as Dataupia for multi-DBMS choice on an appliance). Many information managers prefer to stick with their existing DBMSs when building a DW, and prefer to implement that DW on an appliance to take advantage of its out-of-box balanced configuration of CPU, memory, storage, and I/O.

Furthermore, Oracle is acquiring a hardware and operating system vendor that has long been one of the primary platforms on which its own DW/DBMSs, middleware, and tools have been deployed. This acquisition can only be welcome news for joint Oracle-Sun DW customers who have worried about Sun’s solvency for some time now and began to sweat serious bullets when IBM failed to emerge as a white knight. For many Sun customers, an Oracle-powered DW platform will now look like a safer bet than ever.

Of course, there are clear risks in this pending acquisition.

First, a combined Oracle/Sun sows uncertainty among the DW appliance vendors--such as Greenplum and ParAccel--who have partnered with Sun and now find themselves in earnest “co-opetition” with full-competitor (and then some) Oracle.

Second, Oracle’s other DW appliance hardware partners--including HP, IBM, and EMC/Dell--must be concerned that Oracle will now shift focus away from their respective appliance products in favor of those it builds with its own Sun hardware group.

And finally, Oracle’s acquisition of Sun--and possible future development of a MySQL DW appliance--may discourage customers from considering third-party DW appliances, such as from Kickfire--that build on MySQL. If that happens, and a market for non-Oracle-branded MySQL DW appliances never takes root, Oracle will be denying its MySQL customers the choice that Oracle Database customers already enjoy. Currently, Oracle Optimzed Warehouse customers can deploy that enterprise DBMS as a DW on their choice of Sun, HP, IBM, and EMC/Dell platforms.

Let’s hope that Oracle makes the most of its pending Sun acquisition. Ellison either misspoke last fall, or was speaking prophecy. Like most DW vendors, Oracle’s destiny is to grow ever more hardware-dependent for its long-term scalability, performance, and optimization story.

Follow me on Twitter!

@jameskobielus
http://twitter.com/jameskobielus

poem Falling Sonnet

FALLING SONNET

I

Comedy is all
banana slippage.

Tragedy is trapped
in bodies that are

forever falling,
never quite finding

their footing. Walk a
mile in a clown’s shoes,

you’ll know what Bozo
goes through, but not so

Pozzo. Even an
unlucky bastard

can presume descent
from a long line of

long lines. Too narrow
a furrow to toe.

Sun a midday moon
raking truculence.

The Moon resumes its
tragic flatulence.

Comedy is a
coma. Tragedy

is a crack, a tout
le monde with trembling

hemispherics, a
slippery sole and

a hole daring to
keep us from footing.

II

Comedy is all banana slippage.
Tragedy is trapped in bodies that are

forever falling, never quite finding
their footing. Walk a mile in a clown’s shoes,

you’ll know what Bozo goes through, but not so
Pozzo. Even an unlucky bastard

can presume descent from a long line of
long lines. Too narrow a furrow to toe.

Sun a midday moon raking truculence.
The Moon resumes its tragic flatulence.

Comedy is a coma. Tragedy
is a crack, a tout le monde with trembling

hemispherics, a slippery sole and
a hole daring to keep us from footing.

III

Comedy is all banana slippage.
Tragedy is trapped in bodies that are
forever falling, never quite finding
their footing. Walk a mile in a clown’s shoes,
you’ll know what Bozo goes through, but not so
Pozzo. Even an unlucky bastard
can presume descent from a long line of
long lines. Too narrow a furrow to toe.
Sun a midday moon raking truculence.
The Moon resumes its tragic flatulence.
Comedy is a coma. Tragedy
is a crack, a tout le monde with trembling
hemispherics, a slippery sole and
a hole daring to keep us from footing.

IV

Comedy is all banana slippage. Tragedy is trapped in bodies that are forever falling, never quite finding their footing. Walk a mile in a clown’s shoes, you’ll know what Bozo goes through, but not so Pozzo. Even an unlucky bastard can presume descent from a long line of long lines. Too narrow a furrow to toe. Sun a midday moon raking truculence. The Moon resumes its tragic flatulence. Comedy is a coma. Tragedy is a crack, a tout le monde with trembling hemispherics, a slippery sole and a hole daring to keep us from footing.

FORRESTER blog repost Dislocation Intelligence in a Brutal Economy

Dislocation Intelligence in a Brutal Economy

By James Kobielus

It's painful to see the auto, newspaper, construction, financial services, and so many other formerly vibrant sectors of the world economy go down the proverbial tubes. One of the most nauseating realities is when millions of people lose their jobs, homes, and communities in a seeming blink.

I grew up in the perpetually recessionary Detroit area. I'm attuned to the regional dislocations that come from depending too much on an industry that has seen better days. Abandoned storefronts, dilapidated housing, vacant lots, tumbleweed-quiet city streets--all of it evidence of a growing ghost town, telltale signs of a marginal economy that depends on government programs, private charity, and low-wage service jobs. During my college years, I was a policy analyst with an urban coalition in downtown Detroit, and I could see that the slide was long-term and nigh irreversible.

Even in relatively well-off areas such as Washington DC, where I've spent close to a quarter-century, we’re not immune to serious economic dislocations. The National Capital Region, so reliant on federal spending, is likely to feel the brunt of whatever cuts Obama will almost certainly make to close this massive deficit. And even here you can’t escape dislocations in sectors that we all depend on, such as retailing, as evidenced by, for example, the ex-Circuit City big boxes that seem even bigger and boxier now that they’re totally empty.

In recent years, corporations have adopted location intelligence solutions to support their market-entry strategies, such as adding new stores and waging marketing campaigns. They also use these tools--essentially, geographic information systems coupled with predictive modeling--to optimize their footprint in existing markets. And to a lesser extent, they also use location intelligence to plan their exit strategy of closings and retrenchments. But when departures are hasty--such as any Chapter 11 proceeding--all we’re left with are vast tracts of vacant real estate, plus many formerly employed people who must find a way to survive amid ruins. Imagine how a General Motors or Chrysler bankruptcy will hit Detroit--it will be a liquidation to rival Hurricane Katrina in its devastation of a major city.

Dislocation intelligence is something that the leaders of the auto companies--and the Obama administration--should exercise when making the tough decisions to restructure this critical industry. People’s pain should be factored into decisions to close and relocate plants, so that, for example, whole cities--such as Flint, Toledo, and Janesville--can make a smooth exit from over-reliance on this one industry. As part of that effort, urban planners should consider the infrastructure that remains behind, so that, for example, whole regions of a city are not suddenly deprived of hospitals, grocery stores, and other basic amenities. Imagine you’re on welfare and have to somehow go 10 miles to buy a loaf of bread.

Mapping tools are just tools, not salvation. Detroit long ago passed a point of no return. The US auto industry will never recover the manufacturing jobs that attracted people from all over the world to southern Michigan, northern Ohio, and other regions.

But we as a country should try to smoothe over these economic dislocations so that they don’t completely wipe some places off the map.

FORRESTER blog repost Inmon’s vitriolic slap at “virtual data warehousing” does not withstand scrutiny

Inmon’s vitriolic slap at “virtual data warehousing” does not withstand scrutiny

By James Kobielus

In a recent article, Bill Inmon incinerates a strawman concept that he refers to as “virtual data warehousing (DW).” For those unfamiliar with Inmon, he is generally considered the founder of DW as a data management discipline, has been at it since the 70s, and has more published books and articles to his name than most mortals. So he clearly may be considered an authority on the topic of DW.

But methinks Mr. Inmon doth protest too much on this “virtual DW” bugaboo, however defined (we’ll get to that in a moment). Also, he attacks this concocted notion with such emotional vehemence that it’s clear he considers it a threat to the centralized EDW paradigm upon which he has built his career and reputation.

For starters, his definition of this concept is oddly vague and questionably narrow: “a virtual data warehouse occurs when a query runs around to a lot of databases and does a distributed query.” Essentially, Inmon defines “virtual DW” as the ability to a) farm out a query to be serviced in parallel by two or more distributed databases, b) aggregate and join results from those databases, and c) deliver a unified result set to the requester.

That’s an important query pattern, but not the only one that should be supported under (pick your quasi-synonym) data federation, data virtualization, or enterprise information integration (EII) architectures. Inmon’s definition excludes the many federated queries that may only hit on a single database, with no joins and results aggregation, and with the EII fabric handling the necessary on-demand transformation from that source’s schema to an abstract semantic model.

Per my data federation report from last fall, Forrester has a broader perspective on the topic than does Mr. Inmon. Data federation is any on-demand approach that queries information objects from one or more sources; applies various integration functions to the results; maps the results to a source-agnostic semantic-abstraction model; and delivers the results to requesters. Nothing in the scoping of data federation necessarily requires the multi-source aggregation and joining that Inmon puts at the heart of “virtual DW.”

Putting Inmon’s narrow scoping of “virtual DW” behind us for the moment, let’s consider his chief objections to this approach. First, it requires the “analyst to integrate data” (as if that’s something analysts are ill-suited for or regard as some inordinate burden). Second, it consumes resources, experiences suboptimal performance, and “shuffles a lot of data around the system that otherwise would not need to be moved” (as if centralized DWs don’t consume resources, experience performance bottlenecks, and move data). Third, it is “limited to the [historical] data found in the [source] databases.” Fourth, it suffers from “no reconcilability of data...[hence] no single version of the truth for the corporation.”

It’s a fairly straightforward matter to dispatch these objections:

First, data integration--through ETL, EII, and other approaches--is a core job function for DW professionals, not some alien function outside their core competency.

Second, data federation is often the optimal approach for low-latency BI (just check out the case studies in my data federation and really urgent analytics reports). Federated environments can be tuned to provide top-notch performance and minimize source-system impacts when “shuffling” data around in a decentralized fabric.

Third, the source databases in a federation environment often include DWs, which, per their core function, usually manage a considerable amount of historical data. Once again, see my data federation report with discussion of case studies for a) Federation of Local DWs via Centralized EII Infrastructure and b) Federation of Dispersed EDW and ODS Data Into Siloed BI Environments.

Fourth, data federation is not totally incompatible with data reconciliation. In fact, federation environments can be architected for single version of the truth, data governance, and master data management. However, it can indeed be tricky to manage data quality in federated environments (see Rob Karel’s coverage of MDM and DQ for a deep dive on that issue).

My basic objection to Inmon’s line of discussion is that he treats data federation as mutually exclusive from the enterprise DW (EDW), when in fact they are highly complementary approaches, not just in theory but in real-world deployments. Yes, data federation can be deployed as an alternative to traditional EDWs, providing direct interactive access to online transactional processing (OLTP) data stores. However, data federation can also coexist with, extend, virtualize, and enrich EDWs, as well as other data-persistence nodes such operational data stores (ODS) and online analytical processing (OLAP) data marts. The case studies in the cited reports bear that out.

Inmon’s arguments are worth consideration. The centralized EDW model he touts is useful for illuminating some traditional best practices. But by no means can it do justice to the stubbornly heterogeneous, distributed, mixed-latency BI and DW requirements of most enterprises.