Which SQL on Hadoop? Poll Still Says “Whatever” But DBMS Providers Gain

Since Nick Heudecker and I began our quarterly Hadoop webinars, we have asked our audiences what they expected to do about SQL several times, first in January 2014. With 164 respondents in that survey, 32% said “we’ll use what our existing BI tool provider gives us,” reflecting the fact that most adopters seem not to wantContinue reading “Which SQL on Hadoop? Poll Still Says “Whatever” But DBMS Providers Gain”

The Appalling Ratio of US CEO/Worker Pay

My colleague Darryl Carlton and I recently discussed the obscene ratio between CEO pay and average worker pay in the US. And this IS about the US – we are supporting an astonishing gap compared to the rest of the world, and high tech vendors like Oracle are not the only ones at the topContinue reading “The Appalling Ratio of US CEO/Worker Pay”

Open Source “Purity,” Hadoop, and Market Realities

I don’t often do a pure opinion piece but I feel compelled to weigh in on a queston I’ve been asked several times since EMC released its Pivotal HD recently. The question is whether it is somehow inappropriate, even “evil,” for EMC to enter the market without having “enough” committers to open source Apache projects.Continue reading “Open Source “Purity,” Hadoop, and Market Realities”

PDF X-Change – Still The One

Nearly a year ago, I mentioned a wonderful product called PDF X-Change, from Tracker Software,  in a post. It allows me to annotate PDF files, which many vendors maddeningly insist on using for briefings. Why “maddeningly”? Because for me at least, the best place for my notes is in the presentation – it provides theContinue reading “PDF X-Change – Still The One”

Want Broader BI Usage? Crystal Reports Founders Offer Indicee

Mark Cunningham has reunited some of the team that built Crystal Reports (now part of SAP Business Objects) and launched Indicee, a SaaS-based BI reporting play that is pointed squarely at the continuing difficulty of extending BI beyond its seemingly permanent minority usage model. It’s commonly understood that users continue to fend for themselves manually,Continue reading “Want Broader BI Usage? Crystal Reports Founders Offer Indicee”

What To Expect at Sapphire? Breya Hints At BO-BWA Connection

IT Market Strategy recently sat down with Marge Breya, Executive Vice President & GM Intelligence Platform & NetWeaver of SAP BusinessObjects, to discuss the first full year of life within SAP after being acquired at the beginning of 2008. Breya oversees full product line responsibility for BI and information management  solutions, as well as theContinue reading “What To Expect at Sapphire? Breya Hints At BO-BWA Connection”

IBM Acquires Exeros – Information Agenda Gets A Boost

IBM has taken another key step in its Information Agenda strategy, improving customers’ ability to analyze, understand and remediate existing data by acquiring Exeros. There is a fundamental business problem that grows with data volume: an understanding gap. As new development, acquisition and integration of multiple systems takes place, meaning and process understanding are often obscured orContinue reading “IBM Acquires Exeros – Information Agenda Gets A Boost”

Ralph Kimball’s TDWI Crowd Shows DW & BI are Thriving

The economy may be challenging, but 100 attendees on a weekday afternoon in San Francisco proved that there is plenty of interest in data warehousing. The Silicon Valley Chapter of the Data Warehouse Institute (TDWI) drew a sizable, energetic group to its quarterly meeting. No doubt the presence of Ralph Kimball, a seminal and influential thinker, had a lotContinue reading “Ralph Kimball’s TDWI Crowd Shows DW & BI are Thriving”

Interview: SAP BusinessObjects’ Marge Breya Celebrates Progress and Anticipates Accelerated Growth

SAP BusinessObjects Executive Vice President & GM Intelligence & Netweaver Marge Breya recently sat down with IT Market Strategy to discuss the first full year of life within SAP. That interview is excerpted here; Breya gives a flavor of the challenges and opportunities that faced the newly acquired company, and her enthusiasm about their success so farContinue reading “Interview: SAP BusinessObjects’ Marge Breya Celebrates Progress and Anticipates Accelerated Growth”

Sybase Delivers Another Strong Quarter, Rep Server Refresh

Sybase is celebrating. Let everyone else complain about the bad economy; the perennial “Tier 1A” database, mobility and analytics vendor just had its best quarter ever to kick off 2009 – its 6th consecutive record quarter. With 14% growth in license revenue (31% in database) and a margin of 21%, there is certainly much toContinue reading “Sybase Delivers Another Strong Quarter, Rep Server Refresh”