Informatica jumps on the Pentaho bandwagon

June 12, 2013

Big-Data_web.jpgYou know that a technology megatrend has truly arrived when the large vendors start to jump on the bandwagon. Informatica recently announced Informatica Vibe™ – its new virtual data machine (VDM), an embeddable data management engine that allows developers to “Map Once, Deploy Anywhere,” including into Hadoop, without generating or writing code. According to Informatica, developers can instantly become Hadoop developers without having to acquire new skills. Sound familiar?

I applaud Informatica’s efforts – but not for innovating or changing the landscape in data integration.  What I applaud them for is recognizing that the landscape for data integration has indeed changed, and it was time for them to join the party. “Vibe” itself may be new, but it is not a new concept, nor unique to the industry.  In fact, Pentaho recognized the need for a modern, agile, adaptive approach to data integration for OEMs and customers. We pioneered the Kettle “design once, run anywhere” embeddable virtual data engine back in 2005. And let’s set the record straight – Pentaho extended its lightweight data integration capabilities to Hadoop over three years ago as noted in this 2010 press release.

Over the past three years, Pentaho has delivered on Big Data Integration with many successful Hadoop customers, such as BeachMint, MobileThink, TravelTainment and Travian Games and continued our innovation — with not only Hadoop but also NoSQL, Analytical Engines, and other specialized Big Data stores. We have added test, deploy and real time monitoring functionality.  The Pentaho engine is embedded in multiple SaaS, Cloud, and customer applications today such as Marketo, Paytronix, Sharable Ink and Soliditet, with many more on the horizon. Our VDM is completely customer extensible and open. We insulate customers from changes in their data volumes, types, sources, computing platforms, and user types.  In fact, what Informatica states as intention and direction with Vibe, Pentaho Data Integration delivers today, and we continue to lead in this new landscape.

VisualDataManagement

The Data Integration market has changed– the old, heavyweight, proprietary infrastructure players must adapt to current market demands. Agile, extensible, open, embeddable engines with pluggable infrastructures are the base, but it doesn’t end there. Companies of all sizes and verticals are requiring shorter development cycles, broad and deep big data ecosystem support, attractive price points and rich functionality, and all without vendor lock-in.  Informatica is adapting to play in the big data integration world by rebranding its products and signaling new direction.  Tony Baer, principal analyst at Ovum, summarizes this adaptation in his blog, “Informatica aims to get its vibe back.”

The game is on and Pentaho is at the forefront. We have very exciting big data integration news in store for you at the Hadoop Summit in Santa Clara on June 26-27 that unfortunately I have to keep the lid on for now. Stay tuned!

Richard

Richard Daley

Co-founder and chief strategy officer

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Posted by Richard Daley

Beer + Pizza + Pentaho = Pentaho London User Group

June 11, 2013
Foto Oficial do Pentaho Day 2013 - Fortaleza - Brasil

Foto Oficial do Pentaho Day 2013 – Fortaleza – Brasil

Guest Post – Pedro Alves, Senior VP of Community, Pentaho

Hello everyone!

Exactly 2 months after the Pentaho Community event in Brazil, that had an all-time record of roughly 200 attendees (see photo on right), we’re hosting our next User Group meeting in London. Shared points between both events? Similar topics, amazing people willing to share their experiences and learn from others and the always fundamental beer and pizza! Unfortunately, the amazing Brazilian weather won’t be the same. Chances are it will be cold and wet – welcome to London :)

The event will be held at the Skills Matter Exchange in the Clerkenwell area of London on Thursday, June 20, 2013 at 6.00 pm. We’re targeting the Pentaho Community, which in my definition includes customers, users, developers, basically anyone that’s willing to spend some time helping to make the product better. It’s one of my main goals as Senior VP of Community to create conditions for that to happen, and I’m interested in hearing ideas and feedback that anyone is willing to share.

Here’s the current agenda:

  • Matt Casters, creator and architect of PDI / Kettle will lead a demo and discussion on how Pentaho supports Hadoop and big data analytics.
  • Dave Romano will lead a talk on how big data start-up Causata has been using Pentaho, specifically covering its use of a custom repository, step plug-ins and embedding Kettle
  • Pedro Alves will present CPK, the Community Plugin Kickstarter, a tool that allow non-developers to create Pentaho Plugins
  • Simon Raybould will describe the dashboard centric implementation at Found, heavily centered around Ctools and Mondrian

Please note that most of the presentations are technically oriented, mainly of interest to consultants and developers. We invite you to propose discussions, technical presentations, user stories and hosted Q&A sessions to educate and inspire other users.

There will be plenty of time before and after the meetup for informal networking. For more information and to register, please visit this link. On behalf of PLUG (Pentaho London User Group) organiser Dan Keeley and Pentaho, we hope to see you on June 20th.

Pedro Alves, Senior VP of Community, Pentaho

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The Road to Success with Big Data – A Closer Look at Expectations vs. the Reality

June 5, 2013

Stay on course
Big Data is complex. The technologies in Big Data are rapidly maturing, but are still in many ways in an adolescent phase. While Hadoop is dominating the charts for Big Data technologies, in the recent years we have seen a variety of technologies born out of the early starters in this space- such as Google, Yahoo, Facebook and Cloudera. To name a few:

  • MapReduce: Programming model in Java for parallel processing of large data sets in Hadoop clusters
  • Pig: A high-level scripting language to create data flows from and to Hadoop
  • Hive: SQL-like access for data in Hadoop
  • Impala: SQL query engine that runs inside Hadoop for faster query response times

It’s clear, the spectrum of interaction and interfacing with Hadoop has matured beyond pure programming in Java into abstraction layers that look and feel like SQL. Much of this is due to the lack of resources and talent in big data – and therefore the mantra of “the more we make Big Data feel like structured data, the better adoption it will gain.”

But wait, not so fast—->you can make Hadoop act like a SQL data store. However, there are consequences, as Chris Deptula from OpenBI explains in his blog, A Cautionary Tale for Becoming too Reliant on Hive. You are forgoing flexibility and speed if you choose Hive for a more complex query as opposed to pure programming or using a visual interface to MapReduce.

This goes to show that there are numerous areas of advancements in Hadoop that have yet to be achieved – in this case better performance optimization in Hive. I come from a relational world – namely DB2 – where we spent a tremendous amount of time making this high-performance transactional database – that was developed in the 70’s – even more powerful in the 2000s, and that journey continues today.

Granted, the rate of innovation is much faster today than it was 10, 20, 30 years ago, but we are not yet at the finish line with Hadoop. We need to understand the realities of what Hadoop can and cannot do today, while we forge ahead with big data innovation.

Here are a few areas of opportunity for innovation in Hadoop and strategies to fill the gap:

  • High-Performance Analytics: Hadoop was never built to be a high-performance data interaction platform. Although there are newer technologies that are cracking the nut on real-time access and interactivity with Hadoop, fast analytics still need multi-dimensional cubes, in-memory and caching technology, analytic databases or a combination of them.
  • Security: There are security risks within Hadoop. It would not be in your best interest to open the gates for all users to access information within Hadoop. Until this gap is closed further, a data access layer can help you extract just the right data out of Hadoop for interaction.
  • APIs: Business applications have lived a long time on relational data sources. However with web, mobile and social applications, there is a need to read, write and update data in NoSQL data stores such as Hadoop. Instead of direct programming, APIs can simplify this effort for millions of developers who are building the next generation of applications.
  • Data Integration, Enrichment, Quality Control and Movement: While Hadoop stands strong in storing massive amounts of unstructured / semi-structured data, it is not the only infrastructure in place in today’s data management environments. Therefore, easy integration with other data sources is critical for a long-term success.

The road to success with Hadoop is full of opportunities and obstacles and it is important to understand what is possible today and what to expect next. With all the hype around big data, it is easy to expect Hadoop to do anything and everything. However, successful companies are those that choose combination of technologies that works best for them.

What are your Hadoop expectations?

- Farnaz Erfan, Product Marketing, Pentaho

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Pentaho Concierge Services – 5 FAQ

June 3, 2013
ft_director

Anthony DeShazor, VP of Enterprise Architecture and Principal Enterprise Architect at Pentaho

Last  month Pentaho announced Pentaho Concierge Support Services. We sat down with Anthony DeShazor, VP of Enterprise Architecture and Principal Enterprise Architect at Pentaho and asked him the top 5 frequently asked questions from our customers about this new service. Here is a summary of what we learned:

1. Pentaho recently announced Pentaho Concierge Services. What does this service offer clients?

The Concierge Services provide s a stronger partnership relationship with Pentaho. However, it is much deeper than that. Concierge Services allow customers greater access to Pentaho resources in order to maximize the return of investment in Pentaho. With almost on-demand access to an assigned solution architect and invitations to exclusive technical events, Concierge customers have ongoing access to technical and architectural expertise and to experience in implementing large and complex Pentaho solutions. The solution architect will be a valued partner in developing a long term vision and a plan of implementation. Each solution architect will only serve a few customers, allowing the architect to develop intimate knowledge of customer goals, implementation, and environment. Moreover, this knowledge to help other areas of Pentaho provide better service to Concierge customers.

2. Who is this geared towards? Only fortune 500 companies / smaller fast growing companies can also take advantage of this?

Concierge Services are targeted for the larger and more complex implementations of Pentaho. These implementations are usually for the larger customers. However, smaller fast growing companies can take advantage of the program. In particular, Concierge is a great fit for customers of all sizes who have the internal technical skill but need ongoing technical guidance.

3. Does this Concierge service help clients that are evaluating / building big data projects?

Absolutely! The solution architects who provide Concierge are some of our most experienced architects. The team has experience in implementing Pentaho in many environments—big data, SaaS, enterprise, etc. Concierge is a tailored to help customers develop a vision for their implementation that could include big data and predictive.

4. How is this different than technical support?

Concierge Services and Technical Support are complementary in that they work together to help customers through their implementation; however, they have a specific roles. Technical Support helps with questions related to product features and issues. Concierge provides assistance on strategic questions such as “What is the best way to implement my strict security requirements in Pentaho deployed in multi-tenant SaaS environment” or “Can you provide feedback on the architecture of my Pentaho-Hadoop solution?” These requests are not necessary related to product features but require an analysis of the requirements and experience in large implementations.

5. Is this a charged offering? What should one expect to pay?

Yes, this is a charged offering,  but there are two different levels of engagement that clients can take part depending on your needs – Concierge and Concierge with Strategic Solution Architect. I could go into details of the long list of what is included in each of the services or you can see an easy to read check list of all inclusions on our website at 
http://www.pentaho.com/services/concierge/
.

Thanks Anthony!

Let us know if you have any question and answers you would like us to add. Leave your questions in the comments section below.

To learn more about Pentaho Concierge Services visit:
http://www.pentaho.com/services/concierge/

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Posted by rebeccapentaho

Pentaho wins 2013 Red Herring Top 100 North America Award

May 24, 2013

RedHerringPentaho is honored to be selected as a winner for 2013 Red Herrings Top 100 North America Award!

This award recognizes the most promising private technology ventures in North America. Attracting over 3,000 applicants for the top 100 spots, companies are judged based both quantitative and qualitative criteria, such as financial performance, technology innovation, quality of management, execution of strategy, and integration into their respective industries.

Judges narrow the applicants to 300 finalists who presented their winning strategies at the 2013 Red Herring North America Forum in Monterey, California, May 21-23. Pentaho CEO Quentin Gallivan represented Pentaho showcasing the power of Pentaho Big Data through customer examples such as ideeli and Marketo to a panel of judges.

At the award ceremony on May 23, Pentaho was announced a 2013 winner. Here are some photos of Quentin receiving the award and the newest addition to our growing trophy case.

The Red Herring Top 100 group represents top technology ventures that are forward thinking and instrumental in advancing the development of their industries. It is truly an honor to stand amongst this group and reflects our mission to deliver the future of analytics.

Rosanne Saccone
CMO

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Customers Speak out – Wisdom of the Crowds Business Intelligence Study, 2013

May 21, 2013

Pentaho-wisdom-panel“Responsiveness”, “professionalism”, “knowledge” and “experience”– these are just a few of the words our customers used in giving Pentaho the honor of being recently named a top business intelligence technology vendor in the third annual independent Wisdom of Crowds® Business Intelligence Market Study conducted by Dresner Advisory Services, LLC. The report recognizes Pentaho as a “High Growth BI Software” company with a critical mass of customers growing well above the average.

We have made and continue to make significant investments in simplifying and delivering real value in big data integration and analytics and our customers’ satisfaction. Being named a ‘high growth vendor’ validates that we are experiencing high growth in concert with the big data market, but not at the expense of our customers.

Pentaho earned high marks from its customers on multiple metrics specifically standing out in product, support, consulting and integrity.  This independent research comes straight from the voice of our customers, which is the best possible acknowledgement that we are indeed delivering the future of analytics.

I encourage you to download the full Wisdom of Crowds report to learn how the top vendors stack up and the top BI trends.

Donna Prlich
Senior Director, Product Marketing

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Posted by donnaprlich

Big Data Integration Webinar Series

May 6, 2013

line-chartDo you have a big data integration plan? Are you implementing big data? Big data, big data, big data. Did we say big data? EVERYONE is talking about big data…..but what are they really talking about? When you pull back the marketing curtains and look at the technology, what are the main elements and important true and tried trends that you should know?

Pentaho is hosting a four-part technical series on the key elements and trends surrounding big data. Each week of the series will bring a new, content-rich webinar helping organizations find the right track to understand, recognize value and cost-effectively deploy big data analytics.

All webinars will be held 8 am PT / 11 am ET / 16:00 GMT. To register follow the links below and for more information contact Rob Morrison at rmorrison at pentaho dot com.

1) Enterprise Data Warehouse Optimization with Hadoop Big Data

With exploding data volumes, increasing costs of the Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) and a raising demand for high-performance analytics, companies have no choice but to reduce the strain on their data warehouse and leverage Hadoop’s economies of scale for data processing. In the first webinar of the series, learn how using Hadoop to optimize the EDW gives IT professionals processing power, advanced archiving and the ability to easily add new data sources.

Date/Time:
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
8 am PT / 11 am ET / 16:00 GMT

Registration:
To register for the live webinar click here.
To receive the on-demand webinar click here.

2) Getting Started and Successful with Big Data

Sizing, designing and building your Hadoop cluster can sometimes be a challenge. To help our customers, Dell has developed: Hadoop Reference Architecture, a best practice documentation and open source tool called, Crowbar. Paul Brook, from Dell, will describe how customers can go from raw servers to Hadoop cluster in under two hours.

Date/Time:
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
8 am PT / 11 am ET / 16:00 GMT

Registration:
To register for the live webinar click here.
To receive the on-demand webinar click here.

3) Reducing the Implementation Efforts of Hadoop, NoSQL and Analytical Databases

It’s easy to put a working script together as part of an R&D project, but it’s not cost effective to maintain it throughout an ever building stream of user change requests, system and product updates.  Watch the third webinar in the series to learn how choosing the right technologies and tools can provide you the agility and flexibility to transform big data without coding.

Date/Time:
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
8 am PT / 11 am ET / 16:00 GMT

Registration:
To register for the live webinar click here.
To receive the on-demand webinar click here.
4)Reporting, Visualization and Predictive from Hadoop

While unlocking data trapped in large and semi-structured data is the first step of a project, the next step is to begin to analyze and proactively identify new opportunities that will grow your bottom-line. Watch the fourth webinar in the series to learn how to innovate with state-of-the-art technology and predictive algorithms.

Date/Time:
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
8 am PT / 11 am ET / 16:00 GMT

Registration:
To register for the live webinar click here.
To receive the on-demand webinar click here.

 

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Posted by rebeccapentaho

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