BI Tug of War

by Boris Evelson.

There’s tug of war going on in the world of BI. On the one hand we have IT whose mission it is to manage and protect enterprise information assets, and on the other side there are end users who just want the data when they want it, and in the shape and form that they want it, without any limitations.

Traditional, mainstream BI vendors have catered primarily to IT target audience. These vendors will disagree, but take one look at their complex architectures, multiple layers and components, integration and support requirements, and you can’t help but agree that these are IT tools that can be used to create end user applications.

On the other hand I am seeing am emergence of smaller BI vendors that cater directly to the end users. They pitch simplicity, flexibility and little or no reliance on IT. True, these vendors do not have large enterprise functions like metadata, semantic layers, robust security and scalability, so I do not see them as enterprise-level, but rather departmental, focused solutions. Yet, the appeal to end users is undeniable.

Finding a compromise – satisfying all typical IT requirements, while empowering the end users - remains an elusive goal, and hence an opportunity for all BI vendors.

Content as a First-Class Citizen

by Rob Koplowitz.

Ever think about how much time, energy and money we expend on managing line of business data? Just drive past the Oracle headquarters in Redwood Shores and you'll see a glimmering green city of glass all built on revenue from managing business data. OK, they make some money in other areas these days, but the emerald city was build on database revenue. Managing structured information is key to the success of any organization. The number in the bottom line needs to be accurate or very bad things happen.

On the other side of the coin lives unstructured information. While some unstructured information has been afforded the respect given to structured business data (engineering drawings, legal documents, pharmaceutical documentation, insurance claims documents to name few) the vast majority has languished virtually unmanaged in file servers and on PC hard drives. Even companies with the right resources and motivation, like Oracle which has the ability to manage structured and unstructured data in its database as well applications to take advantage of both, have made only minimal progress at bridging these disparate worlds.

As is often the case, what is needed is a fresh start free of all technology baggage of the past. One of the most promising developments has been the emergence of Software as a Service (SaaS). Since SaaS is a young concept, many of the offerings are built on the latest technology. Hence, interchange of information through SOA is much more prevalent. Also, the SaaS delivery model allows much more aggressive delivery of new functionality than  was possible  with traditional software delivery. Hence, the opportunity for a  Content Management vendor like SpringCM to integrate their product to a CRM offering like Salesforce.com to add contract management directly to CRM and thus effectively bridge the gap from structured business application to content management. The potential efficiencies are very significant.

The integration of content into business applications will require a rethinking of how content is managed. It will drive the emergence of a new content services layer that will allow content to be generated, managed and consumed much more easily than is possible today. The new model will drive content into the role of a first class citizen in the data world.

IBM Fills An Important Gap In Its Real-Time Information Delivery Story With Its Acquisition Of DataMirror

by Rob Karel.

IBM today announced plans to acquire DataMirror, a firm specializing in real-time changed data capture (CDC) and replication technologies. This is a great move for both companies, and will ultimately be a valuable option for customers of IBM’s Information Server.

IBM wins because it fills in a significant gap in its real-time heterogeneous data integration story — specifically the ability to enable log-based CDC techniques for sources that are not DB2.  (IBM was a Leader in the recent Forrester Wave evaluating Enterprise ETL, but they were behind some of their primary competitors in its support for CDC). CDC is an attractive data integration technique for scenarios in which operational data is needed on a more real-time basis and the intrusiveness on source system performance of a typical ETL extraction is not an option. Log-based CDC ensures minimal, if any, impact on the performance of the operational source systems. IBM also now has a more compelling data replication and availability portfolio.

DataMirror and its employees are also winners here because their successful, yet niche, integration capabilities can now be joined with the much more robust information management platform that IBM’s Information Server, and overarching Information On-Demand strategy can offer. IBM estimates that approximately 60% of DataMirror’s 2,200 customers are also IBM customers. This should ease the transition and be welcome news to at least some of these customers.

What’s next? Once the acquisition closes, I’ll look forward to hearing IBM’s plans for integrating DataMirror technology into its portfolio. For now, I’m on the lookout for:

• A standalone offering within the Information Server portfolio (to support the standalone replication/availability market primarily).
• Integration with WebSphere Metadata Server — first using MetaBrokers (import/export), and then hopefully using Metadata Server as the foundation for the next evolution of DataMirror’s product.
• Seamless integration with DataStage so that DataStage developers can select “CDC” as a technique within their design flow without having to open a separate product. 
  Support for additional non-IBM sources. DataMirror significantly expands IBM’s heterogeneous connectivity to non-IBM sources, but IBM will need to continue to either partner, acquire, or develop connectivity to other non-supported sources.
• IBM portfolio integration. The DataMirror technology will be of significant value to IBM’s Dynamic Warehousing, MDM, and SOA solutions.

An Experiment In A Community-Driven Research Agenda

by Rob Koplowitz.

This September 25-26 at the Forrester Technology Leadership Forum in Carlsbad California, Matt Brown and I will be presenting a session on Social Computing coming to the enterprise. As we began the process of creating an agenda for the session we were immediately struck by the thought that this session should not be driven by the two of us (as charming and articulate as we may be) but by the community that is interested in the topic. In other words, you all should be setting the agenda for a session on social computing, not us. If social computing has the ability to change how work is done, let's put it to work. We always want feedback after a session, but here's a chance to get way ahead of the game and tell us what want before the event.

To that end, we have set up a Wiki to allow the community to drive the process. Matt and I will build the session agenda directly from the input into the Wiki, so if you have areas you'd like to see highlighted, stories to share, words of caution or encouragement please let us know. Willing to help? Access the Wiki here and let's get started!

We'll provide updates on how it's going (both the good and the bad) right here.

Autonomy Ushers In New Era Of Information Management With Purchase Of Zantaz

by Barry Murphy.

Today began with very interesting news — Autonomy entered into a definitive agreement to purchase message archiving and eDiscovery vendor Zantaz. This is a great purchase for Autonomy. They have already integrated IDOL server into Zantaz's archiving and eDiscovery applications, so they can capitalize on synergies immediately. eDiscovery is a hot market for both companies — the combined entities will have likely the best brand value in the eDiscovery space. With organizations truly called to action by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCPs), Autonomy/Zantaz has the solution set to help implement a short-term solution that can evolve into longer-term information management strategies (see our eDiscovery market overview for more information on how the FRCPs have become an information management spending driver).

This also makes Autonomy more attractive to the larger vendors, and I would not be surprised at all to see a CA, EMC, IBM, or Oracle in turn acquire Autonomy. Oracle makes the most sense as it is the only of the big infrastructure vendors that lacks the message archiving capability that Zantaz could provide.

This move also signals that the first domino has fallen in the eDiscovery market consolidation — the rest should begin to happen quickly. Take note – this acquisition sets the multiple at somewhere between 2x – 3x revenue (Zantaz was private, but estimates always put the company somewhere between $100M - $150M). eDiscovery pure-plays — get ready to entertain offers (and more importantly, be ready to accept them or get run over).

For Information and Knowledge Management Professionals or CIOs looking at eDiscovery and retention programs, watch for Autonomy/Zantaz to have solutions that can take you from the most basic message archiving deployments to advanced analytics-driven retention programs — the combined company should certainly be on any short-list for message archiving and eDiscovery.