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News

• MarkLogic ties its database to Hadoop for 'Big Data' support

  You can add MarkLogic to the growing list of database vendors rushing to embrace the open-source Hadoop programming framework for large-scale data processing.

• IBM's Watson edges Harvard students in 'Jeopardy' quiz

  IBM's Watson supercomputer eked out a victory in a "Jeopardy" quiz-show battle with a trio of Harvard Business School students on Monday, pulling out the win with a higher wager on the Final Jeopardy clue that ends every game.

• Beyond the Hype of Big Data

  Forrester estimates that, in general, firms use less than 5 percent of the data available to them. We also estimate that data is growing about 40-50 percent annually, but the average enterprise only captures around 25-30 percent of that. This means there is a bunch of data not being captured and used by your firm, and the divide is going to grow over time. So what?

• Encouraging Users to Embrace Big Business Data

  <strong>Scenario: Managing change across a newly information-based company</strong>

• Use Analytics to Create a Greener Business

  Saab Group, a defense and aerospace company with a global supply chain and customers in 100 countries, must comply with a growing set of local environmental regulations and with customer requirements that it run a greener business. Plus, the $3.7 billion company has its own goals: cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 2 percent a year, save energy and water, increase recycling and reduce its use of hazardous chemicals.

• SAP Q3 profits soar on reduction of TomorrowNow provision

  SAP reported Wednesday a 14 percent increase in revenue in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, and said its business pipeline continues to remain very strong and companies continue to invest in IT. The business software vendor did not however revise its outlook for the full year 2011, citing the ongoing uncertain macroeconomic environment.

• IBM turns up Watson-like natural language healthcare analytics

  IBM today said it was rolling out software that will help doctors and insurance companies reduce costs by better analyzing and managing huge amount of patient data.

• Oracle's Exadata means changes for DBAs

  Oracle's Exadata database machine can deliver the performance improvements the vendor claims, but also demands that IT shops and database administrators undergo a shift in thinking as well as attain new skills, a number of experts said this week at the OpenWorld conference in San Francisco.

• Oracle pushes appliance message to software crowd

  One thing became clear at Oracle's OpenWorld conference on Monday: The vendor is intent on drilling the benefits of its hardware-plus-software systems into a customer base that largely remains invested only in Oracle's applications, databases and middleware.

• Oracle rolls out 'Big Data' appliance

  Oracle unveiled the Big Data Appliance, the newest addition to its line of products that combine software and hardware, during the OpenWorld conference in San Francisco on Monday.

• Oracle launching 'Big Data,' in-memory appliances

  Oracle is apparently adding two more members to its family of systems that combine hardware and software, including one that targets 'Big Data' and another with in-memory computing capabilities.

• Microstrategy targets Excel users with Cloud Personal BI

  Microstrategy is hoping to get its BI (business intelligence) software in front of people looking to get more out of Microsoft Excel with a new service, Cloud Personal, that is being offered at no charge.

• IBM launches city parking analytics system

  IBM has launched a system designed to help cities ease parking congestion and collect more parking fees, the company announced Wednesday. The service could also help motorists find parking spaces more easily in crowded urban areas.

• Jaspersoft adds Apple iPad toolkit

  Open-source BI (business intelligence) vendor Jaspersoft is joining the ranks of companies adding support for Apple's wildly popular iPad.

• 9 hot IT skills for 2012

  Slowly but surely, many US companies are loosening their viselike grips on IT hiring and looking to add new staffers to bolster business growth in the year ahead.