SQL for Data Warehousing and Analytics

This is a great interview with Thomson Reuters chief operating officer for Technology Rick King in online edition of Forbes. The interview was conducted by Bob Evans who is Senior vice-president, communications, for Oracle Corp. This interview gets to the heart of what we are trying to achieve with our engineered system and the way we work with our customers to understand how they are using our technology. The quote from King on final page of the interview really sums this up: “We rely on companies like Oracle to be a big part of our innovation. We don’t really produce technology, we use other people’s technology in a way that brings together our content and delivers it in a different way. We need players like Oracle to be really innovative in their space to ensure we can be innovative in ours. The article is available here:  http://www.forbes.com/sites/oracle/2013/05/28/thomson-reuters-transforms-big-data-into-big-business There is an excellent video interview with Rick ...

A great news story from one of our US data warehouse customers, Targetbase , that ties in nicely with another report that we have just issued and the themes that form the basis for my soon to be released whitepaper on in-database analytics. Who is Targetbase? Targetbase is a US base data-driven marketing agency that delivers customer engagement through database, digital, and direct marketing expertise. They are based in Iriving, Texas and have approximately 200 staff. They use data-driven insight to create powerful brand communications that combine the right messages and tactics through the best channels with optimal timing. The results are strong creative services that drive customer engagements and deliver motivated individuals, ready to take action. Targetbase uses Exadata as the analytical engine for all their data: The Targetbase use case is a great example of how data warehousing is evolving to take on a wide variety of data sources and workloads. This evolution has ...

Our SPARC and OLAP development teams have published some fantastic performance figures on their blog: https://blogs.oracle.com/BestPerf/entry/20130326_sparc_t5_8_olap Using Oracle's SPARC T5-8 server the teams delivered world record query performance with near real-time analytic capability using the Oracle OLAP Perf Version 3 workload running Oracle Database 11g Release 2 on Oracle Solaris 11. The workload uses a set of realistic BI queries that run against an OLAP cube based on a 4 billion row fact table of sales data. The 4 billion rows are partitioned by month spanning 10 years. The combination of the Oracle Database with the Oracle OLAP option running on a SPARC T5-8 server supports live data updates occurring concurrently with minimally impacted user query executions. This is a great evolution of the development work we have been doing with our in-database OLAP features. The details about "real-time" analytics reminded me of the work with did with BNP Paribas to de...

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/datamodeler/overview/index.html Attention all data modellers - we are pleased to announce the release of SQL Developer Data Modeler 3.3. This release includes a new search, reports can be generated from search results, extended Excel import and export capabilities and more control and flexibility in generating your DDL.  Here are a few links to get you started: For downloads see here:  http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/datamodeler/downloads/index.html For information about new features see here:  http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/datamodeler/datamodeler-33-newfeatures-1869156.html The release notes are available here:  http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/datamodeler/data-modeler-releasenotes33-1869517.html The documentation can be found here:  http://www.oracle.com/pls/topic/lookup?ctx=E29463_01&id=homepage For data warehouse data modellers there are some very important new feat...

According to an article by Forrester analyst Mike Gualtieri, predictive analytics is a red hot topic!  There are many examples across a broad range of industries where predictive analytics is driving better decisions: President Obama's campaign team used sophisticated uplift modeling to target and influence swing voters. Telecom firms that use predictive analytics to help prevent customer churn.  Police departments that use it to reduce crime. The list goes on and on and on. Let us quickly look at two of these uses cases because we have Oracle customers who have already implemented these types of solutions: 1) How telcos are using predictive analytics to reduce churn a) Telecom Italia Lab - Churn is a critical problem in the telecommunications industry because losing customers is a drain on resources. Finding new customers to replace the ones that have defected to a competitor is an expensive process. Consequently companies go to great lengths to reduce the c...

Stumbled across this article on the motoring page of the Guardian newspaper. Cars will soon be so linked into wireless networks they will be like giant rolling smartphones. Ford has already started to integrate web services such as Spotify into their dashboard systems and this looks like the first step to introducing a real-time data collection service to your car. This new vision of in-car big data goes far beyond the current engine management monitoring that garages use when you take your car in for servicing. A few examples of this brave new world: - Low on fuel? Soon a petrol station app may know before you do. - Tyres need rotating? Your car may wirelessly alert your dealership when it's time. - Ready for a lunch break? Your car can make a reasonable guess based on the hour. Are these realistic? Well, according to the article "… more than 60% of vehicles worldwide will be connected directly to the internet by 2017, up from 11% last year, predicts ABI Research. In No...

The latest Data Warehouse Magic Quadrant is out and we (Oracle) has been positioned in the leaders quadrant. How do you get into the leaders quadrant? This is how Gartner defines a leader: vendors in the Leaders quadrant, “demonstrate the greatest support for data warehouses of all sizes, with large numbers of concurrent users and management of mixed data warehousing workloads. These vendors lead in data warehousing by consistently demonstrating customer satisfaction and strong support, as well as longevity in the data warehouse DBMS market, with strong hardware alliances.  Here is a great quote from my boss, Cetin Ozbutun, vice president, Data Warehousing and Big Data Technologies: “We believe Oracle's position in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Data Warehouse Database Management Systems recognizes the outstanding performance of the Oracle Exadata Database Machine, as well as Oracle’s delivery of innovative, integrated solutions for big data with the Big Data Appliance and ...