Updated: 2011-02-28 08:03:39
From time to time, I disclose our vendor client lists. Another iteration is below. To be clear: This is a list of Monash Advantage members. All our vendor clients are Monash Advantage members, unless … … we work with them primarily in their capacity as technology users. (A large fraction of our user clients happen [...]
Updated: 2011-02-28 07:43:41
For the second straight post, I’m mixing the general and the personal. Sorry! I jumped into an #ARchat on Twitter Tuesday, and set off a discussion about the subject of analyst quotes in press releases. Since that chat has been blogged, starting with a partly accurate* paraphrase of my views, I figure I may as [...]
Updated: 2011-02-25 04:32:08
When databases are too big to manage via a single server, responsibility for them is spread among multiple servers. There are numerous names for this strategy, or versions of it — all of them at least somewhat problematic. The most common terms include: (Shared-nothing) MPP (Massively Parallel Processing), often used to describe analytic DBMS. On [...]
Updated: 2011-02-25 04:26:28
As I observed previously, we need a term that means “like OLTP but not necessarily transactional”, to help describe a category of use cases that can reasonably be addressed by NoSQL or scale-out SQL systems alike.* So here’s a candidate phrase: Internet Request Processing (IRP). If we use that, I’ll call Schooner, Cassandra, Couchbase , [...]
Updated: 2011-02-25 04:25:35
A few weeks ago, I described the elements of an “analytic computing system” or “analytic platform,” while reserving judgment as to which of the two terms would or should win out. I am now capitulating to the term analytic platform, under the influence of, among others, Sharmila Mulligan (and Aster Data in general), Vertica and [...]
Updated: 2011-02-18 16:27:35
Insurers can adopt mobile solutions to ensure revenue growth and provide better services to their consumers at minimal costs, -More-
Updated: 2011-02-18 14:31:04
2011: Do a Lot More With a Little MoreInformation ManagementIT budgets hold within historically average ranges this year, but insurers charge forward on a number of projects, according to Novarica. Policy admin, agent portals and business intelligence (BI) top insurers' priority lists for 2011, all with a goal ...
Updated: 2011-02-18 00:00:00
Celent reports the findings of its annual survey of US insurance CIOs. This year’s survey confirms that CIOs believe there is a “New Normal” environment for their companies, but nevertheless have a focus on growth. In a new report, , Celent highlights business issues and IT priorities reported by property/casualty and life/health CIOs. Findings include allocation of resources for new initiatives, year-to-year changes in IT budgets
Updated: 2011-02-15 14:19:22
CINCINNATI, OH--(Marketwire - February 15, 2011) - Ward Group ®, a consulting firm specializing in the insurance industry, is conducting a comprehensive research study to evaluate underwriting and policy management practices at property-casualty insurance companies.
Updated: 2011-02-14 17:19:57
HP is acquiring Vertica. Now we know (at least in part) why Vertica went oddly silent for a while. As per that same link, Vertica has >250 ordinary customers, and >70 more OEM sell-through ones. This is a setback for speculation about any kind of upcoming Aster/HP tie-up. Edit: Forgot this one briefly — HP [...]
Updated: 2011-02-14 16:34:10
Communicating with Vertica has been tricky recently. But HP is now announced to be buying Vertica, which pretty much forces me to comment about Vertica. So I’ll indulge in a little bit of explanation as to what I know about Vertica, whether for publication or under NDA. My analysis of the HP/Vertica combination, and expectations [...]
Updated: 2011-02-14 15:45:13
Improving policy administration and business intelligence are among insurers' priorities this year, according to Novarica's s -More-
Updated: 2011-02-12 18:44:00
In the process of researching my recent post on Management Horizons Data Systems, I came across an excerpt from a 1972 marketing brochure (quoted in the “History of Management Horizons” piece cited there). General notes include: The brochure quote basically pitches business intelligence/ performance management, with unconstrained drilldown. Pitching BI/analytics benefits for what start out [...]
Updated: 2011-02-12 13:08:14
I started drafting this post along with others around the time of my parents’ deaths, then put it aside. However, I have been informed that my father’s old colleague Alton Doody has cancer himself, and if we are ever to get his input, it would be best to solicit it REALLY SOON. So I’m finishing [...]
Updated: 2011-02-12 12:32:35
I recently coined the phrase investigative analytics to conflate Statistics, data mining, machine learning, and/or predictive analytics. The more research-oriented aspects of business intelligence tools: Ad-hoc query. Drilldown. Most things done by BI-using “business analysts” Most things within BI called “data exploration.” Analogous technologies as applied to non-tabular data types such as text or graph. [...]
Updated: 2011-02-11 06:09:58
The Forrester Wave: Enterprise Data Warehouse Platforms, Q1 2011 is now out,* hot on the heels of the Gartner Magic Quadrant. Unfortunately, this particular Forrester Wave is riddled with inaccuracy. *At the time of this writing, I don’t have a link to a free version of the full report. At the time of this writing, [...]
Updated: 2011-02-09 23:30:08
wenty-five Model Insurer Components are described in this fifth annual edition, and Celent’s Model Insurer of the Year is named.
Updated: 2011-02-09 16:57:23
The insurance industry is making progress in its legacy-modernization initiatives. -More-
Updated: 2011-02-09 13:20:34
ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--iPartners, the leading provider of Software as a Service (SaaS) business analytics solutions to the property & casualty (P&C) insurance industry, today announced that it has received a Novarica ACE Gold Ranking for its Insurance Scorecard solution. In addition to being the first business intelligence solution to earn an ACE Gold Ranking, Insurance Scorecard ranked the ...
Updated: 2011-02-09 09:36:01
After I posted recently about dbShards, a Very Smart Commenter emailed me with the challenge “but each individual shard is still replicated via two-phase commit, and everybody knows two-phase commit is fundamentally slow.” I replied that no, it wasn’t exactly two-phase commit, but fumbled the explanation of why — so I decided to escalate straight [...]
Updated: 2011-02-08 05:59:35
Membase, the company whose product is Membase and whose former company name is Northscale, has merged with CouchOne, the company whose product is CouchDB and whose former name is Couch.io. The result (product and company) will be called Couchbase. CouchDB inventor Damien Katz will join the Membase (now Couchbase) management team as CTO. Couchbase can [...]
