Oracle, Teradata Offer Next Gen BI, Location Intelligence

I had to do a double-take when I saw this announcement that Teradata, a company focused on "big data," and Oracle were teaming to create solutions for what the press release stated was the "next generation BI capabilities." It took me by surprise as I believed these companies were competitors. One blogger from datanami referred to the relationship as being that of "frenemies."

Even more surprising was that the relationship seems to hinge more on geospatial technology integration than just basic business intelligence applications. According to the release:

Newly released next-generation BI capabilities empower IT and business professionals to effectively leverage geospatial analytics, improve system performance, and enhance management of complex BI environments.  The new capabilities include: Teradata Geospatial with Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) mapping capabilities – joint technologies work together to better inform companies' business decisions with automated, integrated location intelligence.

Big data, BI, location intelligence, geospatial ... be still my beating heart. This alliance signals a few things:

1. Location-based information is becoming a real data hog and must rely on data appliances that can handle the volume and process it with BI technology
2. Teradata, while having some BI tools, is looking for more fire power in apps, while Oracle probably sees an opportunity to sell more BI apps.
3. Location intelligent (LI) solutions are now more prominent in the vocabulary of the mainstream IT players
4. Customers are demanding location-based data analytics.
5. There's no mention of:
   • 
     Oracle Spatial integration
   • Oracle Exadata Appliance - an applicance for big data
   • Oracle's partnership with Cloudera to bring Hadoop to the Oracle Big Data Appliance

Of course, this press release came from Teradata. Oracle has many solutions for handling big data but I just found it odd that Teradata Geospatial is mentioned without Oracle Spatial seeming to be in the mix. I hope to have a statement from Oracle soon.

Regardless, this announcement is somewhat self serving for my interests because both organizations will be present at our Location Intelligence Conference 2012 this may and will sit on the "Big Data" power panel. Pat Sack, CTO of Oracle's National Security Group and Robert Trentkamp, senior partner of Claraview, a division of Teradata, will be on the panel.

Take our poll - Where do you see location technology benefiting enterprise IT in 2012

Foursquare, NFC - Location-based Check-ins Made “Easier”

ReadWriteWeb provided details on near field communication (NFC) might be used by foursquare to make it easier to check-in to certain retail venues without the need to open the app and manually perform a search. Using NFC, the user merely swipes the mobile device near an NFC tag. Since people merely forget to "check-in" this new option certainly facilitates the process and lowers the barrier to utilizing location-based apps. It might even further the benefits of location-based adverting. See also our coverage of Blue Bite (1, 2).

-- ReadWriteWeb

Esri and BI, “big data”

Someone wrote to us asking about the recent acquisition of SpotOn Systems by Esri. So, let me give you my take. 

GEOINT 2011 - Opening Remarks by USGIF CEO Stu Shea #geoint2011

The 2011 GEOINT Symposium in San Antonio, Texas began with opening remarks by Stu Shea, CEO and Chairman of the Board of the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF).

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