Big Data is no longer just a big buzzword. In fact, it’s becoming so common, and useful, that the term is now a staple in most businesses. Taking information from several different areas, combining them, and making sense of that data is what Big Data is all about. However, the main problem for most is not the collecting of data, it’s how to store it in a way that it can be analyzed congruently thus making it easier for businesses to take action based on that data, and ultimately benefit from those actions. Furthermore, this type of analytics used to be something only large enterprises could do, much less afford to do. New Oracle products hope to cure many of the Big Data headaches.
Oracle recently announced four new products that hope to combine, or integrate Hadoop, NoSQL, and SQL databases. The new products are also aimed at a wider scope of users and businesses. One of those new products is called Oracle Big Data Discovery. OBDD is a visual tool for Hadoop. It’s designed to provide a more user friendly and familiar interface. In short, it essentially allows users to comb through data from multiple sources, analyze and visualize that data, then share it with others all using the same interface.
Another new product announced was GoldenGate for Big Data. GoldenGate for Big Data is a Hadoop-like tool that allows for live streaming or unstructured data from “heterogenous transactional systems” into systems like Apache Hadoop, Apache Flume, and Apache HBase. Essentially, the tool allows for the replication of data in real time from one system to another in whichever form you want it delivered.
The main idea behind these new products is not only enhanced user-ship, but also decreased time in visualizing big data. Oracle hopes that with easier and more friendly interfaces that users won’t be afraid of taking on a big data project because they’re not familiar with the look, feel, or what data is being brought in from where. Furthermore, Oracle believes it will also take much less time to report on collected data. Currently they estimate that many big data projects take several months, or even years to complete. Newer, more robust, and user-friendly tools like Oracle Big Data Discovery and GoldenGate for Big Data want to bring this time down to several days or weeks.
The two other products that were announced are newer versions of existing Oracle big data offerings including Oracle Big Data SQL 1.1 and Oracle NoSQL Database 3.2.5. The former offers enhanced query performance over previous versions while the latter has been updated with several new APIs.
The VP of Big Data at Oracle, Mr. Neil Mendelson, was candid in a press release about what data, and big data, means to the future of business, “Data is a new kind of capital and enterprises must invest their data capital strategically to create the best return. Oracle gives customers an integrated platform that helps simplify access to all their data, discover new insights, predict outcomes in real time, and keep all their data governed and secure.”
As the world of big data continues to change business and the world we live in companies like Oracle will continue to provide the tools needed to reach the highest of business goals. Business isn’t easy, but it’s a little simpler with tools like these.