Spotfire 3.2 released on 7/8/10

This blog did not exist 3 month ago, but since I commented on recent releases of competing DV products (Qlikview, Tableau, Cognos, Business Objects etc.) I feel the need to post about Spotfire 3.2. For me the most important new feature in 3.2 is the  availability of all functionality of Spotfire THICK client in Spotfire 3.2 WebPlayer, specfically Spotfire WebPlayer now can do the same visual drill-down as Qlikview does for a while. Overall the 3.2  Release enabled Spotfire to catch-up with Qlikview and become a co-leader in DV market. Also SPotfire Clinical 3.2 was released, which enables Spotfire to connect with Oracle Clinical Databases. TIBCO Spotfire offers a unique memory-swapping or paging feature, which lets it analyze models that are larger than a single available memory space.

Among new features ability to export any Pages and Visualizations to PDF, improved integration with S-Plus and IronPython, ability to embed more than 4GB (actually unlimited) of application’s data into application file (and TIBCO Spotfire Binary Data Format file) and other improvements, like subtotals in Cross Table, SSO with NTLMv2 (Vista, Win7), Lists Tools and LDAP synchronization, Multiple Localizations for major Asian and European languages. Update on 11/2/10: TIBCO released Spotfire WebPlayer 3.2.1, which now fully supports iPad and its native multi-touch interface.

A few days later on 7/14/10, TIBCO released Spotfire Silver as a fully SaaS/ZFC version of Spotfire 3.2, designated for Self-Serviced BI users, who prefer to minimize their interactions with own IT/MIS departments. Spotfire Silver ahead of all DV competitors in terms of fully web-based but fully functional DV environment.

In case if users prefer behind-firewall Clustering and Fail-over configuration for Spotfire deployment, it may look like this:

n007=http://wp.me/pCJUg-5n

Cognos 10 is here too

BI and DV vendors do not want me to relax and keep releasing new stuff too often. I feel guilty now and I will (3+ months after it was released) comment on Spotfire 3.2 release soon. But today I have to comment on Cognos 10 Release (which will be available Oct. 30; everybody now does pre-announcement: 2 weeks ago Qlikview 10, yesterday BO4, today Cognos 10). I quote: “IBM acquired Cognos in early 2008 during a five year buying spree that saw it swallow over 24 analytics companies in five years for a total bill of US$14 billion”. Rob Ashe, general manager for BI at IBM, said: ““Analytics is a key part of our 2015 roadmap. Last year, analytics contributed $9 billion to our revenues, and we expect to see that grow to $16 billion in 2015.”

The Cognos 10 embeds SSPS and Lotus Connections, supports SaaS, active/interactive reports via email (no need to install anything), mobile devices such as iPhones, iPads and BlackBerrys (as well as Symbian phones, and Windows Mobile devices), real-time updates, has “modern” Web 2.0 user interface. Cognos TM1 (from Applix) is a multidimensional, 64-bit, in-memory OLAP engine which provides fast performance for analyzing complex and sophisticated models, large data sets and even streamed data.

Personally I think Cognos 10 compares favorably against BO4, SAS 9.2, OBIEE 11g , but all 4 have at least 2 common problems: they are all engaged too much with Java and they are far (of Qlikview, Spotfire, Omniscope, Tableau etc.) behind in Data Visualization…

n006: http://wp.me/pCJUg-4Z

SAP pre-announced BO4

“Business Objects 4.0 will be available this year” – SAP teases own customers at ASUG. It became a habit for SAP – to say something about a product they did not release yet. For example they did pre-announcement of HANA (in-memory analytics appliance) in May 2010, see http://www.infoworld.com/d/applications/sap-build-new-in-memory-database-appliances-392 and now they are saying that HANA will be released in November 2010: http://www.infoworld.com/d/applications/saps-in-memory-analytics-boxes-set-november-release-117 . It is very funny to see how 3 (SAP, IBM, Oracle) or 4 (if  you include the mindshare leader SAS) BI behemoths trying to compete (using money instead of creativity) with DV leaders like Qlikview and Spotfire who has in-memory columnar DB for years. E.g. IBM recently bought Netezza, SSPS and Applix and trying to marry Applix with Cognos. Or Oracle (after buying Sun) releasing Exadata and Exalogic to compete with… IBM’s Netezza and SAP’s HANA. SAP actually owns now (after they recently bought Sybase) the best collection of BI and DV-related technologies, like best columnar DB Sybase IQ (ok, Vertica too, but Qlikview, PowerPivot and Spotfire have it in-memory).

Back to BO4: it will be 64-bit only, Desktop Intelligence will not be included in this release, BO4 will be more dependent on Java (SAP, IBM, Oracle and SAS –  all 4 making a strategic mistake by integrating their product with dying Java), BO4 will have “data federation”, BO4 will be integrated with SAP Portfolio (e.g. NetWeaver), Bo4 has now multi-dimensional analytical ability,
SAP Explorer allows in-memory Analytics etc. It took SAP 4+ months from pre-anouncement to release of BO4 – I guess they learn from Microsoft (I am not sure it helps).

Enterprise Deployment of SAP BO may look like this:

n005: http://wp.me/pCJUg-4o

Tableau is growing 123% YoY

Tableau added 1500 new customers during last year (5500 total, also it is used by Oracle on OEM basis as Oracle Hyperion Visual Explorer), had $20M in sales in 2009, Q3 of 2010 showing 123% growth over the same period a year ago, claiming to be a fastest growing software company in BI market (faster than Qliktech), see http://www.tableausoftware.com/press_release/tableau-massive-growth-hiring-q3-2010

Tableau 6.0 will be released next month, they claiming it is 100 times faster than previous version (5.2) with in-memory columnar DB, 64-bit support and optional data compression. They are so confident (due increasing sales) so they put 40 job openings last week (they had 99 employees in 2009, 180 now and plan to have 200 by end of 2010). Tableau is raising (!) prices for their Tableau Desktop Professional from $1800 to $1999 in November 2010, while Personal will stay at $999. They aim directly at Qliktech saying (through their loyal customer) this: “Competitive BI software like QlikView from QlikTech is difficult to use without a consultant or IT manager by your side, a less than optimal allocation of our team’s time and energy. Tableau is a powerful tool that’s easy to use, built to last, and continues to impress my customers.”

In Tableau’s new sales pitch they claiming (among other 60 new features):

• New super-fast data engine that can cross-tab 10 million rows in under 1 second
• The ability to blend data from multiple sources in just a click
• Create endless combination graphs such as bars with lines, circles with bars, etc.

n004: http://wp.me/pCJUg-3Z

DV Comparison: Qlikview, Spotfire, Tableau, MS BI Stack

Published the comparison of 4 leading DV Products, see http://wp.me/PCJUg-1T

I did not included into comparison the 5th leading product – Visokio’s Omniscope, because it has very limited scalability due the specifics of it’s implementation: Java does not allow to visualize too much data. Among factors to considered when comparing DV tools:

• - memory optimization [Qlikview is the leader in in-memory columnar database technology];
• - load time [I tested all products above and PowerPivot is the fastest];
• - memory swapping [Spotfire is only who can use a disk as a virtual memory, while Qlikview limited by RAM only];
• - incremental updates [Qlikview probably the best in this area];
• - thin clients [Spotfire has the the best THIN/Web/ZFC (zero-footprint) client, especially with their recent release of Spotfire 3.2 and Spotfire Silver];
• - thick clients [Qlikview has the best THICK client] ,
• - access by 3rd party tools [PowerPivot's integration with Excel 2010, SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services and SharePoint 2010 is a big attraction];
• - interface with SSAS cubes [PowerPivot has it, Tableau has it, Omniscope will have it very soon, Qlikview and Spotfire do not have it],
• - GUI [3-way tie, it is heavily depends on personal preferences, but in my opinion Qlikview is more easy to use than others];
• - advanced analytics [Spotfire 3.2 is the leader here with its integration with S-PLUS and support for IronPython and other add-ons]
• - the productivity of developers involved with tools mentioned above. In my experience Qlikview is much more productive tool in this regard.

p003: http://wp.me/pCJUg-3R

Qlikview 10 released near 10/10/10

Qliktech released as planned the new version 10 of Qlikview last week, see http://www.qlikview.com/us/company/press-room/press-releases/2010/us/1012-qlikview-10-delivers-consumer-bi-software and delivered a lot of new functionality, see

http://visibledata.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/ds-whats-new-in-qlikview-10-en2.pdf

to its already impressive list, like in-memory columnar database, the leading set of visual controls (pie/10, bar/7, column/7, line/6, combo/6, area/4, radar/4, scatter/5, bubble/3, heat-map/block/5, gauge/7, pivot/12, table/12, funnel/2, mekko, sparkline, motion charts etc.) totaling more than 80 different charts (almost comparable with Excel 2010 diversity-wise). Qlikview enjoying the position of the DV Leader in Data Visualization market for last few years, thanks to above functionality and to its charts, functioning as visual filters with interactive drill-down functionality, with best productivity for developers, with easiest UI and with multitude of clients (desktop, IE plugin, Java, ajax, most smartphones). Also take a look on this: http://www.ventanaresearch.com/blog/commentblog.aspx?id=4006 and this: http://customerexperiencematrix.blogspot.com/2010/12/qlikviews-new-release-focuses-on.html

Qliktech recently had a successful IPO and secondary offering,  see http://www.google.com/finance?q=Qlik which made capitalization of the Qliktech approaching $2B. DV competition is far from over: recently Qlikview got very strong competition from Spotfire 3.2, PowerPivot and upcoming (this or next month) releases of Tableau 6 and Omniscope 2.6. And don’t forget DV misleaders with a bunch of money, trying to catch-up: SAP, IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, Microstrategy, even Google and others trying very hard to be a DV contenders                                                                                (n002: http://apandre.wordpress.com/2010/10/19/qlikview10/)

Qliktech uses this Diagram to present its current set of Components and DataFlow between them:

QV10 Components and DataFlow.

Blog as a thought saver

“How do I know what I think until I see what I say?” Or let me rephrase Mr. E.M. Forster: “How do YOU know what I think until I will blog about it“?

I resisted to an idea to have a blog since 1996, because I perceived the blogging as very similar to a fasting in desert (actually after a few months of blogging I am amazed – according to WordPress Statistics – that my blog has hundreds and hundreds of visitors every day!). But recently I got a few excellent pushes to start my own blog because when I posted comments on somebody’s blog they got deleted against my will. Turned out that owners of those blogs can delete my comments and thoughts anytime if he/she/they do not like what I said. It happened to me on one of Forrester’s Blogs and it happened to me on my own profile on LinkedIn – when I posted so called “update” and some of LinkedIn employees decided to delete it. In both cases above administrators even did not bother to send me my own thoughts for archiving purposes – they just disappear!

So I decided to start the blog about Data Visualization (DV),

because I am doing DV for many years and accumulated many DV implementations and thoughts about DV, DV tools, DV Vendors, DV Market etc. For now I will have 8 main pages (and they will be used as root pages for hierarchy of sub-pages):

• Home Page of this blog  is a place where all posts and comments will go,
• Visualization Page (with sub-pages) is for DV Samples and Demos,
• DataViews Page (and it’s sub-pages) is about … Data Views, Charts and Chartology,
• Tools Page designated for DV Software and comparison of DV Tools,
• Solutions Page will describe possible DV solutions, DV System, products  and DV services I can provide,
• Market Page dedicated to DV Vendors and DV market news and analyses,
• Data Page is about ETL processes, Data Collection and Data Sources
• About page can give you an info about me

p001: http://wp.me/pCJUg-3