Start Making Sense of All That New Data: Teradata Tells How

SAN DIEGO, Aug. 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Data volumes are surging by the exabyte each day, and the time has come for more companies to start making sense of those complex clickstreams of big data, according to Teradata Corporation (NYSE: TDC), the world's leading analytic data solutions company focused on integrated data warehousing, big data analytics, and business applications. In new videos, Scott Gnau, president of Teradata Labs, and Mayank Bawa, vice president of development, Teradata Aster, explain the compelling business value of big data – and how companies can – starting immediately – plan and deploy a big data analytics environment to start creating richer, detailed insight.

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"We're getting lots of interest from the market about how companies can extend their data warehouses from the enterprise data they now have – into the new world of multi-structured data from new sources to get a better understanding of the business," said Gnau. "We are showing them how to use Teradata Aster technologies to do exactly this. These very unique and compelling technologies enable cost take-out, improve manageability, and improve the deployability of data analysis."

Gnau said that emerging and existing big data types require new analytics and new applications – emphasizing that the combination of Teradata and Aster platforms are the ideal big data management pairing for extracting fast, actionable insight. In the video Gnau and Bawa also discuss the important capability that most other vendors fail to include, and only available through the Teradata Aster analytic platform environment – a deployment engine.

"We saw the need for new analytic capabilities coming years ago. Aster was the first and only platform that brought together the combination of  Structured Query Language (SQL) and MapReduce to the market so our customers could use the familiar SQL tools for big data, and simultaneously have the flexibility of MapReduce to do interesting analytics for the business," said Bawa. "We integrated the platform for standard delivery tools, made it accessible for a broader variety of users, and received a patent for it."

"Today, 80 percent of all enterprise data is in a multistructured format – not a standard, relational format – making it hard to analyze, understand and evaluate. This data comes from many sources, including interactions your customers are having for service and support, and from social media sites – things your customers are saying online. It comes from your own company website – and sensors as well as telematics," said Stephanie McReynolds, director of Product Marketing for Teradata Aster. "Companies that have not yet established a big data strategy and execution plan should act quickly to create a unique competitive advantage."

Big data is top-of-mind with Teradata customers, and over 30 sessions focused on big data  analytics are set for the 2011 Teradata PARTNERS User Group Conference October 2-6 at the San Diego Convention Center. The event is organized and managed by Teradata customers who will lead sessions on many topics including big data analytics.

Among these is LinkedIn Senior Data Scientist Scott Nicholson who will lead a session titled: "Predictive Modeling and Data-Driven Product Insights at LinkedIn." Nicholson is featured in a new YouTube video discussing his session. "Companies who compete on analytics and deliver data-driven services need to iterate quickly on big data," according to Nicholson.

Other big data sessions will be led by SAS and the Data Warehousing Institute, as well as Senior Director of Analytic Platforms at eBay, Oliver Ratzesberger, who will speak on "Data Singularity and Extreme Analytics at eBay." Teradata Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Stephen Brobst will co-present with Teradata Aster CTO Tasso Argyros on the topic "Do More with Your Data: Deep Analytics Using Big Data."

"At a time when many vendors and pundits are only talking about the future of big data analytics, a growing number of Teradata Aster customers are already creating that future -- deploying advanced analytic platforms," said McReynolds.

In addition to the recognized data management capabilities of Teradata's purpose-built product family, Aster's advanced analytic tools have been added to Teradata's big data solutions mix. Aster's SQL-MapReduce® is a framework which enables fast, investigative analysis of complex information by data scientists and business analysts. It enables procedural expressions in languages such as Java, C#, Python, C++, and R to be parallelized across a compute cluster and then invoked using standard SQL.  

"Companies adopting our patented SQL-MapReduce approach are finding it easier than ever to see, explore, and understand future possibilities across an infinite spectrum of new, multi-structured data sources which often go untapped within organizations," Bawa said.

In optimizing big data, Gnau said that new data types must be parsed and understood in the context of many interactions that may or may not be tied to an actual transaction. Complexity is a challenge as users weave together many formats, both formatted text and free form text, some of which have their own language, to create a total picture of what is happening – and how an organization can best respond to revelations from the data. He said that there are new questions to be asked and answered, and the resulting business intelligence must often be operationalized in near real time.

Relevant News Links

• Get Started in Big Analytics: Teradata Tells How - video, Scott Gnau/Mayank Bawa
• Scott Nicholson, LinkedIn Senior Data Scientist – YouTube podcast
• BI consultants on eBay's Teradata System: mind-blowing analytics - video
• Big Data: It's Going Mainstream and It's Your Next Opportunity – Merv Adrian
• The Rise of Multi-structured Data, Big Analytics and Why It Matters - Dan Graham
• "Next Generation Big Data Analytics" - Todd Sylvester podcast, Teradata
• The new video clip in 3 parts for quick access: 1) "What is Big Data?" and 2) "How To Get Started in Big Data" and 3) "Big Data Analytics: The Teradata & Aster Advantage"

About Aster Data

The Teradata Aster MapReduce Platform is the market-leading big data analytics solution. This analytic platform embeds MapReduce analytic processing for deeper insights on new data sources and multi-structured data types to deliver analytic capabilities with breakthrough performance and scalability. Teradata's solution utilizes Aster Data's patented SQL-MapReduce to parallelize the processing of data and applications and deliver rich analytic insights at scale. For more information visit www.asterdata.com or for more about Teradata, visit teradata.com.

About Teradata

Teradata Corporation (NYSE: TDC) is the world's leading analytic data solutions company focused on integrated data warehousing,  big data analytics, and business applications. Teradata analytic data solutions are available through the Teradata analytic platform or the Teradata Aster analytic platform. Teradata's innovative products and services empower organizations to integrate, analyze and profit from data For competitive advantage. Please visit teradata.com for details.

Teradata is a trademark or registered trademark of Teradata Corporation in the United States and other countries.

SOURCE Teradata Corporation