IBM Advances Big Data Platform, PureData System For Hadoop

To expand on its Big Data platform, IBM has announced new technologies for data acceleration and new Hadoop System advancements, including an industry-first innovation called "BLU Acceleration," which combines a number of techniques to dramatically improve analytical performance and simplify administration.

"Big data is about using all data in context at the point of impact," said Bob Picciano, general manager, IBM Information Management. "With the innovations we are delivering, now every organization can realize value quickly by leveraging existing skills as well as adopt new capabilities for speed and exploration to improve business outcomes."

IBM BLU Acceleration delivers key information to users faster by extending the capabilities of traditional in-memory systems - which allows data to be loaded into Random Access Memory instead of hard disks for faster performance - by providing in-memory performance even when data sets exceed the size of the memory. Innovations in BLU Acceleration include "data skipping," which allows the ability to skip over data that doesn't need to be analyzed, such as duplicate information; the ability to analyze data in parallel across different processors; and greater ability to analyze data transparently to the application, without the need to develop a separate layer of data modeling. Another industry-first advance in BLU Acceleration is called "actionable compression," where data no longer has to be decompressed to be analyzed.

Optimized for Hadoop

IBM also announced a new IBM PureData System for Hadoop, designed to make it easier and faster to deploy Hadoop in the enterprise. The new system integrates IBM InfoSphere BigInsights, which allows companies of all sizes to cost-effectively manage and analyze data and add administrative, workflow, provisioning and security features, along with best-in-class analytical capabilities from IBM Research. Kelley Blue Book, the leading provider of new and used car information, will be evaluating the new PureData System for Hadoop to analyze click stream data created by users on its website.

"Kelley Blue Book collects all kinds of data from various sources, so managing the efficiency of data is critical to grow our business," said Steve Chow, vice president of technology and data intelligence for Kelley Blue Book. "We see many opportunities to leverage the IBM's offering as a strategic platform to expand on our analytic ecosystem and tap the value of social media, text and machine data to get a better view of our consumers and customers to improve their overall experience on KBB.com."

Stream Computing

Two additional big data announcements from IBM include new versions of InfoSphere and Informix.  An update to its enterprise-ready Hadoop offering, InfoSphere BigInsights make it easier to develop applications using existing SQL skills, also features compliance security and high availability features vital for enterprise applications. A new version of InfoSphere Streams, unique “stream computing” software that enables massive amounts of data in motion to be analyzed in real-time, with performance improvements, and simplified application development and deployment. A new version of Informix including TimeSeries Acceleration for operational reporting and analytics on smart meter and sensor data.

IBM held a Big Data Summit Wednesday to announce the new innovations, and will provide a free broadcast event April 30th to dive deeper into the announced solutions.