Birst Blog

Thoughts on better business intelligence.

Data Here, Data There, Data Data Everywhere

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Seema Haji
As users, we are creating hundreds of terabytes of data coming from every possible digital source. If you’ve been following big data, you probably have heard of the 3 “V’s” that it is becoming associated with: Volume – big data volume is ‘big’; terabytes possibly even petabytes of information Velocity – big data value is in its real-time or near real-time nature Variety – big data extends beyond ... More >
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Is there a Silver Lining in the Apple iCloud?

Posted on January 13, 2012 by Brad Peters
The current forecast for the Apple iCloud is Hazy with few signs of clearing. You may not have heard, or perhaps you don’t remember, Apple’s announcement last June that it would now provide MacBook, iPhone and iPad users with access to a cloud-based service to store their files and apps. But even if you do know about iCloud, the nature of its introduction and its roll-out over the last six months may have left ... More >
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2012: The March to In-Memory

Posted on December 16, 2011 by Seema Haji
The evolution of Business Intelligence (BI), reporting and analytics has seen dramatic changes in recent years. First BI users were familiar with printed, mainframe reports which saw progression into spreadsheet reports and data warehousing cubes for analysis. In the 90’s as services-based architecture became popular, static reports went through a metamorphosis into ad-hoc reporting and onset of data visualizatio ... More >
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Software PACMAN

Posted on December 15, 2011 by Brad Peters
If you follow the world of enterprise software, you’ve no doubt noticed that the last couple months have been a time of frenzied acquisition of little fish by big fish. IBM bought DemandTech for $440 million, Oracle purchased RightNow Technologies for $1.4 billion, and in the biggest deal of all, SAP snapped up SuccessFactors for $3.4 billion. These moves harken back to a similar burst of acquisitions by these sa ... More >
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Ah, Suite Mediocrity . . .

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Brad Peters
When I was boy, if your parents wanted to buy a stereo music system to play the family LPs, they had basically two choices: component or console. And they were very different indeed. Component stereo systems looked a lot like modern stereos. That is, you purchased individual parts of the music system – turntable, speakers, amplifier, tuner, perhaps a pre-amp – typically buying the best component from the top ma ... More >
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Sneaking a Peek into Birst’s Secret Sauce

Posted on November 22, 2011 by Trevor Goss
A cool new capability that is now shipping with Birst 5 is our visual dataflow framework.  This drag and drop GUI gives administrators a way to define and visualize the relationships of their multi-dimensional data.  It’s the way he or she would manage their different data sources and do the logical modelling required for advanced analytics.   Through it, an administrator can quickly and easily build and then ... More >
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How to Lose Control Appropriately

Posted on November 18, 2011 by Brad Peters
In the tech world, as with the rest of the business world, we use terms like “attack”, “capture”, and “defense” and other martial terms to describe the endless challenge of gaining customers, hanging on to them over time, and growing them into ever-more profitable sources of revenue. Indeed, at first glance, almost everything in business seems to be about the idea of control. That is, you control your e ... More >
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A Cloud Reckoning

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Brad Peters
Even good industries can learn bad habits. And right now cloud computing is on the brink of an image crisis precisely because it picked up some nasty marketing lessons from the software industry from which it emerged. A particularly bad habit is a dangerous combination of market-speak – that lexicon of hyperbole and euphemism (brand, niche, share of mind, dominance, etc.) that intentionally tries to obscure the s ... More >
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The Oracle 914

Posted on October 13, 2011 by Brad Peters
For those of us old enough to remember, the introduction of the Porsche 914 was a landmark event. The little boxy two-seater seemed to have everything going for it. For one thing, it was a Porsche, the most famous sports car marque in the world. And that meant the 914 had been built by the expensive, hand-crafted company known for spending money on small things to produce luxury speed. Yet, it was also a Volkswagen ... More >
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Redefining SaaS

Posted on October 4, 2011 by Wynn White
Last week we launched Birst 5.   Software vendors make a big deal about a version digit increase release and Birst is no different.  In fact, we expect Birst 5 to have a far reaching impact on both our business, for our customers, and well, yes, even the industry. We attracted a fair amount of attention among the press and analyst community with the Birst 5 announcement.  Yes, we added some super cool new featu ... More >
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