Annotation In this book, Rick van der Lans explains how data virtualization servers work, what techniques to use to optimize access to various data sources and how these products can be applied in different projects.

Data virtualization can help you accomplish your goals with more flexibility and agility. Learn what it is and how and why it should be used with Data Virtualization for Business Intelligence Systems. In this book, expert author Rick van der Lans explains how data virtualization servers work, what techniques to use to optimize access to various data sources and how these products can be applied in different projects. You'll learn the difference is between this new form of data integration and older forms, such as ETL and replication, and gain a clear understanding of how data virtualization really works. Data Virtualization for Business Intelligence Systems outlines the advantages and disadvantages of data virtualization and illustrates how data virtualization should be applied in data warehouse environments. You'll come away with a comprehensive understanding of how data virtualization will make data warehouse environments more flexible and how it make developing operational BI applications easier. Van der Lans also describes the relationship between data virtualization and related topics, such as master data management, governance, and information management, so you come away with a big-picture understanding as well as all the practical know-how you need to virtualize your data. - First independent book on data virtualization that explains in a product-independent way how data virtualization technology works. - Illustrates concepts using examples developed with commercially available products. - Shows you how to solve common data integration challenges such as data quality, system interference, and overall performance by following practical guidelines on using data virtualization. - Apply data virtualization right away with three chapters full of practical implementation guidance. - Understand the big picture of data virtualization and its relationship with data governance and information management.

Using Agile methods, you can bring far greater innovation, value, and quality to any data warehousing (DW), business intelligence (BI), or analytics project. However, conventional Agile methods must be carefully adapted to address the unique characteristics of DW/BI projects. In Agile Analytics, Agile pioneer Ken Collier shows how to do just that. Collier introduces platform-agnostic Agile solutions for integrating infrastructures consisting of diverse operational, legacy, and specialty systems that mix commercial and custom code. Using working examples, he shows how to manage analytics development teams with widely diverse skill sets and how to support enormous and fast-growing data volumes. Collier's techniques offer optimal value whether your projects involve "back-end" data management, "front-end" business analysis, or both. Part I focuses on Agile project management techniques and delivery team coordination, introducing core practices that shape the way your Agile DW/BI project community can collaborate toward success Part II presents technical methods for enabling continuous delivery of business value at production-quality levels, including evolving superior designs; test-driven DW development; version control; and project automation Collier brings together proven solutions you can apply right now--whether you're an IT decision-maker, data warehouse professional, database administrator, business intelligence specialist, or database developer. With his help, you can mitigate project risk, improve business alignment, achieve better results--and have fun along the way.

Managing Data in Motion describes techniques that have been developed for significantly reducing the complexity of managing system interfaces and enabling scalable architectures. Author April Reeve brings over two decades of experience to present a vendor-neutral approach to moving data between computing environments and systems. Readers will learn the techniques, technologies, and best practices for managing the passage of data between computer systems and integrating disparate data together in an enterprise environment. The average enterprise's computing environment is comprised of hundreds to thousands computer systems that have been built, purchased, and acquired over time. The data from these various systems needs to be integrated for reporting and analysis, shared for business transaction processing, and converted from one format to another when old systems are replaced and new systems are acquired. The management of the "data in motion" in organizations is rapidly becoming one of the biggest concerns for business and IT management. Data warehousing and conversion, real-time data integration, and cloud and "big data" applications are just a few of the challenges facing organizations and businesses today. Managing Data in Motion tackles these and other topics in a style easily understood by business and IT managers as well as programmers and architects. - Presents a vendor-neutral overview of the different technologies and techniques for moving data between computer systems including the emerging solutions for unstructured as well as structured data types - Explains, in non-technical terms, the architecture and components required to perform data integration - Describes how to reduce the complexity of managing system interfaces and enable a scalable data architecture that can handle the dimensions of "Big Data"

Find the right big data solution for your business or organization Big data management is one of the major challenges facing business, industry, and not-for-profit organizations. Data sets such as customer transactions for a mega-retailer, weather patterns monitored by meteorologists, or social network activity can quickly outpace the capacity of traditional data management tools. If you need to develop or manage big data solutions, you'll appreciate how these four experts define, explain, and guide you through this new and often confusing concept. You'll learn what it is, why it matters, and how to choose and implement solutions that work. Effectively managing big data is an issue of growing importance to businesses, not-for-profit organizations, government, and IT professionals Authors are experts in information management, big data, and a variety of solutions Explains big data in detail and discusses how to select and implement a solution, security concerns to consider, data storage and presentation issues, analytics, and much more Provides essential information in a no-nonsense, easy-to-understand style that is empowering Big Data For Dummies cuts through the confusion and helps you take charge of big data solutions for your organization.

This IBM® RedpaperTM publication introduces a new data virtualization capability that enables IBM z/OS® data to be combined with other enterprise data sources in real-time, which allows applications to access any live enterprise data anytime and use the power and efficiencies of the IBM Z® platform. Modern businesses need actionable and timely insight from current data. They cannot afford the time that is necessary to copy and transform data. They also cannot afford to secure and protect each copy of personally identifiable information and corporate intellectual property. Data virtualization enables direct connections to be established between multiple data sources and the applications that process the data. Transformations can be applied, in line, to enable real-time access to data, which opens up many new ways to gain business insight with less IT infrastructure necessary to achieve those goals. Data virtualization can become the backbone for advanced analytics and modern applications. The IBM Data Virtualization Manager for z/OS (DVM) can be used as a stand-alone product or as a utility that is used by other products. Its goal is to enable access to live mainframe transaction data and make it usable by any application. This enables customers to use the strengths of mainframe processing with new agile applications. Additionally, its modern development environment and code-generating capabilities enable any developer to update, access, and combine mainframe data easily by using modern APIs and languages. If data is the foundation for building new insights, IBM DVM is a key tool for providing easy, cost-efficient access to that foundation.

Big data consists of data sets that are too large and complex for traditional data processing and data management applications. Therefore, to obtain the valuable information within the data, one must use a variety of innovative analytical methods, such as web analytics, machine learning, and network analytics. As the study of big data becomes more popular, there is an urgent demand for studies on high-level computational intelligence and computing services for analyzing this significant area of information science. Big Data Analytics for Sustainable Computing is a collection of innovative research that focuses on new computing and system development issues in emerging sustainable applications. Featuring coverage on a wide range of topics such as data filtering, knowledge engineering, and cognitive analytics, this publication is ideally designed for data scientists, IT specialists, computer science practitioners, computer engineers, academicians, professionals, and students seeking current research on emerging analytical techniques and data processing software.

Business intelligence and analytics software enable businesses to analyze performance data in order to make better decisions through the use of cloud computing--an Internet-based model for convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources. This book is a practitioner's guide for successful evaluation and design for implementation of Cognos Business Intelligence cloud solution, for either Cognos 8 BI or Cognos Business Intelligence Version 10. With pragmatic and practical information about the best practices and guidelines, as well as specific software and configuration steps, this guide for solutions and IT architects includes detailed screen shots, code samples, and input instructions.

Adaptive business intelligence systems combine prediction and optimization techniques to assist decision makers in complex, rapidly changing environments. These systems address fundamental questions: What is likely to happen in the future? What is the best course of action? Adaptive Business Intelligence explores elements of data mining, predictive modeling, forecasting, optimization, and adaptability. The book explains the application of numerous prediction and optimization techniques, and shows how these concepts can be used to develop adaptive systems. Coverage includes linear regression, time-series forecasting, decision trees and tables, artificial neural networks, genetic programming, fuzzy systems, genetic algorithms, simulated annealing, tabu search, ant systems, and agent-based modeling.