Robert Eve

Charles Dickens’ classic novel, A Tale of Two Cities, begins, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.” When it comes to information to help business professionals make wise decisions, answer critical questions, and resolve significant problems, today truly is the best and worst of times. There is more data than ever to understand and improve corporate performance, and it’s growing by 30% a year, according to recent industry analyst estimates. In the midst of this data explosion, IT delivery systems are hard pressed to keep pace. According to a recent study commissioned by Accenture, “Managers spend two hours a day looking for information they need, and almost half the data is useless once they get it.” With so much wasted time, and more data predicted to be on ... (more)

Ten Mistakes to Avoid When Virtualizing Data

Data virtualization's ability to overcome hardware and software complexity provides enterprises with an excellent opportunity to improve IT agility and save significantly. As more enterprises seek these benefits, data virtualization is swiftly moving from new idea to the mainstream. This article looks at the 10 most common mistakes made by early adopters as object lessons for helping new implementations accelerate the potential achievement of data virtualization's benefits. Determining where and when to use data virtualization is the source of five common mistakes that may occur... (more)

The Intersection of Data Virtualization and Enterprise Data Warehouses

Virtualization Magazine on Ulitzer Large enterprises and government agencies are drowning in data. IT teams deploy a myriad of data warehouse-centric solutions - BI, predictive analytics, data and content mining, portals and dashboards - to harness and deliver data for intelligent decision-making. Yet, large enterprises are also expected to act like start-ups: nimble, agile and flexible to adapt to ever-changing market conditions. Impossible? By examining the best practices of their successful peers and adapting these to their own enterprises, data teams and enterprise architects... (more)

Hybrid Solutions for Data Virtualization and Enterprise Data Warehouses

Weblogic at Cloud Expo The intersection of data virtualization and enterprise data warehouses represents corporate best practices for delivering the rich data assets available in the enterprise data warehouse with the myriad sources of data now available outside the data warehouse. In Part Two of this two-part series, I will target improving data warehouse efficiency by showing four best practices where data virtualization, used alongside data warehouses, saves time and money. Part One examined ways that data virtualization improves data warehouse effectiveness. 4. Data Wareho... (more)

Virtualization - Fast-Forward to Today's Virtual Data Marts

When Honda introduced the Civic in America in 1972, industry experts declared Honda would never succeed because automobiles were too complex and required skills and technology beyond those of the mere motorcycle company. Fast forward to today when Honda’s Civics and Accords are two of North America's top-selling cars. What changed? Honda developed the skills and technology to build nimble automobiles, while competitors stayed mired in old paradigms – big cars, poor mileage, and mediocre quality. This story is being retold today with virtual data marts. Virtual Data Marts – Solu... (more)