10 Technologies for 2011 : 10. Data Visualization Tools

Data Visualization Tools

An ever accelerating trend in information technology has been the growth in the volume of data that must be collected and processed within an enterprise. 10 years ago, it would have been rare for a data store to be over a terabyte except perhaps within federal agencies or other instituitions that deal with massive numbers of users or customers such as a Walmart and those that were worked in industries that are by nature data intensive: Oil Exploration, Stock Market analysis etc. Now terabyte data stores are common place and can often  be found in medium sized companies.

With the advent of cheap processing power in modern CPUs and advances in cheap relational database technology such as found in Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL and MySQL at the low end, and DB2, ORACLE, TeraData, Netezza at the high end, suddenly the Terabyte doesnt seem to be a daunting measure of workload any more.

However, the rapid increase in IT's ability to process data has not come with a commensurate increase in our ability to understand this data. The vast majority of intelligence generated from these giant data stores is still distributed to end users through paper based reports. They are produced by scheduled batch jobs that churn through oceans of data and distill their wisdom usually in the middle of the night when there are fewer users to slow the system down. This works well for many kinds of reports.

However there is a new kind of business intelligence platform that is now gathering momentum, upsetting the current equalibrium between the few remaining vendors after waves of consolidation have worked there way through the Industry. MicrosStrategy, SAP Business Objects, Cognos, Oracle, IBM are looking at the new kids on the block: QlikView, TIBCO Spotfire and Tableau as insurgents that bring disruptive technology.

These vendors focus on interpreting data on the fly and presenting various charts and graphs that are updated in real time in response to the users clicks. Some of them like QlikView cache vast amounts of compressed data in memory for very rapid response. These approaches change the fundamental paradigm of business intelligence: Paper Reports dont seem all that neccessary when you can explore your data visually in an instant.

It is very likely that these new approaches to processing data will lead the Business Intelligence majors to either develop extensions to their current stable of products that more directly support Data Visualization or simply decide that its cheaper to acquire these insurgents.

In either case, Data Visualization is here to stay!

10 Technologies for 2011 : 9. Mobile Apps

Mobile Apps

Yes, Mobile Devices and related technologies seem over represented in this list of top ten technologies for 2011. Thats because mobile technology is driving massive change in the technology sector. The decades old dominance of the PC platform is being supplanted at breakneck pace by mobile devices.

The traditional model of IT groups dictating what devices could connect to corporate systems is fading away fast. New devices from Apple and the myriad vendors who support the Android platform are being brought into the workpace without any prior approval. The line between the personal use of mobile devices and corporate devices is getting blurred. The iPad is being adopted at positively astounding rates by senior management. The days of the ultralight laptop as status symbol are numbered. Showing up at meetings with an iPad is almost expected when you get closer to the top of the corporate ladder.

What does this mean for corporations that create content that traditionally was delivered by a dedicated desktop app or even a web 2.0 app delivered through a standard browser ?

It means every company needs a mobile strategy. At the top of the house, there must be commitment to considering mobile devices to be first class citizens when designing content delivery channels. It is a hard pill to swallow for many but the fact is mobile devices entering the market place now are more powerful than perhaps 75% of business desktops out there for general compute tasks, lagging perhaps only in their graphics rendering prowess.  Given that corporate desktop refresh cycles run typically 3 years, it is almost a certainty that in the next year personal and corporate mobile devices will be more powerful than desktop computers employees may have.

So what are the main elements of a mobile application strategy:  (1) Decisions around targeting a specific device family (iOS, WebOS, Android, Windows Phone 7 etc) or to build a general browser based app that is smart aboyt scaling down to mobile devices. (2) Decisions around free vs paid or a hybrid freemium business model to deliver content. (3) Decisions around online vs offline access to content. (4) Decisions around extending the corporate web brand or starting afresh (4) Training or hiring new staff for mobile device development or retaining a third party specialist firm. (5) Rapid iteration of a concept vs execution of a fully realized plan.

Some of these decisions may seem obvious to many of us, however each company's market position and preparedness is different and that must influence their decision making.

Common pitfalls include underestimating the complexity and expertise required in user interface design for mobile devices, underbudgeting for long term maintenance of the application as well as not factoring in the influence customer reviews of mobile apps that are part of every app store now.