Abraham Lincoln might easily have been discussing data preparation steps for analytics when he said, “If I had 8 hours to chop down a tree, I would spend 6 sharpening my axe.” Spending 75% of the allotted time on preparation may seem like a lot. But in fact, most industry observers report that data…
Why model anything? There are many types of models with many types of usages, such as physical, scientific, mathematical, computer, concrete, communication, etc. The overall purpose is to define, support analysis and decisions, and to communicate or validate a system or perspective. Models can also be used to help speed things up or slow…
Why Performance Matters My very first sales call to an analytics prospect was with a customer using an OLTP database for reporting. Some of their reports took hours to run and one particularly challenging report typically ran for more than thirteen hours. Our performance benchmarking had shown that for analytics workloads, Actian would be…
What is innovation? Innovation is doing something new that does not currently exist or something new that improves efficiency, effectiveness, cost, and/or creates a competitive advantage. A new method, process, product, or service can be considered an innovation. This also includes the integration of different markets with the utilization of a new product that…
