Tag Archives: Big Data

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

QlikTech OEM Partner Program Gains Global Momentum

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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QlikTech OEM Partner Program Gains Global Momentum

Sees continued partner growth across US, Europe, and Asia-Pacific as demand for self-service BI solution increases

RADNOR, Pa.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– QlikTech, (NASDAQ: QLIK) a leader in Business Discovery – user-driven Business Intelligence (BI), today announced strong growth in its worldwide OEM partner program. By expanding the reach of its QlikView Business Discovery platform, QlikTech works with its OEM Partners to build solutions “Powered by QlikView,” tailored to meet the needs of customers in various vertical markets including financial services, healthcare, telecom, and functional areas such as call center and procurement performance management. This news comes as hundreds of partner attendees are gathering at Qonnections 2013, the company’s annual Global Partner Summit.

This OEM momentum builds on QlikTech’s commitment to become the de facto global standard for how people gain insight from their data. The company’s history of growth in the new category of self-service BI continues as companies seek alternatives to traditional software solutions that take too long to solve their Big Data problems. With QlikView’s patented core technology, associative experience, and collaboration and mobile capabilities, users can ask and answer streams of questions on their own or in teams and groups, wherever they happen to be working. Users can continue to explore information freely rather than being confined to a predefined path of questions and they gain rapid time to value in deployments that can be productive in just days or weeks.

Among the leading global organizations that are leveraging OEM agreements with QlikTech include:

  • Alpine Data Labs: Alpine’s software uniquely combines intuitive interfaces, native analytic processing in Hadoop, high performance in-database analytic processing, and a lightweight deployment process to deliver solutions that harness the power of parallel computing platforms and realize the predictive value of Big Data analytics. Alpine has bundled and integrated QlikView into its predictive analytics platform, enabling data experts and novices alike to work across organizational barriers and collaboratively harness insights gained from predictive analytics and Business Discovery.
  • Causata, Inc.: A leading provider of Customer Experience Management software. Built on an HBase big data architecture, Causata predictive analytics and real-time offer management applications enable B2C companies to understand their customers, predict intent, and deliver the next best action at the right time …read more
    Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

This Big-Data Spinoff Could Soar Soon

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By Michael Lewis, The Motley Fool

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Data-storage company CyrusOne is a recent spinoff from regional telecom Cincinnati Bell . And, like many spinoffs, the company hasn’t garnered much attention from the market — yet. Recently announced was a near 12% passive stake in the company by Mick McGuire’s Marcato Capital. McGuire is a former Pershing Square analyst and has quickly racked up a strong reputation in the value world. According to McGuire, CyrusOne has best-in-class return on assets yet trades at a discount to its data-center peers. Should you jump onboard this spinoff before the market takes notice?

Favorable metrics
It doesn’t take a genius to determine that data-storage infrastructure needs will only rise in the coming years. According to Gartner Research, Big Data is expected to grow 800% over the coming years. This company’s management firmly believes that data-center infrastructure is lacking and, where it exists, is inefficient. Hoping to change that, CyrusOne owns and operates 24 data centers in the U.S. and abroad. While a respectable start to the recent market entrant, its footprint leaves plenty of runway for robust growth where management sees opportunity.

As far as financial results go, the numbers are in line with management’s expectations for growth. Revenues were up 21% in the recent quarter, and up 22% for the year. Funds from operations, the go-to metric for a REIT, were up 17% for the quarter and 19% for the year. The company has plenty of existing room for expansion this year — 140 acres for construction and more than 800,000 net rentable square footage. With most metrics pointed toward big growth, why does the company trade at a discount to peers?

The why, and the why-it’s-OK
One thing (besides a negative bottom line last quarter) that may be deterring investors and analysts is the company’s debt load — which at year’s end was more than its market cap at $540.7 million. Pro forma IPO proceeds bring that debt level down to $203.6 million, giving the company a pro forma IPO debt leverage-to-EBITDA ratio of 1.8.

For comparison, look at Equinix . Though a much bigger company, Equinix operates in a very similar fashion (it’s a data-center REIT), and with even greater debt ratios, yet it trades at an EV/EBITDA of 16. CyrusOne trades at less than 10 times the same ratio. There is also a large disparity in price-to-book, which is more relevant for asset-heavy companies. Equinix trades at a P/B of 4.52, while CyrusOne is just under 0.9.

If CyrusOne were to correct toward Equinix’s multiples — though not all of the way, given that I find the company to be richly valued — we’re looking at a double-digit gain in stock price, without taking into account dividends.

Investors interested in the moves of value-investor gurus may want to take a second look at the underfollowed, and potentially undervalued, CyrusOne.

More from The Motley Fool
With the U.S. relying on the rest of the world for such a large percentage …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Can Pitney Bowes Remain a Top Dividend Stock?

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By Dan Caplinger, The Motley Fool

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Investors have always been interested in stocks that pay dividends, but lately low interest rates on bonds and other fixed-income investments have made solid dividend payers even more valuable. For years, Pitney Bowes was among the most promising dividend stocks in the market, as one of the few exclusive companies to make the list of Dividend Aristocrats. In order to become a member of this elite group, a company must have raised its dividend payouts to shareholders every single year for at least a quarter-century. Only a few dozen stocks manage to make the cut, and those that do tend to stay there for a long time.

With the company having had to make a massive shift to its business model in recent years in order to adapt to changing industry conditions, Pitney Bowes made many investors extremely nervous about whether it could remain among its Dividend Aristocrat peers. Last year, it finally got taken off the Dividend Aristocrats list, but not because it stopped increasing its payouts. Rather, it failed to meet Standard & Poor’s minimum market capitalization requirement of $3 billion. Let’s take a closer look at Pitney Bowes to see whether it can sustain its long streak of rewarding dividend payouts to investors.

Dividend Stats on Pitney Bowes

 

  

Current Quarterly Dividend Per Share

$0.375

Current Yield

10.1%

Number of Consecutive Years With Dividend Increases

30 years

Payout Ratio

68%

Last Increase

February 2012

Source: Yahoo! Finance. Last increase refers to ex-dividend date.

The latest on Pitney Bowes
Pitney Bowes was once the undisputed giant in the global mail-services industry. With huge market share in sales of its postage meters and other business mailing essentials, it was an integral part of how both large and small businesses reached out to their customers.

Lately, though, the company has realized that the writing was on the wall for its legacy mailing business. As more delivery services went online, upstart Stamps.com and Newell Rubbermaid‘s Endicia took away some of Pitney Bowes‘ dominant position in the industry.

In response, Pitney Bowes has turned to a dramatic restructuring, moving in the direction of broader-based business services, with a focus on business analytics and data management. That’s an extremely crowded industry, but it also has a lot more growth opportunities than its legacy business. With the rise of the Big Data initiative, Pitney Bowes has plenty of room to use assets like its geocoding software to open doors to new customers.

Looking at its most recent dividends, Pitney Bowes has been getting by on just token payout increases for a long time now:

Source: PBI Dividend data by YCharts.

Pitney Bowes has also been finding other uses for its free cash. Just last week, it said that it had accepted about $400 million in tendered notes from bondholders to retire debt due in the next three years. That may …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Progress Software Expands Big Data Connectivity With New HiveServer2 and Cloudera Support

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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Progress Software Expands Big Data Connectivity With New HiveServer2 and Cloudera Support

New DataDirect Connect® for ODBC Driver Technology Boosts Data Warehouse Performance, Enables Better Data Access for ODBC Interfaces

BEDFORD, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Progress Software Corporation (NAS: PRGS) , a global software company that simplifies and enables the development and deployment of business applications, today expanded its leading Big Data connectivity capabilities with the availability of new ODBC driver technologies that make it easier to leverage the newest and most powerful data warehousing applications. With new support for HiveServer2 and Cloudera CDH 4.1 Hadoop distributions, Progress® DataDirect Connect® XE for ODBC 7.1 reduces complexity for developers while enabling fast, reliable and secure access from multiple data sources.

HiveServer2, the latest iteration of Apache Hive, is the data warehouse system for Hadoop, one of the most commonly used Big Data frameworks in the market today. It enables organizations to easily summarize data, execute ad hoc queries and process large sets of data within the Hadoop framework – key functionalities in today’s data saturated business environment. In order to capitalize on this system, fast, reliable and secure data access technology is critical.

The new HiveServer2 support featured in the latest DataDirect Connect XE for ODBC 7.1 service pack delivers improved performance for ODBC interfaces, allowing easy management of concurrent HiveServer2 connections. It also provides improved scalability and high availability for HiveServer2 applications requiring extremely efficient database access. Additionally, improved HiveServer2 authentication allows the use of plain text passwords for improved usability, and better overall authorized access.

DataDirect Connect XE for ODBC 7.1 now includes support for Cloudera CDH 4.1, Cloudera’s leading enterprise Hadoop distribution.

Additional features in this service pack (SP1) include:

  • Platform certification for Windows 8 and Microsoft SQL Server 2012
  • PostgreSQL 9.1 support
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3 support
  • Upgraded support for Salesforce.com API 26

Progress Software is the leading provider of comprehensive software for connecting the world’s most critical business applications to data and services, running on any platform, using proven and emerging standards. Developers worldwide depend on Progress DataDirect products to connect their applications to an unparalleled range of data sources using standards-based interfaces such as ODBC, JDBC and …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

News, Politics, Government

Big Data: What's Next and How to Handle It All

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By Alex Pierre-Traves, AdVoice

We’ve heard a lot about big data recently. Some say it’s the greatest thing ever; others want us to focus on so-called small data. Whatever side of the debate you’re on, you can’t ignore the need to do something with this data. The International Data Corporation (IDC) predicts the volume of data will grow by 40 percent over the next seven years. That’s a lot of data to manage, analyse and ultimately integrate into your business decisions. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

The 5 Most Expensive Stocks in the Market

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By Dan Caplinger, The Motley Fool

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Many investors want to invest in stocks, especially as the S&P 500 hit a new all-time high last week for the first time in more than five years. But prices on many popular stocks are extremely high, making some worry about whether the market has gotten too expensive.

With that in mind, I found five S&P 500 companies that are trading at very high multiples to their expected future earnings, according to the latest forward price-to-earnings figures based on earnings over the next 12 months as projected by S&P Capital IQ. Rather than immediately dismissing these stocks as being more costly than they’re worth, let’s take a closer look to see if there’s a good reason these companies can support such high multiples.

Amazon.com , 158.2 forward P/E
Amazon is a huge company, with a market cap of more than $120 billion and revenue of more than $61 billion over the past year. But in many ways, it still acts like a start-up, taking aggressive measures to carve out new focus areas and worrying much more about attracting customers than earning profits. Recent price cuts on the already cheap Kindle Fire HD and its cloud-computing deal with the CIA are a couple examples of what Amazon is willing to do to boost sales in an attempt to get more customers into its ecosystem to generate profits down the road.

To justify paying premium prices for Amazon shares, you have to be comfortable that at some point in the future, CEO Jeff Bezos will shift from a market-share-driven strategy to a profit-maximizing strategy. Analysts expect much higher earnings in the next couple of years, but not enough to represent Amazon’s full potential. Maximizing profits could be years off, but so far, shareholders haven’t lost faith that it will come eventually.

Netflix , 139.0 forward P/E
When Netflix plunged 80% in late 2011, value investors said the move had been inevitable because of its previous high valuation. Yet lately, Netflix has reversed its miscues, and the result has been growing subscriber counts and a share price that has tripled just since September.

Netflix faces competition from Amazon and others in its core streaming video space, and content acquisition deals such as the one it recently completed with Disney are a big gamble on the loyalty of Netflix’s customer base. Analysts expect earnings to double in 2014, but any slowdown in growth rates could lead to the same pain for shareholders that they suffered in 2011.

salesforce.com , 89.3 forward P/E
Salesforce was a pioneer in cloud computing, with its software-as-a-service strategy fitting well with the move to online delivery of IT services. Given all the recent interest in Big Data and the cloud, Salesforce immediately comes to mind among investors looking at companies that could innovate in new and potentially lucrative directions. Yet with much larger competitors now moving heavily into the space, Salesforce has lost …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

The 5 Cheapest Stocks in the Market

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By Dan Caplinger, The Motley Fool

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With the S&P 500 having hit a new all-time high on Thursday, many investors are thinking about getting back into the stock market. But concerns about whether the market might be poised for a downturn have investors looking for good bargains.

With that in mind, I found five S&P 500 companies that are trading at particularly attractive valuations right now, according to the latest price-to-earnings figures from S&P Capital IQ. Yet before you simply go and buy all five stocks, let’s take a closer look to see if they’re actually a good value for investors right now.

Apollo Group , 5.43 P/E
Apollo is the company behind the popular online for-profit giant University of Phoenix. The entire for-profit educational industry has faced difficult times recently, as falling enrollment and rising student-loan default rates among graduates have led to investor concerns as well as inquiries from government entities and other regulatory authorities.

In part because of those enrollment pressures, profits at Apollo are expected to drop by about 25% in fiscal 2013 compared with last year. Yet the real overhang on shares is the threat of more draconian measures from regulators that could endanger the entire business model on which Apollo and its peers operate. If you’re willing to take on that risk and believe that for-profit education will survive and recover, then Apollo shares look quite inexpensive.

Western Digital and Seagate Technology , 6.04 and 4.76 P/Es
The fortunes of these two companies are strongly linked, given their joint history in dominating the hard-disk-drive space. What’s sent these stocks downward is the precipitous drop in PC demand, with an accompanying drop in demand for the hard-drives that typically accompany PCs.

Still, the companies have two viable strategies going forward. First, the rise of the cloud-computing Big Data initiative has increased the need for high-volume storage mechanisms, and that could lead to a resurgence in hard-drive demand for purposes that don’t need the higher speeds available from alternative media. Second, both companies have looked to hybrid solid-state hard drives to try to combine high-speed features for key elements like faster boot-up speed with the more cost-effective storage capacity available from traditional hard drives. If either of these strategies proves successful, then both Western Digital and Seagate should be able to limit their future earnings declines and even potentially begin to grow again.

CF Industries , 6.71 P/E
Fertilizer-maker CF Industries has benefited from favorable conditions in the agricultural market for years now. Combined with benign cost considerations for fertilizer production, CF has reaped the rewards in strong earnings. Unfortunately, rising natural gas prices could start to hamper its profit growth, as the energy source is a major component of the company’s production process.

As the ag market starts to revert to more normal conditions, analysts see CF‘s earnings falling by 7% to 10% annually in 2013 and 2014. Yet as long as earnings hit bottom near their …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

News, Politics, Government

Moving from Big Data to Big Wisdom

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By Skoll World Forum, Contributor

Editor’s note: Darin McKeever is a deputy director in the Global Policy & Advocacy division at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he leads the foundation’s charitable sector support team. This article was published as part of a debate on Big Data and in advance of the Skoll World Forum in April, which will host a session on exactly this topic. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Rackspace Adds Error Tracking and Redis-as-a-Service to Developer Toolset with Acquisition of Except

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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Rackspace Adds Error Tracking and Redis-as-a-Service to Developer Toolset with Acquisition of Exceptional Cloud Services

Expanded Portfolio Allows Rackspace to Drive Innovation of Developer Services

SAN ANTONIO, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Rackspace® Hosting (NYS: RAX) , the open cloud company, today announced the strategic acquisition of Exceptional Cloud Services to enhance its toolset for developers deploying and managing applications in the open cloud. Through this deal, Rackspace will expand its portfolio of developer solutions to include error tracking and Redis-as-a-Service capabilities. These solutions from Exceptional Cloud Services are currently used by more than 50,000 application developers.

“Rackspace is improving the key technologies used by developers in the open cloud. Our focus on the developer community is deeper than ever before and we are carefully adding strategic technologies to our open hybrid cloud portfolio, while keeping the needs of application developers in mind,” said Pat Matthews, senior vice president of corporate development at Rackspace. “Through the acquisition of Exceptional Cloud Services, we’re gaining technology and expertise that will provide startups and cloud developers with the tools that help them deliver more reliable customer experiences and to bring the next generation of cloud-based apps to market faster.”

As part of the agreement, Rackspace will acquire the following products:

  • Exceptional.io – Exceptional tracks errors in over 6,000 web applications. The service reports errors in real-time and gathers the information developers need to fix them fast.
  • Airbrake.io – Airbrake collects errors generated by other applications and aggregates the results for review.
  • Redis To Go – Redis To Go makes managing Redis instances easier, whether it’s one instance or hundreds. Faster caching and easier in-memory dataset operations deployed on demand.

Startups like StickerMule, HowAboutWe and larger customers such as Exec, Groupon, HotelTonight, Oracle, TaskRabbit and Zendesk rely on these technologies to enhance their development, troubleshooting and Big Data applications.

Due in part to increased developer demand for more tools and capabilities that will help them design and deliver cloud applications to market, Rackspace launched its open cloud platform in 2012 including a full suite of compute, storage and networking offerings. As part of its ongoing emphasis on supporting developers, Rackspace added Mailgun, a programmable email platform in August 2012, ObjectRocket, a scalable and high-performing MongoDB …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

WebMediaBrands' Inside 3D Printing Conference & Expo Features Three Keynotes, Comprehensive Tutorial

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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WebMediaBrands’ Inside 3D Printing Conference & Expo Features Three Keynotes, Comprehensive Tutorials, and Exhibitors 3D Systems, MakerBot, and Stratasys

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)– WebMediaBrands Inc. (NAS: WEBM) today announced that Avi Reichental, President & CEO of 3D Systems, Terry Wohlers, Principal Consultant and President of Wohlers Associates, Inc., and Peter Weijmarshausen, CEO & Co-Founder of Shapeways, are keynoting at Inside 3D Printing Conference & Expo, taking place at the Javits Convention Center in New York City on April 22-23, 2013.

Dr. Hod Lipson, associate professor and director of the Creative Machines Lab at Cornell University and author of Fabricated: The New World of 3D Printing, developed the conference program with a robust lineup of speakers. In addition to comprehensive tutorials, Inside 3D Printing Conference & Expo offers sessions covering the use of 3D printing in medicine, fashion, food, design, architecture, manufacturing, and more.

Inside 3D Printing Conference & Expo also features a wide range of industry-leading exhibitors demonstrating the latest 3D printing equipment and services, including 3D Systems, MakerBot, Stratasys, Mcor Technologies, Sculpteo and more.

For complete information on the Inside 3D Printing Conference & Expo, please visit http://inside3dprinting.com.

For exhibiting and sponsorship information, please contact Marilyn Reed at 3dprinting.sponsors@mediabistro.com or 518-793-8167.

About WebMediaBrands Inc.

WebMediaBrands Inc. (NAS: WEBM) (http://www.webmediabrands.com) is a leading Internet media company that provides content, education, and career services to social media, traditional media, and creative professionals through a portfolio of vertical online properties, communities, and trade shows. The Company’s online business includes: (i) mediabistro.com, a leading blog network providing content, education, community, and career resources (including the industry’s leading online job board) about major media industry verticals including new media, social media, Facebook, TV news, advertising, public relations, publishing, design, and mobile; (ii) InsideNetwork.com, a leading network of online properties providing original market research, data services, news, and job listings on the Facebook platform, on social gaming, and on mobile applications ecosystems; and (iii) SemanticWeb.com, a leading blog providing content, education, community resources and career resources on the commercialization and application of Semantic Technologies, Linked Data, and Big Data. The Company’s online business also includes community, membership and e-commerce offerings including a freelance listing service, a marketplace for designing and purchasing logos (stocklogos.com) and premium membership services. The Company’s …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

News, Politics, Government

A Storage Guy at GigaOM Structure Data?

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By John Webster, Contributor GigaOM’s annual Structure Data event, held typically during March in New York City, is billed as a Big Data analytics event.  But I’m a self-confessed storage bigot and I saw this latest edition as a storage event. Cloud computing aficionados likely saw clouds everywhere at this show but not me. I saw storage. Let me explain. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

News, Politics, Government

How Siri Could Kill Apple

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By Greg Satell, Contributor

When Apple launched the iPhone 4S in the fall of 2011, it shattered sales records, selling over 4 million units in the first three days. A big part of that success was Siri, the revolutionary new interface which responds to voice commands. It appeared that Steve Jobs had done it again. (This time, from beyond the grave no less!).  Back in the ‘80’s, he had transformed personal computing by introducing the public to the graphical user interface (first developed at Xerox PARC).  Then came first iPhone with its multi-touch interface, revolutionary for its time (but developed by FingerWorks, acquired by Apple in 2005). Now, Apple appeared to be taking it to the next level, with an interface that didn’t require hands at all.  Once again Siri was not only a technological triumph, but a smart business move.  Rather than spend years lavishing billions of dollars on an R&D program, Apple picked up Siri for a reported $200 million.  Even better, the initial research was financed by DARPA.  (Thanks Uncle Sam!) Alas, things were not what they seemed.  In fact, Siri could signal the beginning of the end for Apple. First, the obvious.  When you ask Siri for something, it inevitably sends you to Google.  So while Apple impresses consumers, their arch-rival at Mountain View profits.  Apple has since launched their own maps (not very effectively, I might add), but their only other option for basic search is Microsoft, which wouldn’t be much of an improvement in terms of competitive concerns. Second, even Siri itself is not truly an Apple product.  Much of the critical technology is provided by Nuance Communications, a leader in speech recognition.  So it’s hard to see how Siri gives Apple any competitive advantage at all. Probably most importantly, with Apple’s paltry R&D budget, it is unlikely that they will be able to compete beyond interfaces and devices (and with the launch of Samsung’s Galaxy 4S, even their position there seems to be eroding).  As I wrote in an earlier post for Forbes, a variety of companies, ranging from Facebook to IBM are investing heavily in systems that combine natural language with Big Data. Apple, for its part, doesn’t seem to have any significant artificial intelligence platform beyond the Siri interface and no big data effort to speak of.  If they did, we would know about it.  Despite Apple’s well deserved reputation for secrecy, even they wouldn’t be able to hide hiring the top notch talent that they would need to build a strong artificial intelligence platform.  There’s just not that much of it around. So it appears that Apple is at a crossroads.  They have plenty of cash and leadership positions in both smartphones and tablets, two high growth categories that are far from saturation.  Moreover, their notebook and iPod businesses continue to be wildly profitable.  However, it’s tough to see how Apple will compete 3-5 years from now when Big Data and artificial intelligence become an important part of the consumer experience. As I’ve pointed out before, it’s not …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

New Survey Shows Federal Agencies Willing – But Not Ready – to Leverage Big Data

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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New Survey Shows Federal Agencies Willing – But Not Ready – to Leverage Big Data

Despite Challenges, Federal Managers Expect Big Data Use to Grow

WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)– According to a study released today from the Government Business Council (GBC) and Booz Allen Hamilton, more than 75 percent of federal managers believe Big Data has the power to fundamentally transform federal operations. However, their confidence wanes when asked whether their agency is taking the appropriate steps to leverage this new method of collecting and using large amounts of information. A mere 37 percent agreed that their agency is moving in the right direction to implement Big Data.

The report, “Turning Optimism into Reality: How Big Data Can Transform Government,” assesses the perceptions, attitudes and experiences of federal employees on the use of Big Data to improve operations. The study is supported by extensive primary and secondary research, including interviews with leading Big Data experts, a survey of federal employees and feedback from a random sample of 313 Department of Defense civilian and military Government Executive subscribers.

Mark Herman, executive vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton offers his insight on a Big Data strategy. “As organizations consider how to fully unlock the value of the massive amount of data available to them, an important – but often overlooked – element is defining a Big Data strategy. This roadmap will help ensure the right decisions are made in alignment with expectations for defined business or mission outcomes. Defining and implementing a strategy from this lens will help senior leaders engage in a productive dialogue that maximizes their Big Data and creates meaningful value.”

Key report findings include:

  • Only 18 percent of managers feel they have complete proficiency to use Big Data.
  • Agency skill set could explain managers’ lack of confidence. Fifty percent of program managers believe their agency could do more to capitalize on the opportunities Big Data offers, yet nearly the same number – 47 percent – responded that their agency does not have the technical skills to understand how to use Big Data.
  • Optimism abounds as 69 percent of federal leaders surveyed indicated that Big Data has the capacity to fundamentally transform federal operations.

    • <li …read more
    Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Will Google Get to $1,000 Before Apple Gets to $500?

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By Tim Beyers, The Motley Fool

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Each week, I endeavor to report the results of the Big Idea Portfolio, a collection of five tech stocks that I believe will crush the market over a three-year period. I’ve done it before; my last tussle with Mr. Market ended with me beating the index’s average return by 13.35%.

Real money was on the line then as it is now, which means any one of the five stocks you see here could cause me a lot of public embarrassment. This time, most of my stocks fell as Google made a series of interesting moves.

First, over a six-hour span at South by Southwest (SXSW), the search king showed off wearable technology, including 12 pairs of talking shoes hacked together in three weeks to demonstrate the potential of connecting gear (and brands) to the Web. A Google X engineer also showed up to demonstrate the Glass interactive spectacles.

Source: Google.

Cool as these devices are, they’re also only part of Google’s growth story. Imagine using search to index and retrieve data about your energy usage compared to average temperature. Then imagine paying your energy bill through Google Wallet and cross-referencing that. Orwellian possibilities abound when you index, well, everything.

Google wants all of us thinking this way. A new service called Keep proposes to challenge Evernote by providing a simple system for archiving anything. Think of it as a slimmed-down productivity tool that does for Google Apps what OneNote does for Microsoft‘s Office Suite.

Other Googlers pitched access to information as a humanitarian need at SXSW. In one session, Amit Singhal, who oversees search for the company, told the story of an African farmer who hiked several miles to an Internet cafe to search for ways to halt an ant infestation of his potato crop. Google held the answer.

Add it up, and I wonder if the search king isn’t fitting itself to be the chief data aggregator and distributor in a hyperconnected world. As Singhal put it: “[E]ven a farmer in Africa, or a mother in an Indian village, or a fisherman in Malaysia, will have as much access to knowledge as kings used to.”

Why not? Google is already the original Big Data company. It was the search king’s early efforts to boil an ocean of online data efficiently that led to MapReduce and the Google File System, two mechanisms for crunching multiple terabytes of data concurrently across a vast array of cheap servers. Today, these breakthroughs undergird an open-source technology called Apache Hadoop that’s used in a number of Big Data projects.

Google, meanwhile, sticks to its own knitting for the biggest Big Data project of all: indexing the Web, every minute of every day, continuously. Mix in Android and Chrome OS devices and a heaping helping of broadband, and Singhal’s dream soon becomes a reality.

Of course, there’s a business purpose here, too. More networks and devices also mean more data, and Google …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

These Are Pivotal Times for EMC

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By Richard Saintvilus, The Motley Fool

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Investors of storage giant EMC were not pleased after management came out with lower guidance for fiscal 2013. I felt this was more the result of potential struggles with VMware , which is 80% owned by EMC, than it was with EMC itself. But it didn’t matter. The Street reacted, and the stock got punished.

However, given the state of the hardware market, EMC‘s outlook wasn’t really that bad. And there was plenty of evidence that the company was winning the storages war despite recent pricing pressure from rivals such as IBM and Hewlett-Packard. But, following a recent “strategy day” with analysts, EMC seems poised for stronger growth down the road. And patient investors will be rewarded.

Change we can believe in
Bears remain fearful that the storage/cloud market will remain turbulent for at least 2013. In many respects, they’re right. But EMC has never gotten its due credit for its ability to quickly adapt to changing trends. A perfect example was the company’s recent announcement to spin-off areas of the business that, while strong in performance, were getting lost in the shuffle. By creating a separate entity, EMC feels that more value can be realized.

The company calls it “the pivotal initiative,” which is, essentially, a group of assets that includes data analytics, cloud computing, and Bid Data. Although management has not fully disclosed how the new company will be structured, it did say that Paul Maritz, who is VMware’s former CEO and has been running the Pivotal inside of EMC, will remain at the helm following the spin-off. The company also said that Pivotal will be jointly owned with VMware, which will take up 31% of Pivotal, while EMC will absorb the 69% majority. 

EMC‘s Greenplum and Pivotal Labs assets will be the major contributors of the operation, while VMware will put in its Cloud Foundry, Cetas, Spring, and Gemfire groups. Analysts love the idea. Brian White of Topeka Capital Markets, who has a buy rating on EMC with a $30 price target, said that Pivotal is expected to have $300 million in revenue this year. He also projected that the total available market for Big Data, which is currently $6 billion this year, can grow to $17 billion by 2016. In other words, although EMC doesn’t look like a stock that can ring in sizable gains this year, there is still plenty to love with the company in the long-term.

How much better will this make EMC?
While there is no doubt that EMC is the dominant force in storage, it’s not as if the competition is just going to roll over. And I think management understands this. To that end, EMC projected just 8% revenue growth for fiscal 2013. Management also warned that revenue growth for the first half of this year will arrive slightly below 8%, while the second half will make up the difference.

However, that’s not to suggest that management was down on its capabilities. Much of the downbeat guidance …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Actuate Technical Experts to Present Four Technical Sessions on Big Data and BIRT at EclipseCon on M

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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Actuate Technical Experts to Present Four Technical Sessions on Big Data and BIRT at EclipseCon on March 25-28 in Boston


Virgil Dodson, John Ward and Michael Williams to Present on BIRT Extension Points and How Big Data is Affecting Business Intelligence Software Development

SAN MATEO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Actuate Corporation (NAS: BIRT) , The BIRT Company™ – delivering more insights to more people than all BI companies combined, today announced they will lead four technical presentations at EclipseCon 2013, held in Boston, Mass., March 25-28, 2013.EclipseConis the annual technical conference of the Eclipse Foundation. The Conference focuses on the latest innovations in both the Eclipse community and the software industry.

EclipseCon 2013 includes 140 technical sessions and 18 tutorials over four intense days. The conference features tracks on:

  • Eclipse 4: Sessions on migrating to Eclipse 4, and case studies of companies building applications based on Eclipse 4
  • Mobile and Device Development: Sessions on Android, 3D printing, machine-to-machine development, embedded C++, and more
  • Eclipse Modeling: Sessions on EMF, CDO, and domain specific languages
  • Web Development: Sessions on Orion (a new web-based IDE), JavaScript development, and much more
  • EclipseRT: Sessions on Eclipse Equinox, RAP, EclipseLink and more

Virgil Dodson, Director, BIRT Exchange Evangelists at Actuate, will conduct the technical session entitled, “Big Data and Business Intelligence.” This session will cover in detail how to retrieve and visualize data from Big Data sources using BIRT. The presentation will also focus on where and why Big Data is being mined, what applications are being created to manage it, and what benefits are being realized from Big Data insights by companies who have taken the leap.

“In this session, we’ll go hands-on with the Eclipse Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools (BIRT) project, created and co-founded by Actuate,” said Dodson. “BIRT offers native support to Hadoop, and we’ll cover how BIRT can access Cassandra and MongoDB, among other Big Data tools. We’ll also demonstrate the extremely flexible BIRT Designer …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Here's What This $3 Billion Hedge Fund Has Been Buying

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By Selena Maranjian, The Motley Fool

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Every quarter, many money managers have to disclose what they’ve bought and sold, via “13F” filings. Their latest moves can shine a bright light on smart stock picks.

Today, let’s look at the Eminence Capital hedge fund company run by Ricky Sandler, who seeks growing companies in growing industries and out-of-favor companies and industries. He also likes to short stocks when he finds ones he expects will decline.

The company’s reportable stock portfolio totaled $3.4 billion in value as of Dec. 31, 2012.

Interesting developments
So what does Eminence Capital‘s latest quarterly 13F filing tell us? Here are a few interesting details:

The biggest new holdings are State Street and Rockwell Automation. Other new holdings of interest include Emerson Electric . Emerson Electric, which recently yielded 2.8%, has seen its performance pressured by Europe‘s troubles and a stronger dollar. In its last reported quarter, revenue was up 5% and EPS up 24%, with management noting that, “Recent order trends suggest market conditions have stabilized and may be poised for improvement, particularly in the emerging markets.” Some Wall Street analysts see it as undervalued, but our own analysts question that, expecting slower growth.

Among holdings in which Eminence Capital increased its stake were EMC and NetApp . EMC is a $52 billion storage giant, positioning itself to profit from the rapidly growing cloud-computing and “Big Data” arenas. It also holds an 80% ownership stake in virtualization specialist VMware, though VMware’s dominance in its market may mean slower growth in the future. EMC‘s recent earnings report was solid, featuring strong operating income growth, and many were excited to hear about its plans to launch a joint venture with VMware called Pivotal, combining their cloud and data analytics services. Pivotal is expected to be spun off as a separate company in the future.

With a market cap of $12 billion, NetApp is a smaller rival of EMC and one that has posted strong results recently, with the promise of more as its competition shrinks. Some wonder whether NetApp will end up being acquired by a bigger fish, such as Oracle, another key player in data.

Eminence Capital reduced its stake in lots of companies, including American International Group . AIG has become a hedge fund darling, but it’s not the best-performing insurer. My colleague Matt Koppenheffer worries about AIG‘s tendency to not plan sufficiently for the future, and fellow Fool Morgan Housel recently interviewed the company’s high-profile former CEO, Hank Greenberg.

Finally, Eminence Capital‘s biggest closed positions included Abbott Labs and Ralcorp Holdings, which was acquired by ConAgra. Abbott has just split its pharmaceutical business from its nutrition and devices businesses. The new pharmaceutical entity is AbbVie, starting out with about $18 billion in annual revenue but also a lot of debt. Some worry that AbbVie is too dependent on its $8 billion drug Humira, which faces patent expiration, though growth in emerging markets may make up …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

TIBCO Software Earnings: An Early Look

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By Dan Caplinger, The Motley Fool

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Earnings season is winding down, with most companies already having reported their quarterly results. But there are still some companies left to report, and TIBCO Software is about to release its quarterly earnings. The key to making smart investment decisions with stocks releasing their quarterly reports is to anticipate how they’ll do before they announce results, leaving you fully prepared to respond quickly to whatever inevitable surprises arise. That way, you’ll be less likely to make an uninformed knee-jerk reaction to news that turns out to be exactly the wrong move.

TIBCO Software is a growing player in the enterprise software space, with core products that include data analytic tools and enterprise-communications products. The company has positioned itself to take advantage of several industry trends, holding up well against much larger competitors. Let’s take an early look at what’s been happening with TIBCO Software over the past quarter and what we’re likely to see in its quarterly report on Thursday.

Stats on TIBCO Software

Analyst EPS Estimate

$0.18

Change From Year-Ago EPS

(10%)

Revenue Estimate

$242.5 million

Change From Year-Ago Revenue

7.4%

Earnings Beats in Past 4 Quarters

3

Source: Yahoo! Finance.

Will TIBCO Software run faster this quarter?
Over the past few months, analysts trimmed their views on TIBCO‘s earnings. For the just-ended quarter, they’ve cut estimates by $0.03 per share, and have reduced their calls for the full 2013 fiscal year by a nickel per share. Yet the stock has performed quite well, rising 14% since mid-December.

TIBCO is playing the role of a disruptive company in a promising sector of the technology industry. With its feet squarely in some of the hottest areas in tech, including the Big Data revolution and cloud tools and analytics, TIBCO has managed to maintain advantages over larger competitors by focusing on delivering the best data quickly rather than simply opening the floodgates and hoping that the right information somehow gets through.

But TIBCO‘s competition won’t just lie down. IBM is seeking to integrate its Watson supercomputer to work in helping its Big Data segment ramp up and compete more effectively on highly intensive tasks, taking aim at Oracle and Teradata with their own database systems. Moreover, up-and-coming analytics provider Splunk has made a big splash in the analytics segment, echoing TIBCO‘s emphasis on needing to distinguish the quality of data from the quantity.

In TIBCO‘s quarterly report, watch closely to see if the company shows the same strength that Qlik Technologies did in its own report a month ago. If TIBCO can match Qlik’s positive results and guidance, then its stock could move higher still in the months to come.

The amount of data we store every year is growing by a mind-boggling 60% annually! To make sense of this trend and pick out a winner, The Motley Fool has compiled a new report …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance