Information Warehouse 1.0 - Part 4

Imagine a piece of data floating in a 3 dimensional world.


It is related to different elements – both data (other data) and (its own and other data’s) attributes / dimensions. Every data element is linked to another data or attribute in this world. The only difference is the level of the link. The key here is to understand that the “database” for this Information access is not in relational format.

And add a “Google like” patented technology that makes finding information a nifty process and a front end highly customizable Java / .NET API. The possibilities are endless. What is even better is the Guided summarization that makes finding what you want, even more easy. This goes one step above. While free form text searches are still one of the options, what about questions that require information that do not fit in a report or a search box properly? Guided summarization shows you the way.

In addition to being able to lookup structured, semi-structured and un-structured data, relating them to each other, providing capabilities for searching them using free form search, Guided summarization lets you analyze dimensions of data that you would not be aware of, easing your way to the information you need. For more information about Endeca, and to view a demo of how guided summarization works, please visit http://www.endeca.com/

p.s: The picture is only for visualization purpose.

Information Warehouse 1.0 - Part 3

Then the question of Data Integration comes to mind. If all I want to do is look at related data that happen to be in separate silos do we have to really go down the path of expensive data integration projects? Why do we try to hammer the square object in the triangle holes?

The World Wide Web search might show us the way. Relational databases are agreeably one of the best ways to store the data. But this is not 1980’s. Disk space and memory are less expensive than Consultants. We shouldn’t be shy to take the “Google” approach and improve upon that.

Introducing Endeca. Endeca is an Information Access platform. It doesn’t replace your ETL or BI tool. But lets you get more information out of your data and faster. When looking for Information, for those who always felt the BI front end as too restrictive and custom built SQL queries as too complex, here is the solution.

Imagine Google like free form text search capabilities for your queries. The ability to associate structured data with unstructured data and semi structured data without the need to bring them to your database. The ability to integrate your information without having to integrate the underlying data. Building an Information warehouse. This is Endeca.

So how does this work?