From the Press Release,

Aster Data Announces New Analytics Center and Launches http://www.mapreduce.org to Ease and Accelerate Adoption of MapReduce-Based Analytics

All-Star Team of Analytics Experts and MapReduce.org to Help Companies Build Next Generation Analytic Applications Using SQL-MapReduce and MapReduce Breakthroughs

Las Vegas, NV – April 12, 2010 – Gartner Business Intelligence Summit – Aster Data, a proven leader dedicated to providing the best data management and processing platform for big data volumes and analytics-intensive applications, today unveiled the Aster Analytics Center to help customers accelerate development of advanced analytic applications. Simultaneously, Aster Data also launched the first multi-author destination site for enterprise and government organizations, systems integrators, ISVs, and developers who want to build competency on the MapReduce analytics processing framework and related MapReduce frameworks.http://www.mapreduce.org offers research, education, analysis, customer use cases, key learnings, and tips for anyone interested in understanding the analytical value of MapReduce and related frameworks such as SQL-MapReduce. The new Aster Analytics Center provides product offerings, services, a world-class team, and an elite ecosystem of partners to develop and deliver data-driven applications that use SQL and MapReduce.

www.mapreduce.org is designed to be a key destination for companies who want to understand and build skills around MapReduce, SQL-MapReduce, and related MapReduce technologies. It includes content from those developing data-intensive applications with MapReduce and related MapReduce frameworks such as SQL-MapReduce, as well as insights from industry analysts, customers, and vendors who are leveraging this technology popularized by Google to build next-generation analytic applications. Any industry, enterprise organization, government agency, or expert can contribute content to this site.

Wayne Eckerson, director for TDWI Research and author of the recent article titled Launching an Analytics Practice: 10 Steps to Success, said, “Companies today need experts who can help them accelerate delivery of next-generation, data-driven applications. To run deep analytics on big data requires understanding the analytical capabilities of new database technology, including knowledge of MapReduce and parallel processing requirements.”

Today’s news includes key additions to the Aster Data team. Jonathan Goldman, director of analytics for Aster Data, is responsible for the new Aster Analytics Center, which includes product offerings such as the recently announced Aster Analytics Foundation—a suite of ready-to-use analytics functions and best practices for building advanced analytic applications that involve large data volumes and many diverse data sources. Prior to joining Aster Data he was a principal scientist at LinkedIn, where he led a team of analytics researchers to build cutting-edge products with the rich data sets LinkedIn collected. He created the popular “People You May Know” product for LinkedIn, and developed and supported computationally-intensive and targeted content throughout the site including “Who Viewed My Profile,” the “Similar Jobs” function, and “Similar Members” function, among others. Goldman earned a PhD in physics from Stanford University and a bachelors of science in physics from MIT.

These are interesting developments given the increasing focus on handling complex, unstructured and larger datasets involved in predictive as well as descriptive analytics and data driven strategies.

Author: Ajay Ohri

http://about.me/ajayohri View all posts by Ajay Ohri