Kognitio’s New Pablo Enables Extreme OLAP, Analytics on Big Data
Users can perform in-depth analysis of terabytes of data using Microsoft Excel or specialized BI applications.
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Data analytics specialist Kognitio has release version 1.0 of Pablo, the company’s extension to its WX2 analytical database that allows ordinary users to perform “train-of-thought” analysis by building and querying virtual OLAP cubes on the fly. Pablo has been created to satisfy the market need for high-performance analytics on high volumes of data, so called “extreme analytics.”
Pablo will ship with A La Carte, a solution that will add a host of new rich features to Microsoft Excel and allow users to adopt the widespread product as their standard business intelligence (BI) front-end application. With A La Carte and Pablo, Excel users can create and investigate virtual OLAP cubes containing tens of terabytes of data, thanks to the scalability, low latency, and in-memory performance of the underlying Kognitio WX2 analytical database. Furthermore, Pablo will include support for XMLA (XML for Analysis), which allows other front-end BI tools such as IBM Cognos and SAP BusinessObjects to connect seamlessly to the virtual OLAP cubes.
“While powerful, the potential of OLAP cubes has always been constrained by the time, tools, and expertise needed to build, populate, and use them,” said Roger Llewellyn, CEO of Kognitio. “With Pablo, these constraints are eliminated: virtual cubes can be built, populated, and queried on the fly, with a minimum amount of time before data is ready to be examined. At the same time, by allowing users to take advantage of the familiar environment of Microsoft Excel, there is no need for extensive training before organizations can take advantage of this data. While Pablo does not immediately mean the end of physical cubes, the ability to virtualize large and complex cubes is an important leap in the evolution of OLAP.”
With Pablo, organizations can discover insights from massive amounts of data in near real-time, allowing “train of thought” analysis: gaining the performance of OLAP cube databases without the costs, complexities and latency that have traditionally accompanied the technology. Possible uses across sectors include:
- Financial Services: Analyzing risks in vast, constantly fluctuating markets
- Retail: Dynamically modifying pricing to cope with the latest trends and influences
- Manufacturing: Managing supply chains for innumerable parts and resources
- Energy and Utilities: Analyzing consumption and pricing, particularly in the era of smart metering
- Telecommunications: Optimizing customer plans to ensure the maximum value for their needs
- Gaming and Hospitality: Examining player and customer behavior to help encourage loyalty
- Logistics: Analyzing vehicle telemetry to ensure peak operation
Pablo works with WX2 to create in-memory images of an organization’s database or data warehouse. By combining these images with a metadata layer and MDX connector, ad-hoc virtual cubes can be created and queried as often as required.
Pablo is available immediately and ships with Kognitio’s WX2 analytical database, with licences available per user. More information on Pablo can be found at www.kognitio.com/pablo.