In this regular column, we’ll bring you all the latest industry news centered around our main topics of focus: big data, data science, machine learning, AI, and deep learning. Our industry is constantly accelerating with new products and services being announced everyday. Fortunately, we’re in close touch with vendors from this vast ecosystem, so we’re in a unique position to inform you about all that’s new and exciting. Our massive industry database is growing all the time so stay tuned for the latest news items describing technology that may make you and your organization more competitive.
Cloudera Data Platform Private Cloud Announced
Cloudera, (NYSE: CLDR), the enterprise data cloud company, announced the culmination of the Enterprise Data Cloud vision with the premiere of Cloudera Data Platform Private Cloud (CDP Private Cloud). CDP Private Cloud is built for hybrid cloud, seamlessly connecting on-premises environments to public clouds with consistent, built-in security and governance.
The enterprise data cloud delivers powerful, self-service analytics across hybrid and multi-cloud environments, delivering value from the Edge to AI. With the ability to fully implement the enterprise data cloud vision, IT can say yes to any analytic function on any cloud, enabling the speed and agility the business wants with the security and governance it demands.
“It has never been clearer that every enterprise needs to be a data-driven business and the data platform at its foundation must be agile, fast and efficient with a full range of capabilities from the Edge to AI,” said Mick Hollison, chief marketing officer, Cloudera. “The launch today of CDP Private Cloud is the culmination of the vision for an enterprise data cloud that allows businesses to navigate complex data processes across multiple clouds, manage data governance, and enable multi-function analytics, regardless of where the data resides.”
Instaclustr Expands Fully Managed Open Source Data Solutions with Kafka Connect
Instaclustr, delivering reliability at scale through fully managed open source data technologies, today announced the general availability of Instaclustr Managed Kafka Connect. This newest addition to the Instaclustr Managed Platform enables seamless data movement between Apache Kafka and other data systems at scale. Kafka Connect joins Apache Kafka, Apache Cassandra, Apache Spark, and Elasticsearch as another fast, proven, resilient, and highly flexible open source data technology expertly managed and supported by Instaclustr.
“Interest in Kafka Connect has been growing quickly, and deservedly so,” said Ben Slater, Chief Product Officer, Instaclustr. “Through our extensive preview release of managed Kafka Connect, we continue to see how much value this technology can provide enterprises seeking the most reliable and scalable way to connect Kafka clusters to external data sources and sinks. We’re excited to now launch the general availability of Instaclustr Managed Kafka Connect, and look forward to helping new and existing customers leverage Kafka that much more efficiently and effectively.”
Qeexo Announces General Availability of the Qeexo AutoML Platform to Enable TinyML for Edge Devices
Qeexo, developer of an automated machine learning (ML) platform that accelerates the deployment of TinyML at the edge/endpoint, announced the general availability of its Qeexo AutoML platform on Amazon Web Services (AWS).
“We are excited to announce the general availability of Qeexo AutoML as a web application hosted on AWS. With an intuitive end-to-end workflow and easy online access, Qeexo AutoML will significantly improve the efficiency of TinyML model development and deployment for all users from novices to expert data scientists,” said Sang Won Lee, CEO of Qeexo.
GridGain Control Center for Managing GridGain and Apache Ignite Now Available
GridGain Systems, provider of enterprise-grade in-memory computing solutions based on Apache® Ignite®, announced GridGain Control Center, a comprehensive tool for managing, monitoring and developing applications for the GridGain and Apache Ignite in-memory computing platforms. GridGain Control Center is available as a free hosted service for GridGain Editions 8.7 and above and for Apache Ignite 2.8 and above.
“The GridGain and Apache Ignite in-memory computing platforms have proven to be one of the fastest and most cost-effective ways to dramatically increase performance, scalability and high-performance data access for business applications that support digital transformation and real-time business processes,” said Abe Kleinfeld, President & CEO of GridGain Systems. “GridGain Control Center makes it easier for administrators to monitor cluster performance and ensure optimal cluster reliability and for developers to create new applications built on GridGain and Apache Ignite.”
KDD 2020 Opens Registration for 26th Annual Conference with Fully Virtual Program
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest Group on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (SIGKDD) announced that registration is open for KDD 2020, the premier interdisciplinary data-science conference. For 26 years, the KDD conference has brought together an international community of leading researchers and practitioners in data science, machine learning, big data, and artificial intelligence. Given the rapidly changing landscape of the global pandemic, KDD 2020, which will take place Aug. 23-27, 2020, will now offer its signature programming in an entirely virtual format.
“For years, data science leaders from all over the world have looked forward to the KDD conference as an opportunity to connect with peers and share ideas,” said Yan Liu, KDD 2020 conference co-chair and associate professor of computer science at the University of Southern California. “From keynote speakers and workshops to exhibitions and breakout sessions, we are committed to delivering a virtual experience that offers the same opportunities for collaboration and exchange.”
WANdisco Releases LiveData Platform for Petabyte Scale Cloud Migration to Microsoft Azure
WANdisco (LSE: WAND), the LiveData company, announced the limited public preview availability of WANdisco LiveData Platform for Azure, a new service offering available on Microsoft Azure exclusively.
The WANdisco LiveData Platform features the company’s patented consensus engine which ensures data consistency, accuracy, and accessibility across any environments, be it on-premises, hybrid (on-premise and cloud), hybrid cloud, multi-region or multi-cloud. In short, enterprises looking to migrate their on-premise data lake to the cloud, may now turn to the WANdisco LiveData Platform on Azure for a turnkey data migration solution with zero business downtime.
“We are excited to be launching a new service in Microsoft Azure,” said WANdisco CEO and Chairman David Richards. “LiveData Platform service along with the LiveData Migrator for Azure and LiveData Plane for Azure offerings are the culmination of joint engineering work between WANdisco and Microsoft with the objective of creating a new native Azure service built around data movement and data consistency. These are just the first and we plan to continue building more turnkey solutions. Customers are already seeing the benefits and we are excited to unlock this over $1B market opportunity we have with Microsoft. We are also excited to be the first ISV to be launching a new Azure-native service and play a key role in the ADLS Data Lake Migration Program.”
Siren Releases 10.5 – with Knowledge Graph Augmentation on Demand, Natural Language Processing and Position Tracking
Siren, a leading provider of Investigative Intelligence analytics, announced the release of Siren 10.5. The latest version of Siren features several notable improvements, including the ability to fuse big local data with results returned dynamically by remote web services – a capability Siren calls Knowledge Graph “augment on demand.”
“With Siren, a data model is used to virtually connect organizational data – from DBs to Elasticsearch clusters – as a single knowledge graph. Siren 10.5 introduces drivers that connect external web services to this knowledge graph so that it can grow as investigators ask questions,” said Dr. Giovanni Tummarello, Founder and Chief Product Officer at Siren. “Imagine that at a certain point in your investigation you target an IP, or a company or a nickname. You can now invoke external web services like VirusTotal, Shodan and WebHose to fetch intel, which can be incredibly useful to create new connections with other data to paint a fuller picture. No other software has such effective big data/web service fusion, opening the door to an almost endless set of Investigative Intelligence scenarios.”
Digitate Launches ignio™ AI.Digital Workspace to Transform End-user Workplace Experience
Digitate, a software venture of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), (BSE: 532540, NSE: TCS) a leading global IT services, consulting and business solutions organization, announced the launch of ignio™ AI.Digital Workspace, a self-healing, end-user experience management software that helps employees and service desk teams increase productivity and achieve better business outcomes.
Building on ignio’s core AI and ML capabilities, ignio AI.Digital Workspace proactively performs probable cause analysis, triages and remediates issues in endpoint devices and other end-user technologies before users notice them. The solution’s fast responses and quick resolution of issues with a self-service approach doesn’t require calls, forms or long waits, saving time and service desk resources and improving the employee experience. This results in better endpoint visibility and personalized, context-aware workspaces.
“A business user loses more than 100 hours a year due to IT-related disruptions, often during peak work hours,” said Akhilesh Tripathi, Global Head, Digitate. “IT support teams are equally challenged to keep devices and applications compliant while managing user experience due to volume of work and ad-hoc requests. The current global COVID-19 situation and employees working from home has further magnified this problem. By deploying ignio AI.Digital Workspace on endpoint devices, ignio automatically detects and fixes errors, preempting service requests. This significantly reduces the burden on support teams resulting in improved user experience and productivity.”
WekaIO Furthers Weka AI by Integrating with Deep Learning Pipeline Management Solution from Valohai
WekaIO™ (Weka), an Advanced Technology Partner in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Partner Network (APN) and an innovation leader in high-performance and scalable file storage, announced its integration with the deep learning pipeline management solution from Valohai, a Weka Innovation Network™ (WIN) partner. The announcement underpins Weka’s commitment to empower Data Scientists and Chief Data Officers to manage and prioritize data science pipelines. The tools from Valohai are supported in an Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC), and available in AWS Marketplace.
“New workloads are driving the need for modern foundational architectures, and the recently launched Weka AI offers a transformative solution framework for Accelerated DataOps,” said Shailesh Manjrekar, head of AI and strategic alliances at Weka. “Our partnership with Valohai and our integration with its Deep Learning Pipeline Management tools expand Weka AI’s capabilities to offer Explainable AI (XAI). This is a critical factor for use cases with a social impact, including autonomous driving, healthcare, and genomics.”
Lucidworks Announces Smart Answers, a Question Answering System That Enhances Chatbots and Virtual Assistants to Deliver Personalized Self-Service
Lucidworks, leader in AI-powered search, announced Smart Answers on Lucidworks Fusion. Smart Answers enhances the intelligence of chatbots and virtual assistants by using deep learning to understand natural language questions and quickly return the right answers. Customers and employees can now locate critical insights to help them move to their next best action, avoiding frustrating digital experiences and long customer support wait times.
Companies rely on digital portals to provide information to users, whether digital commerce customers looking for product information before purchase, employees hunting for an HR document, or someone looking for an airline’s updated cancellation policies. Information is often scattered across disparate silos and is impossible for a user to locate using natural language questions. Smart Answers on Lucidworks Fusion helps employees and customers resolve issues more quickly, empowering them to find the right answer immediately via chatbot or virtual assistant without seeking out additional support channels or digging through irrelevant search results. Smart Answers’ API also enables easy integration with any chatbot or knowledge base, adding value to those existing applications.
“Users expectations are evolving towards more conversational interactions with an interface that understands natural language questions, and quickly provides the correct answers,” explains Will Hayes, Lucidworks CEO. “In the current environment, it’s important to meet customers where they are, especially if they’re moving from a real life experience to digital. Our work over the years with Fusion has been focused on understanding a user’s intent. Digging for answers wears their patience, wastes their time, and can even motivate them to seek out a competitor. Being able to understand what your users are asking for in their own words and returning the best answer instantly, allows companies to provide a natural conversational experience digitally. With Smart Answers, we’re cutting down time-to-resolution, increasing customer retention, and powering conversational experiences for users.”
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