In-memory business intelligence (IMBI) is playing a bigger role due to its ability to function faster than traditional BI solutions, as well as removing memory bottlenecks.
This is according to David Ives, head of Microsoft's developer and platform strategy group. He will examine the benefits of in-memory BI over conventional BI tools during the ITWeb Business Intelligence Summit, being held from 23 to 25 February at The Forum in Bryanston.
“IMBI potentially provides the ability to manipulate large amounts of data on the client and provide insights, mining and analysis for the right type of users. It also provides these users the flexibility to add other sources of data to provide things like industry context,” explains Ives.
“This type of analysis is typically not provided by the conventional BI reporting and data warehouse systems and IMBI is transferring some of this power into the hands of the users.”
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Ives says it's critical to have the right type of tools for the right type of people, and not to assume everybody will be able to use them.
He predicts that in the near future, there will be increased focus on the effectiveness of the BI platform to translate into business benefits. “We are seeing more clients starting to leverage BI on BI, to understand what information is being used, for which decisions, and what impact this is having.“
The development of 64-bit processors and in-memory technology increases the amount of data that can be stored, and the market will see cost-effective platforms emerging to deliver IMBI, says Ives. He adds that BI vendors are designing IMBI with better visualisation of information, proactive reporting and analysis, as well as real-time monitoring based upon data at source.
According to Ives, more BI solutions are being provided by smaller enterprise resource planning vendors. In addition, small to medium-sized enterprises are increasingly turning to BI solutions.
As part of the BI Summit, ITWeb will unveil its 2010 BI Excellence Awards, to recognise achievement in BI implementation. The success of a BI project will be measured in relation to strategy, project execution, business impact and innovation.
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