Splunk granted US patent for indexing, search, analysis, retrieval of machine data

Johannesburg, 03 Apr 2012

Exponant, a leader in delivering groundbreaking solutions using smart technologies and highly skilled people, and the master reseller in sub-Saharan Africa for Splunk, today announced that the US Patent and Trademark Office has issued the latter a patent for its pioneering technology that organises, indexes, searches and presents time-series data.

Most of the data that organisations generate comes from the machines and applications powering their networks, servers and operations. This data, which typically takes the form of time-series events, is highly diverse, variable, and voluminous. It can be difficult to process in a timely manner. Splunk's latest patent covers methods, apparatus, and computer programs for time stamping, indexing, searching and presenting analytics results from this data.

"Machine data is one of the largest and fastest-growing segments of the big data universe," commented Erik Swan, co-founder and CTO of Splunk. "The ability to harness this data is no longer a 'nice to have' luxury - it's mission-critical. When we started Splunk, we set out to make current and historical machine data easily accessible by IT and business users. To do this, we came up with a unique way to time stamp, index, search, analyse and present results in real-time."

Swan added: "Every modern organisation, large and small, generates enormous volumes of machine data. Before Splunk software, it was difficult to manage this data effectively. Now we're seeing customers not just manage their machine data, but innovate with it. They're finding new ways to glean business insights and gain a competitive advantage."

Splunk's technology has been granted US patent number US 8 112 425 B2. This is Splunk's second patent. In 2011, Splunk was issued a patent for organising and understanding machine data through use of a 'machine data web'. The inventions included in these patents help power Splunk Enterprise 4.3, the company's flagship software for collecting, indexing and harnessing machine data.

Splunk

Splunk is the engine for machine data. Splunk software collects, indexes and harnesses the massive machine data continuously generated by the Web sites, applications, servers, networks and mobile devices that power business. Splunk software enables organisations to monitor, search, analyse, visualise and act on massive streams of real-time and historical machine data. More than 3 300 enterprises, universities, government agencies and service providers in more than 75 countries use Splunk Enterprise to gain operational intelligence that deepens business understanding, improves service and uptime, reduces cost and mitigates cyber security risk.

For further information, please contact Wolfgang Selzer; tel 012 663 0160; fax 012 663 5678; e-mail wolf@exponant.com

Exponant

Exponant, originally founded in 1998, is a software, services and consulting company that includes a significant focus on monitoring and detection solutions in the areas of security, operations and application management.

In this regard, it is the master reseller in sub-Saharan Africa for Splunk and is a reseller for many global security brands such as AlienVault, Check Point Software Technologies, Guidance Software, Imperva, Palo Alto, TippingPoint, Trend and WebSense.

Although not exclusively focused on any specific markets, it is very strong in the financial, telecommunications, mining and engineering sectors.

Exponant is rated as a level 3 contributor BBBEE company and has customers from both the private and public sectors.

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