A BI Platform to Tame Big Data

Big data is a popular topic these days. Though often misunderstood and commonly misrepresented, few deny that the volume and variety of data types now available to an enterprise is skyrocketing. In a separate article on the TDWI web site, I’ve tried to describe the likely sources of value to be derived from this deluge of data. In short, I see the harnessing of big data as an enormous opportunity.

Which is why Jaspersoft today announces the most comprehensive collection of Big Data connectors available from any Business Intelligence provider. In fact, we broadly consider three distinct categories of Big Data sources – all of which can now be natively accessed from Jaspersoft’s BI suite and very affordably deliver new value for an organization. These three categories are:

• Hadoop – Jaspersoft supports Hadoop via the Hive SQL interface, reading files via HDFS including the Avro file format, as well as via HBase.

• NoSQL – Jaspersoft offers NoSQL support for the following, broadly recognized major categories of data stores: Key Value Stores, Document Databases, BigTable Clones, Graph Databases, and Data Grid Caching among others. Jaspersoft’s open source projects for reporting against NoSQL technologies include: Cassandra, MongoDB, Riak, HBase, CouchDB, Neo4J, Infinispan, VoltDB and Redis. A non-open source connector is in beta for VMware GemFire.

• MPP Analytic Database – Jaspersoft supports IBM’s Netezza MPP analytic database data warehouse and soon will add commercial analysis support. Vertica and EMC Greenplum are also supported.

We are passionate about making most of these connectors available through an open source license (A/GPL), true to the origins of many Big Data projects. We also expect to commercialize some of these connectors over time, expecting that many enterprises will want fully-supported and tested products complete with a commercial contract from Jaspersoft.

By supporting this breadth and depth of Big Data file types and data stores, Jaspersoft is extending its leadership as the most modern and flexible business intelligence platform available today. At once, our customers can install and use the Jaspersoft BI suite in a traditional, on-premises server – or deploy our tools as a platform-as-a-service reporting and analytics layer in the cloud. Now this architectural flexibility includes the most complete support for Big Data types in the industry.

I encourage you to learn more about our Big Data announcement, all the partners that have supported us through the development process, and the wide variety of connectors by going here. And, join us at the Strata Conference to see a demonstration of Jaspersoft 4 and its support for Big Data. Lastly, I also encourage you to participate in our Big Data community project, now live on JasperForge.

Of course, to see all-things Jaspersoft in action, I invite you to attend JasperWorld 2011, where the future of BI is now.

Brian Gentile

Chief Executive Officer

Jaspersoft