Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Wednesday, 28 September 2016
Tuesday, 23 August 2016
Hadoop User Group (HUG) Ireland and the Return of the Big Data Jedi
The 12th’s return by HUG Ireland in association with Oracle... A September Special for all Big Data lovers…
Whilst the team at HUG Ireland took an event moratorium in August, we have not wasted a minute in setting up a cracking Autumn 2016 schedule for our members, which forms Dublin’s premiere technical Big Data community. November and October already have confirmed speakers covering areas of Data Science and Data Pipelines that should not be missed by one and all!
We have also been busy with the team at Oracle to bring you a great lineout for September 12th at the Morrison Hotel on Ormond Quay from 6pm. Two quality speakers are speaking on the evening on The Future of Analytics, Oracle Big Data SQL and The Three I"s of Big Data with a bar on premises, so we can all catch up with each other on site on what’s new; before and after the quality presentations by Mark Rittman, CTO of Rittman Mead and Ian Sharp, Director of Data Science with Oracle UK.
So, some background on our speakers:
Mark is CTO and co-founder at Rittman Mead, an Oracle (and more recently, Cloudera) Partner specialising in BI, big data and data warehousing implementations, training and support. Mark is an Oracle ACE Director, author of two Oracle Press books and leads Rittman Mead's customer projects around Hadoop, cloud and machine learning.
Ian is a Data Scientist at Oracle with over 15 experience helping customers deliver insight and innovation around business intelligence, Data Warehousing and Big Data. He has worked across industries with organisations such as Worldpay, Sky, NHS, BT, HSBC, AVIVA, the NHS, Bord Gais and the Discovery Channel.
The Future of Analytics, Data Integration and Data Driven Applications on Big Data Platforms by Mark Rittman, CTO of Rittman Mead
Up until now thought of as a cheap storage offloading layer for more capable relational data warehouses and BI tools, Hadoop is fast maturing into the default platform for all analytic and data integration workloads. In this session we'll look at how technologies such as Apache Arrow, Apache Kudu and Apache Drill will bring in-memory, column-store BI functionality to Hadoop but extend that to cover flexible-schema data held in data lakes and NoSQL databases; we'll see how Apache Spark, Apache Kafka and real-time streaming functionality coming to vendor ETL tools such as Oracle Data Integrator will enable real-time loading and integration with traditional relational databases; and finally we'll see how a new generation of e-commerce, logistics and customer applications will take advantage of the machine learning and predictive analytics capabilities provided by Hadoop to add smarts and intelligence to day-to-day operational applications.
Using Oracle Big Data SQL to add Hadoop + NoSQL to your Oracle Data warehouse by Mark Rittman, CTO of Rittman Mead
Oracle Big Data SQL 3.0 extends the Oracle SQL dialect, security framework and advanced analytics capabilities of the Oracle database to big data platforms, initially just for Oracle Big Data Appliance but now made available for commodity Cloudera and Hortonworks clusters. Complementing basic Apache Hive but competing with other next-generation SQL-on-Hadoop solutions such as Impala, Presto and Drill, Oracle Big Data SQL lets you work with big data sources as if they were another set of external tables – and can bring Exadata style query offloading to this significantly lower-cost platform. In this session we’ll explore at a technical level how Big Data SQL works (including the key limitations and “gotchas”), see how features such as storage indexes and storage handlers introduced with the 2.0 release significantly improve what the product can do, how statistical and advanced analytics features in Oracle Database Enterprise Edition can also be used on Hadoop sources, understand at a high-level what bringing Oracle security Hadoop means – and see if it’s really now possible to use Big Data SQL without the previous Exadata and BDA prerequisites.
The Three I"s of Big Data, Insight, Innovation and Identify by Ian Sharp, Lead Data Scientist with Oracle UK
Insight and innovation aside, Big Data Social Media is increasingly about Identity; who we are, who we aspire to be, and in the case of Fraud and Theft, who we pretend to be. Data Science, Big Data Analytics and Machine Learning have emerged as the prime technologies and disciplines to distill nuances and value around these identities. This presentation discusses the challenges and opportunities of big data analytics against polyglot sources, the evolution of new languages and frameworks such as R, Python, SciKit Learn and Zeppelin and the operational settings around wider BI consumption, Streams and Apps APIs. Using leading edge reference cases, we will explore the stories and focus on the challenges for integration, governance and stability faced in their transition from Hadoop driven Innovation to Mainstream business success. Finally we will highlight some up and coming trends for the industry to watch
So, RSVP today and check out our twitter hashtag at #HUGIreland for the latest from our community. Looking forward to seeing you all on the 12th!
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Hadoop User Group (HUG) Ireland
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Wednesday, 4 May 2016
Open Source Software (OSS) - Let's Show The Love
Why community matters for the future of software talent, products and the industry as a whole
We all love those stand up guys who volunteer first, arrive early and are last to leave from meetups, collaborations and indeed anything software related. They are sharing the passion, they are showing the love!! This is the good side of software as defined by the people within the industry who seek a better world through software using their passion to drive progress in an impressive way.
These channels of passion ultimately lead to the open source movement and in recent years have transformed the industry into a collaborative landscape where more and more software professionals are building their own products. They are contributing to more and more engineering led projects that are “pure” software in terms of process and culture. Many in established business are not comfortable with this as the threat of disruption is ever present when you have a collaboration of highly skilled software professionals in a room focused on a single problem. This may in part arise from the need for management ‘control’ (v ‘influence’) in allot of company cultures. This has often caused culture clashes between software professionals and management trying to stamp a traditional leadership style on a team leading to resistance and culture clashes to boot. It’s my view that this lack of understanding coupled with passion for software is one of the elements that has fuelled the transition to the open source model where software professionals freely collaborate over common problems they are passionate about leading to real world solutions that often carry commercial value.
So, with the rise of Web 2.0, the startup industry and the freemium model for tech companies in full swing, there are some highly profitable businesses out there that have their origins in the open source movement and prove the open source paradigm of collaboration does work turning more and more its detractors into supporters as time passes. Since the “OSS” train has left the station, we all should not forget where we are and where we come from when it comes to the open source movement. We should show the love in OSS through the following:
- Enable a better quality of life with a life long commitment to the open source movement and the real world problems it solves
- Widen scope from the selective and often poorly structured curriculum of education, which produces newly minted software developers and engineers. This should be done by providing entry points into software through community education free of charge for those aspiring to be software professionals
- Provide continuous learning and development for established software professionals in upgraded and newly released products via community learning and education
- Provide facilities free of charge to identified open source community groups that engage in community education and learning for new as well as established software professionals
- Understand what actually makes a good software professional and identify these personalities upon entry into a the community education network ergo the community will retain and develop such individuals as part of OSS succession planning.
- Work with industry under a common mission statement on what makes for a successful partnership with the open source software movement
What makes it all happen? I think it's simply passionate software professionals who by nature, not by training or experience care deeply about they do and want their skills to make a difference in the world. The more we actively show the love, the bigger the impact we have as a community. If we draw from our past and not let our past draw from us, we can make a better future that allows the OSS movement to take its rightful and sustainable place in the world today as the premiere software partner to business and society as a whole.
About the author: John Mulhall is a Community Manager and newly Minted Software Developer. John is also a committed blogger and from February 2016 onwards, will be publishing blogs every second week on topics around Technology, Leadership and Sustainable Capitalism.
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Wednesday, 6 April 2016
Company Culture... Is it a truly Progressive Platform for a Company… Part Two…
Is company culture serving as a platform of control or
as a platform of empowerment for employees? Part Two of a Two Part Special…
Continuing from part one, it is
important to engineer your company culture through the understanding of the
already existing culture within your company walls along with the people who
shape the organisation into a living, breathing entity! Digging a little
deeper, one should consider the following as very important:
- Vision - Know what you want as a company of 5 so when you reach 50,000 employees, your company culture has evolved continuously, not ‘changed’ on the management orders of the day. Company culture is the personality of a company and does not swap out when you exceed 10,000 employees for a “big company culture”. Understand what you do, who you are and what values you collectively hold as a company. Then set the collected attributes as a cornerstone of company policy so you can build your organisation around it
- Employee Value - Know what personality type makes the best type of skilled and unskilled employee for your organisation. Match the personality propensity (creative/analytical/etc) with the role, team, department and division that makes up your company. What makes them feel like they belong and are part of something great? Management and leadership styles should seamlessly integrate with company culture to answer this question.
- Giver Taker Culture - Know what it is and what mix of giver/matcher/taker you need in your organisation to be great. Insert safeguards to ensure the mix you need and have mapped out in your organisation is actually deployed and protected.
- Feedback - Make sure you engage your employees meaningfully and management have alignment in belief, personality and training including the same style of leadership. Foxes in the henhouse are still dangerous!
- Hire the most suitable, not the “best” - we all love to hate pre-Madonnas, but the truth is the best are not always the most suitable for our organisation. A brilliant mind with a low tolerance for micromanagement will not last long in a company that thrives on hierarchy. Conversely, an individual who is reliant on the security of being micromanaged will not last in a company that values independent thinking and self direction. Remember... Einstein on paper was a Clerk… he also said "Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value." The fact is that value creation comes all shapes and forms. Be sure your company knows what it needs and is able to embrace those value creating employees correctly.
- Flexible By Design - Design your organisation in a manner that protects and grows company culture. Starting with the vision of the founding management team, a well engineered company culture will have processes to observe, define and react to the constantly changing culture over time. Be sure your design features allows company culture to prosper in your growing structures and be protected from harmful forces of all kinds.
Despite the
difficulties, if you embrace the above variables and tips, be flexible in your
vision for your company that is communally shared; take cultural aspects and culturally
based concerns into your decision making processes, you will influence a
company culture that is true to the kernel tenants laid out for your company at
the beginning! What defines a great company is not its great products, but the
great people within its walls. Everything else flows from that…
About
the author: John Mulhall is a Marketing Technologist and newly Minted Software
Developer. John is also a committed blogger and from February 2016 onwards,
will be publishing blogs every second week on topics around Technology,
Leadership and Sustainable Capitalism.
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Credits;
Einstein Quote from
Brain Quotes at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/alberteins131187.html
Wednesday, 9 March 2016
Big Data - Here Today, Here Tomorrow
Big Data Adoption, it’s really happening.. Is it time
to get on board?
Technology has evolved
over the last 60 years and today we continue our lightning fast journey through
time with technology by our side. The term “big data” has been used by many to
describe data analytics which are often compiled from spreadsheets. They say
‘(Microsoft) Excel is an accountant’s best friend’ yet it comes with a lot of
limitations that cannot be overlooked in today's world. The evolving nature of current
data driven decision-making at senior levels in organisations places a huge
burden on departments responsible for analytics and management reports.
We as a race have
produced more information in the last 2 years then we have in the last ten
thousand years making data analytics in today's operating environment a real
challenge. The evolution of big data has seen technological breakthroughs
in streaming, batched pipelines, distributed clusters and data centre
management. If we are to capitalise on opportunities presented by big data, we
need real time or near real-time streaming along with batched data ability that
is indexed and easy to transform so we can analyse it producing insights in
support of the management decision making process.
Here are some high level
points that one should think about when considering big data as a professional
and/or an enthusiast:
- Open source with it’s democratisation is truly the king of big data. Harness the power of the open source community and collaborate in the evolution of big data that will service your needs
- Big Data Architecture is the looking glass into the future. Think distributed computing in two ways, what works and what works for you. Scalability comes at a price... make sure your solution comes with the appropriate flexibility in partitioning and try to keep one data layer only in your big data stack.
- Data Management should determine your security protocols ranking your data in layers of sensitivity. Ensure parity between your policies and your big data architecture. Allow this to drive things like storage solutions (in-house, cloud, hybrid), design, deployment, etc.
Data analytics and
visualisation should become more “visually orientated” with a data on demand
mindset. Create a higher level of abstraction based on visual filtering for
your analytics suite.
Finally, when you have a
working data pipeline servicing your needs through a big data stack that
presents useful tools and analysis for use, make sure you use it. Package your
end result in an easy to understand format with visually driven reports from
one of your most valuable resources, which is the large volumes of data you
collect every day! Now is the time to transform your future with big data that
will not only create awareness and understanding, it will create value for your
company both now and into the future.
About
the author: John Mulhall is a Marketing Technologist and newly Minted Software
Developer. John is also a committed blogger and from February 2016 onwards,
will be publishing blogs every second week on topics around Technology,
Leadership and Sustainable Capitalism.
Sources/Credits:
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Credits;
Wednesday, 24 February 2016
Reputation - An individual cornerstone for all in society
Why reputation feeds happiness and enables success
We all have being shocked of late by the extremist sound bytes coming from Donald Trump in the US Presidential Election campaign where apparently dirty politics, insanely imbalanced thinking and a neo conservative thrust for power has affected reputations both positively and negatively on all sides.
Donald Trump somehow managed to build a business empire in spite of some colossal errors in judgement and even more spectacular business failures that he has on his resume. He did so for many reasons including the fact that he managed his reputation astutely keeping an eye on how the world viewed him along with reconciling this intelligence to his goals and objectives. All was apparently well enough until his aspirations for higher office seemed to have sent him off the deep end in reputation management by thinking his extremist rhetoric would not have consequences. As the Presidential Office becomes apparently out of reach to Mr Trump, what are the lessons we all should learn from his performance in the management of our own reputations:
- Understand Your Interacting Environment - It’s not good enough to assume your ideas are going to be openly accepted with open arms. If you have a good point (in the eyes of your audience), make it! If you have a bad point, understand how it will affect your reputation because regardless of who you are, you will be judged!
- Embrace who you are - True power in society by definition always lies within the group. By understanding the dynamic of your group interactions, you can understand who you are to ‘your world’. Its their impression of you, not your impression of yourself that matters in reputation management. If you are it, own it and understand the shrewdest of networkers and reputation managers know they can only ascend in the social order so far thanks to inherent ability and/or their situational dynamics.
- Own your ego - Don’t let your ego own you! As you can’t force someone to like you, you should not try. Ego leads to arrogance and thus blinds one to the possibilities of influencing someone to freely chose to like you, trust you and/or even vote for you. An individual’s world should not to be blindsided in the present by lies, misinformation and incessant badgering in some cases. This will be found out and when uncovered, your reputation will be appropriately punished for your ego driven misdeeds.
Now for my confession. For years, I ignored proper networking, reputation management and personal branding on the grounds that I was honest, trustworthy and technically competent. Apparently, the world saw me a little differently as I had forgone the opportunity to develop my brand and sell myself to the world for who I am, not what some guy with half an opinion and an agenda wants me to be! With my kernel error uncovered in recent years, I have worked hard at personal branding, updating my skills and networking as hard and as fast as I can. The experience has transformed me from a technically competent process manager to a technically competent Technologist who believes in people, process and technology. Reputation management is now part of who I am thanks to my embracing of it, owning it and using it to be a better version of myself! In refactoring my life into a community based iteration, I face new challenges that starts with where I belong and continues to a happier tomorrow.
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Wednesday, 3 February 2016
Land of Illusion - Our World View
When looking at the world through abstract lenses,
patterns of life emerge that raise questions about we make sense of it
We all at some point
love and hate life, see it in different shades of both extremes and seem to
never question what we have come to take for granted. From the air we breathe
to the evenly applied angles of petals on a daisy, it is simply life, part of
our world, which allows us to achieve what we have set out to achieve within
its boundary paths.
With the impressive
march of technology and time, my own journey has been revealing more and more
patterns in life. I was once ignorant of these patterns but now ponder them
with excitement and interest. To explain my developing interest in the patterns
of life, I often wondered how some folks do better than others after a paradigm
shift in “their world”. Who adapts, who fails, who succeeds, who changes the
picture completely once again??? This is man made and sits against a world that
is more and more connected to itself.
So, enter nature and one
begins to wonder about the patterns of uniformity and synchronicity… why do
they happen? Who makes it happen? Is it part of nature’s “DNA” for it to
happen? Maybe our world is bigger and wider than we once thought? The patterns
and mechanics of nature are often mimicked by man, thus we have microwaves,
computers, antibiotics, central heating and so on.. A profitable relationship
wouldn’t you agree? What if we push the boundaries of this relationship with
the world around us, within us, above us and beyond us?? What could we discover
and seek to understand, which could help our children’s children on their journey
through life?
Here are some of the
things I think are gateway areas to future progress, creating a progressive
technological window to tomorrow’s world today:
- Quantum Computing - Eric Ladizinsky, CEO of D-Wave gave a great talk on the current progress of quantum computing at Trinity College Dublin late last year where he was able to confirm production of 1000 qubit quantum processors. An amazing breakthrough indeed. Map the progress of this technology over the next 10 years and one can expect to see parallelisation in computer processing power increase many fold within the start of a paradigm change in computer science. This positive disruption to the technologies that run our world today will open a gateway of possibilities for tomorrow’s world! Exciting times indeed!
- DNA, Big Data and Disease - As society becomes more comfortable with the concept of mass data flows, big data analysis and genetic research, the ability to produce more and more insights leading to cures from diseases ranging from haemochromatosis to cancer will escalate the pace of medical technology innovation. At the heart of this innovation, data science will lend a critical hand in the identification of patterns and probabilities that will aid the unlocking of answers to some of mankind’s deadliest diseases.
- Artificial Intelligence - What if every robot, mainframe and distributed cluster had its own AI controller. Imagine a core that you could converse with, understand emotions, right/wrong and then execute self augmenting programming to capture a better outcome for the process. This is a flash of what could be achieved with such technology. Responsible adoption of course is key and should lead all development projects. These outcomes can create the AI reality of the future which will positively impact society at that point.
- Energy - Fossil fuels will soon come to pass and the experimentation with “alternative energy” is something to be explored by disrupters. The fact is that the iron grip of the energy industry over fuels will soon “run out of gas” as the ability to generate energy from solar protons via panels will become so effective, a new age of energy will arise in the quest to have self generating cells that last a lifetime and harness the power of nature to tend to the needs of man.
- Propulsion - We need to travel to the stars. We won’t go far on a tank of gas, so with a developing understanding of the world around us, we can expect to see that new forms of energy, navigation and propulsion will be unlocked by our intrepid minds that don’t accept that status quo as fixed. The quest for knowledge and understanding is a powerful one in a universe that carries us forward with the arrow of time allowing us via entropy to never stand still.
It’s not enough to
merely survive life, we must live it to understand our time here and how we fit
into the world around us. If we open our hearts and minds to the possibilities
that surround us, we commune with a universe that will help us find our way
turning a land of illusion into a land of hope for a better day!
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