Press Releases

PLEASANTON, Calif.— September 17, 2008 —Despite the fact that organizations today depend on the information from business intelligence systems and data warehouses, new research from Ventana Research shows that less than one-fifth of businesses are fully mature in their deployment and use of these key business tools. Moreover, these businesses need reliable information about how their BI and data warehouse systems are performing in order to analyze and tune their performance, but less than half said that their information sources are good or excellent to assess their situation.

The new benchmark research, “Optimizing BI and Data Warehouse Performance,” finds that organizations are coming under increasing pressure to improve the performance of BI and data warehouse systems. They are most interested in BI and data warehouse  systems for use in optimizing business processes (81%) and identifying opportunities for improvement (78%). But, the research found that some of the key information demands that must be met to support these business objectives are not being addressed effectively.

The benchmark research found that as organizations try to perform fuller analysis of data about customers, products and other key areas, they encounter challenges – difficulty scaling from complex queries for analytics (58%) or to handle more data (55%) and more real-time needs (54%). The research found that availability requirements are also serious, with almost half of organizations currently making their BI and data warehouse systems available 7x24.

This new research benchmarked the maturity of performance and scalability of BI and data warehouse investments and what actions organizations are taking to improve and deliver information needed on a timely basis.  “Today’s organizations are suffering from performance and scalability issues due to the design and management of technology that cannot handle the workload of analytics and mission-critical demand for data across the organizations,” said David Stodder, Ventana Research’s vice president of research. “The research found that despite significant investments by IT to add hardware and expand current database systems, performance is under pressure. Organizations need to improve their understanding of how to upgrade the performance of particular workloads and queries, and where to add new technology like columnar databases that can meet the challenges of more users wanting to access more data on a timely and efficient basis.“

The research finds a significant shift towards applying technology to improve performance and scalability of BI and data warehousing through additional hardware, workload analysis and governance, database upgrades, consolidating data marts and integration technologies, and new appliances and specialized databases. Ventana Research will expand on the benchmark research in live interactive webinar that will discuss the research findings and recommendations for improvement:

 “Optimizing BI and Data Warehouse Performance:

New Approaches to Get More from Your Information Assets,”

The webinar will discuss key findings and insights that are critical to improving performance of BI and data warehouse investments:

• Pain points and benefits not found in current investments

• Sources of performance and scalability issues associated with current investments

• How organizations are addressing their needs and steps being taken

• The role of technologies like workload analysis, appliances, columnar databases, data integration

• Where consolidating data marts and integration technologies plays a role for improvement

• Why IT needs information from business and systems to determine best place for investment.

Register and View the Webinar Replay

The research, sponsored by technology providers Appfluent (www.appfluent.com) and ParAccel (www.paraccel.com) is based on an analysis of 240 qualified organizations from all major industries. The benchmark was conducted with the assistance of media partners: Intelligent Enterprise and TechWeb, Tech Target sites SearchCRM.com, SearchDataManagement.com, SearchOracle.com and SearchSAP.com Those interested in learning more about the benchmark research can find additional information at http://www.ventanaresearch.com/bidw/.

About Ventana Research

Ventana Research is the leading benchmark research and advisory services firm. We provide expert guidance to help organizations manage and optimize performance – to become not only more efficient but more effective. Our unparalleled insights and best practices guidance are based on our rigorous research-based benchmarking of people, processes, information and technology across business and IT functions worldwide. The combination we offer of benchmark research, rigorous market coverage and in-depth knowledge of hundreds of technology providers means we can deliver business and technology education and expertise to our clients where and when needed. Ventana Research provides the most comprehensive analyst coverage in the industry; more than 2.5 million business and IT professionals through our community of 85,000 professionals and network of media and association partners around the world benefit from Ventana Research’s insights. Ventana Research focuses on business and technology trends and best practices that maximize organizations’ potential to perform while reducing the time, cost and risk and still achieve optimal outcomes. To learn how Ventana Research advances the maturity of organizations use of information and technology through benchmark research, education and advisory services, visit www.ventanaresearch.com.

Media:

Copies of benchmark research report and interviews with VP Research David Stodder are available upon request.

 Media Contact: Marisela Reynoso  

(925) 242-2579 marketing@ventanaresearch.com

© 2008 Ventana Research, Inc.