The inaugural issue of BI Trends & Strategies offers sound advice to help you in ensuring your organization is on track to keep up with the rapidly changing landscape of BI and analytics. In this issue, readers will learn about a big data definition and the impact it will have on BI and data warehousing, agile development methodology and more. 

As SAP customers plan their BI strategies in the face of support deadlines for BEx tools that are inching closer, many customers are contemplating their next steps with BW. In this e-book, readers will learn the keys to planning a successful SAP data warehousing strategy, and get help deciding what role BW should play in it. 

Read this insightful white paper now and learn how a data warehouse accelerator can help you swiftly decipher patterns, predict future trends and improve the overall performance of your warehouse while also minimising manual tuning. 

Databases hold a wealth of important information but without proper upkeep it is worthless. Read this white paper to learn how easy it is to prevent huge database errors with data cleansing processes. 

This resource examines the challenges of big data in the enterprise, as well as the strategies and potential benefits for managing and understanding big data. 

While data warehouses are important for many types of analytical systems, they aren’t always necessary. Building a data warehouse can dramatically increase the cost of a BI project. This paper describes data warehouses, along with many other options for placing relevant, timely information in the hands of business users. 

Read this white paper for a discussion of the business case for data archiving as the first step in an SAP ILM strategy; strategies for Data Archiving, Retention Management and the Retention Warehouse strategy for legacy decommissioning in SAP; and Dolphin’s best‐practices approach to an effective, long-term ILM strategy. 

This white paper discusses the growing trend of using data integration to make large amounts of information a fully-accessible and useful part of your organization. Learn how this strategy can help manage organizational data and why performance is being used as the new benchmark for success. 

Learn about the importance of having a data quality strategy and setting the overall goals. The six factors of data are also explained in detail and how to tie it together for implementation. 

This paper presents the case for business analytics, outlining the trends that are redefining analytics and the weaknesses of decentralized analytics solutions. Gain additional insight into IBM Business Analytics solutions on System z, an end-to-end solution that includes BI, predictive analytics and data warehousing on a single platform. 

Read this expert e-book by BI visionary Wayne Eckerson and gain insight into the growing adoption rates of big data technology and learn why companies are finally recognizing its many benefits. Eckerson offers a comparison of open-source options and analytical platforms, and also dives into an analysis on the varying types of processing systems. 

Are you ready for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2? This white paper highlights some of the major features included in SQL Server 2008 R2 due to be released in the first half of 2010. 

Master data management (MDM) tools are on the rise as more companies look toward ways to solve all their data needs through one system. This expert e-guide from our editorial team features two articles with exceptional insight on what vendors and trends are prevailing in the current MDM market.