Oracle Exalytics V1 Patch Set 1 is now GA

The Oracle Exalytics v1 Patch Set 1 is now generally available (GA). In fact, it has been available for a couple of weeks now. The update to Exalytics, the industry's first engineered in-memory analytics machine, delivers new capabilities, performance optimizations, Hyperion Planning, and Endeca Information Discovery.

This V1 Patch Set (v 1.0.0.1),  is recommended for all new and existing Exalytics customers.

So what's new in this update? Well, the software bits are new, as in updated. The three updated components of the Oracle Exalytics  v1 update are:

• Oracle BI Enterprise Edition 11.1.1.6.2 BP1
• Oracle TimesTen for Exalytics 11.2.2.3.0
• Oracle Essbase 11.1.2.2.100

As you may be aware, the Oracle BI Enterprise Edition 11.1.1.6.2BP1 update provided several new capabilities across the board, the two biggest being enhancements in the area of visualizations and a revampled mobile app for the Apple iPad device. New Trellis visualizations - basically a grid of charts - that make it easy to visualize and understand massive data sets. When combined with the performance that Exalytics delivers, you get true speed-of-thought analysis. These Trellis visualizations support rendering data as new microcharts, like the SparkLine, SparkBar, and SparkArea microcharts. These are compact, cell-sized, data-dense visualizations and allow users to quickly discern the shapes and trends of data.

On the topic of in-memory analytics and performance, faster aggregate creation is now available, since both TimesTen and Oracle BI EE have been enhanced to enable faster data loads. Enhancements include parallel data load, index creation and disabling redo logging.

Separately, there there is a smaller footprint for TimesTen aggregates. The Oracle BI Server now generates a TimesTen optimized schema to significantly reduce the memory footprint used.

There is a Model Checker, faster query performance, and Faster aggregate recommendations.

With Oracle Enterprise Performance Management System Release 11.1.2.2, Oracle Hyperion Planning is supported on the Oracle Exalytics machine.

Oracle Endeca Information Discovery can now run on Exalytics with these versions:

• Oracle Endeca Information Discovery 2.3.0
• Oracle Endeca Server 7.3.2.

Then you also get Oracle Data Integrator certified to target TimesTen for Exalytics, and Oracle GoldenGate for TimesTen has been certified against TimesTen for Exalytics as a target.


And a bunch of other hardware related enhancements like Storage Area Network (SAN) Certification, and Auto Service Request (ASR) for Hard Drives.

Oracle Exalytics Documentation Library (link)

Magic Quadrant for Corporate Performance Management Suites 2011

Analyst research firm Gartner has published a new report titled " Magic Quadrant for Corporate Performance Management Suites", (Gartner RAS Core Research Note G00210145), dated March 8, 2011, authored by Neil Chandler and John E. Van Decker.

Oracle has been ranked the highest along the "Ability to Execute" dimension, and the second highest along the "Complete of Vision" dimension.

Some excerpts from the research note:

• Oracle remains the best recognized brand in finance offices and continues to appear in the majority of CPM evaluations.
• Oracle has a strong customer base, and the company is a strong vendor capable of competing on price, product features, performance and geographic presence.
• Hyperion Data Relationship Management  (PDF Data Sheet) continues to sell well...
• Oracle released Hyperion Financial Close Management (PDF Data Sheet) and Hyperion Disclosure Management (PDF Data Sheet) in 2010, making it the first large CPM vendor to offer this functionality

For more head over to the Gartner link above, or to the EPM and BI site at Oracle.com

The BI - EPM Blog

You may have seen the blog comment, if you haven't, here's the really good piece of news: there is a new BI - EPM blog available now at http://blogs.oracle.com/frankbuytendijk/. Here's an introduction from the blog:

Frank Buytendijk, Vice President of Corporate Strategy for Oracle|Hyperion and previously a Gartner Research Vice President, is one of world's most recognized thought leaders on business intelligence (BI) and enterprise performance management (EPM). As a researcher, presenter, and business strategy consultant for Oracle|Hyperion's customers, Buytendijk's style is best described as provocative, out-of-the-box, and future-oriented, while adding a human touch. Based in The Netherlands, Buytendijk brings 20 years of experience in BI & EPM.

You can subscribe to the blog feed here.