Dell Toad Extends Reach of In-Memory BI App

Big Data Makes Organizations Smarter, but Open Data Makes Them Richer

While the folks who develop Toad business intelligence software for Dell are as excited as anyone about the rise of in-memory computing, they kind of wish they would get more recognition for their efforts.

Dell recently released an upgrade to its BI offering, which differs substantially from other BI platforms in that it doesn’t require IT organizations to set up separate data marts or data warehouses. Instead, John Whitaker, director of product marketing for information management at Dell Software, says Dell Toad runs in-memory to give customers not only a faster BI application, but an overall environment that is a lot more agile.

Toad Business Intelligence Suite 2.0 adds support for Microsoft Analysis Services and connectivity to Amazon’s DynamoDB and Redshift databases, along with new Web publishing tools and self-service capabilities.

Because the BI application runs in memory, Whitaker says it’s a lot less complex to set up Dell Toad compared to other BI applications that require access to disk-based storage. In addition, note that running a BI application in memory allows it to work against data in real time, eliminating all the multiple sources of the truth that plague organizations that have to navigate multiple data warehouses.

It’s pretty clear that given the speed at which businesses want to operate these days, more BI applications will soon be running in memory. The challenge facing IT organizations is going to be figuring out how to wean applications off data warehouses that, truth be told, very few IT people actually want to have to manage.