Intel new big data platform targets telecoms, retailers

Intel today said its new Data Platform is aimed at assisting businesses – including telecoms and retailers — to maximize the value of their big data investment.

Intel Data Platform is a software suite based on open source technologies designed to make it easier and faster for companies to move from big data to big discoveries.

Recently, Fran Gonzalez Menendez, partner, Analysys Mason, said: “Computational intelligence at the core of networks will be essential to manage to rapidly growing volume of data, but few mobile operators have analytics programs on their long-term strategic plans.”

This indicates that big data is yet to gain momentum.

Worldwide mobile data traffic will grow at a 44.5 percent CAGR during 2013–2018 according to our latest wireless traffic forecast, and Google is already processing more than 24PB per day. Wearable technologies, 4K TVs and other innovations showcased at the CES 2014 event at Las Vegas are set to contribute further to this growth.

Earns Intel

Intel Data Platform provides an open environment for import, management and analysis of big data for enterprises. The platform also features several new data processing capabilities including streaming data processing, interactive and iterative analytics, and graph processing. Together these capabilities enable enterprises to extract value from data in ways not previously feasible with Apache Hadoop alone.

Analysys Mason partner said large Internet businesses such as Amazon, Google, Netflix and Yahoo have been experimenting with analytics for a long time. The data management discipline proved an essential component of their core business. Netflix offered a million dollar prize to researchers who could provide the greatest improvement to their film recommendation system back in 2006.

Boyd Davis, vice president and general manager of Intel’s Datacenter Software Division, said: “Much like an operating system for big data processing, the Intel Data Platform supports a wide variety of applications while providing improved security, reliability and peace of mind to customers using open source software.”

Use cases

Intel is already working with telecoms and retailers.

Retailers can use the Intel Data Platform to analyze social media and sensor data, in-store purchases, and inventory to gauge the impact of a celebrity endorsement on the demand for a new product.

Telecom operators can look up data tailored to a specific customer to personalize recommendations for new products or services.

Intel said the platform will be available next quarter in two versions – Enterprise Edition and Premium Edition.

The Enterprise Edition will offer full platform capabilities as a free software product to customers who can support their deployment. The Premium Edition will be available for purchase on an annual subscription basis and will provide additional technical features including enhanced automation, proactive security fixes and alerts, ongoing feature enhancements, and live telephone technical support.

Intel did not announce the pricing.

China Mobile

By implementing Intel-based hardware and software solutions, China Mobile improved billing processes and customer service by enabling online bill payment as well as the retrieval of up to six months’ worth of call data records in near real time.

China Mobile Guangdong’s detailed billing statement inquiry system can now retrieve 300,000 records per second and insert 800,000 records per second or the equivalent of 30 terabytes of subscriber billing data per month.

Living Naturally

Intel worked with Living Naturally, a retail technology provider, to develop business analytics algorithms based on the Intel Distribution for Apache Hadoop to help retailers manage supply chain and product promotions.

The algorithms analyze a mix of internal and external data, such as social media, search engines and weather sites, to provide retailers with better insight and help determine when to reorder products in optimal quantities to minimize surpluses, shortages and shelf life expirations.

For example, when a popular medical expert with a large Twitter following recommended raspberry ketone pills to help reduce weight, the result was a spike in sales and empty shelves. The Intel-based analytics solution can help retailers anticipate increased sales demand based on social media or other online postings.

[email protected]