 |
The "Right" Approach
For some time now, Visual Analytics has been a pioneer and a leader in data visualization and pattern discovery technologies, supporting commercial and government organizations throughout the world. Often, VisuaLinks and Digital Information Gateway (DIG) operate on multiple databases and documents representing the "entire" data for a site, which usually resides on a single LAN and in a single physical location. Although it's a major step forward for many organizations, there still remains the need, especially post 9/11, to find and analyze data that is distributed across the globe.
Many different approaches have been proposed to address this problem including one recent, and highly publicized, project by the U.S. Government that meant to "copy" information from virtually every law and government agency into a behemoth "nationwide" data warehouse where it could be analyzed by "experts" and "properly disseminated" through appropriate channels. Although this is an extreme case, it does underscore the methodology that was applied. The method is simple - to bring it all together in one place where it could be collectively analyzed. Is there anything wrong with this approach? That answer would depend on whom you ask but there are certainly many challenges to overcome. Data aggregation, scalability, security, sheer physical storage of the masses of information, and issues associated with control and accountability are but a few.
Visual Analytics has long been advocating a different approach and methodology, where members within a community can easily share their information without the headache or overhead associated with a massive data warehouse. Visual Analytics is currently leveraging the distributed architectures of VisuaLinks and DIG to enable organizations to selectively and securely share data with others. In this distributed model, information (databases, documents, etc.) can stay in their current location, eliminating the need to copy to new locations for the sake of "integration." Many of our customers have termed our method to be a "Virtual Data Warehouse" and applaud our common sense approach to data sharing, which can be implemented on very large scales connecting dozens or hundreds of physical locations. This "Distributed Systems" approach has many advantages over its conventional counterpart including security, real-time access, and robustness.
Continued on VAI News page
|
|
|
|
 |
Another month, another newsletter. It seems like it was just yesterday that we published our last newsletter. Time doesn't march forward - it races forward, like Secretariat making the last turn at Churchill Downs.
At any rate, as time moves forward, so does Visual Analytics. We are nearing completion of testing for our next major release of VisuaLinks. Work on DIG 2.0 is pushing forward. We've added yet more staff and it seems like half the company is flying off to various places to support scores of new clients.
Of course, these are good problems to have. If growth and activity are the hallmarks of a healthy company, we're fairly brimming with good health.
|
|
|
We have dedicated much of this month's VisuaLinks News section to highlighting several VisuaLinks features. In addition to spotlighting these features, we have, of course, included more tips for helping you to find your way around the VisuaLinks interface.
We also have a surprise announcement about the next major release of VisuaLinks in our VisuaLinks News section.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
In this month's DIG News, we examine some of the features coming soon in the Report Writer feature. We also share some tips in the Did You Know section. |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
We receive quite a bit of feedback about our tools. Sometimes, our customers agree to let us quote them here, in our Reader Forum. The following is from one of our Department of Treasury users:
"VisuaLinks has proven to be a powerful tool for data visualization and has been invaluable in weeding out interesting patterns and relationships between entities that would otherwise normally be overlooked when viewed via traditional means, e.g., spreadsheets, SQL queries, reports, etc."
- Senior Researcher, U.S. Dept. of Treasury
Do you have comments you'd like us to share with our readership? If so, please send your comments to newsletter@visualanalytics.com. As always, we will gladly accommodate anyone's preference to remain anonymous.
|
|
|
|
|
