Unlike traditional relational data warehousing architectures forwarded by traditional BI vendors, the Iteration Real-Time Reporting Suite approaches the real-time problem from a completely different information model – intercepting information directly from continuous, streaming message queues, rather than having to wait for traditional ETL processes to run its course before conducting analysis

Officials at the Mountain View, California-based company say that the slick event-based architecture, which includes 10 technology patents pending, overcomes the inherent latency burned into traditional batch data warehousing and iterative ‘query-analyze-report-refresh’ BI systems. By reading directly from transaction streams and employing memory caches to perform quick analysis, Iteration claims that the suite effectively eliminates latency in information delivery; providing users with real-time alerts events within seconds of an event, exception or business transaction.

The architecture consists of four main technology layers: data integration, real-time monitoring, event-driven alerting, and real-time delivery. An Active Studio development environment is provided for defining alerts and associated business rules and triggers. Additionally, the suite includes collaboration capabilities for post-alert sharing of analysis results and immediate resolution/action. This is supported by features such as pen-based annotation on report surfaces (using the new Tablet PC).

Iteration is currently addressing a niche of the BI market that recognizes certain types of information, in specific business contexts has a real-time value. In the past, BI vendors have simply ‘thrown more hardware’ at the real-time problem. But the tumbling cost of memory, storage, etc means they can now push more aggressive architectures to deal with the problems of escalating and increasingly dynamic data analysis.

Founded in February 2002 by software veterans including Ken Gardner, the co-founder of Sagent Inc, Iteration is still an unknown quantity in the market. The company says it is focusing initially on industries with mature message-based IT architectures, such as manufacturing, financial brokering and supply chain. The company has received the backing of investors that include Canaan Partners and Crosspoint Venture Partners.

Source: Computerwire