This looks like it might be shaping up to be national security week on the blog this week. A colleague just pointed me to an article (Adelos Offers Ground-Breaking Sensor Intelligence) detailing how the unique, highly parallel processing capabilities of IBM InfoSphere Streams are providing the analytical power behind a new method of covert intelligence and surveillance gathering.
I'm not going to pretend to understand half of the science behind this system, but from what I can gather, by "detecting, classifying and localizing signals from disturbances along a single strand of commercial-grade fiber-optic cable" (leveraging a novel use of "the electro-optical properties of Rayleigh's Backscatter for a continuous phased array," naturally) it is possible to detect and find meaning for geospatial detection and measurement. (Note: Any of you more well versed in geospatial detection/measurement and/or covert intelligence and surveillance gathering should feel free to jump in with a intel-to-english translation.)
Needless to say, to find software to interpret the data and "manage sensor alert messages from the Adelos digital signal processor and... convert User Datagram Protocol data into standardized XML-based messages for distributed situational awareness in a network environment," you can't just head over to your local Best Buy.
The article describes what they needed, and what they found in InfoSphere Streams:
Adelos would need an architecture capable of embarrassingly* parallel calculations and visualization, a variety of analytical and pattern-recognition utilities, and machine learning for advanced classification of remotely sensed events. The process needed to consume additional sensor streams from other sensor platforms for near real-time classification with higher probability rates based on sensor fusion techniques.
After an extensive review, TerraEchos chose Infosphere Streams, a relatively new product developed by IBM for the U.S. government. Infosphere Streams is a paradigm-shifting computational architecture developed to manage and co-mingle massive data streams of varying spatial, temporal and ontological characteristics. The product has an embarrassingly* parallel flexibility designed to scale to the real-time data challenges inherent to Adelos S4⢠and can process specific energy phenomena in difficult pattern-recognition problems that concern commercial and government customers. Using the IBM SPADE programming language, Infosphere Streams users can associate a variety of analytical functions with the product's core and achieve unparalleled performance results....
With all the strategic force protection challenges the Navy faces, S4 provides a world-class application of electro-optical MASINT with advanced computational scalability for managing real-time, mission-critical sensor arrays. Combined with IBM network-aware, high-performance computing classified clouds, Adelos delivers covert surveillance and intelligence necessary to face land, air, water, "man-inside" and cyber-physical threats that define the asymmetric terrorism landscape. As the program continues, TerraEchos and IBM seek to move from a posture of harvesting sensor data to achieving insight through sensor intelligence.
(*Note: The article keeps using the phrase "embarrassingly parallel," which I am taking to mean "incredibly, ridiculously, highly parallel." I am also not going to comment on the publishing of an article on "covert intelligence and surveillance" in a public journal.)
eWeek: Analytics as IBM’s Brilliant Trojan-Horse Strategy Technology
Wed, Aug 25th 2010 4:37p Adam Gartenberg Bob Evans at eWeek has posted an article (Global CIO: IBM's Brilliant Trojan-Horse Strategy Transcends Technology) that brings to light work that IBM is doing around analytics that extends far beyond what the stereotypical notion of IBM might be. He's referring to retail sales forecasts provided by IBM, and in this case reported so nonchalantly by the Wall Street Journal that Evans did a double-take when seeing just who was providing the analysis. "What also struck me about the very short ar [read] Keywords: ibm
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eWeek: IBM Business Analytics: 20 Ways Big Blue Rules
Tue, Aug 24th 2010 2:26p Adam Gartenberg eWeek has posted a slideshow titled "IBM Business Analytics: 20 Ways Big Blue Rules." Head on over to the site for highlights of IBM's innovation, capabilities, and the successes organizations are seeing with our solutions. IBM has become a major proponent of business analytics. The emergence of smarter systems that are interconnected and streaming real-time information is presenting enterprises with a unique opportunity to transform decision making. New opportunities to use this data to pre [read] Keywords: ibm
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Free predictive analytics seminars - cities and dates
Wed, Aug 11th 2010 1:30p Adam Gartenberg If you're interested in learning more about predictive analytics (or are already using SPSS and want in-depth information), there's a free event series kicking off next week that you should take a look at. The roadshow will be visiting 7 major US and Canadian cities over the next 30 days, and will offer tracks for those new to predictive analytics or IBM SPSS, those already using SPSS, and those using Cognos software who may be interested in learning more about the value that can be added by in [read] Keywords: ibm
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IBM Helps NC State University Bring Innovative Technologies to Market by Harnessing Big Data
Wed, Aug 11th 2010 10:26a Adam Gartenberg In analytics news from my backyard, IBM and North Carolina State University today announced a new project that will take advantage of Big Data analytics technology to match academic research with potential investors. The biggest challenge in this process today is being able to quickly and easily comb through a large amount of data to uncover potential investors and partnerships. From the press release: To address this challenge, NC State will use IBM's advanced analytics technology to stre [read] Keywords: ibm
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IBM SPSS Predictive Analytics Helps City of Memphis Reduce Serious Crime by More Than 30%
Thu, Jul 22nd 2010 10:25a Adam Gartenberg Along with yesterday's report about the benefits Sun World is getting from predictive analytics comes another case study with very impressive results. IBM has been worked with the Memphis Police Department (MPD) to enhance its crime fighting techniques through the use of IBM predictive analytics software. As a result of these efforts, the City of Memphis is reporting a 30% reduction in serious crime, including a 15% reduction in violent crimes since 2006. These gains come from the ability [read] Keywords: ibm
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Smarter Farming: California’s Sun World Transforms Produce Business with IBM Analytics Technology
Wed, Jul 21st 2010 12:23p Adam Gartenberg In a press release issued this morning (Smarter Farming: California's Sun World Transforms Produce Business with IBM Technology), IBM shared how Sun World LLC is using IBM Cognos TM1 BI and analytics technology from IBM Business Partner Applied Analytix to "improve crop yields, reduce waste and expand its customer base, while providing more cost effective and energy efficient harvesting practices." Sun World's Director of Budgets and Reporting describes how the use of analytics has allowed t [read] Keywords: ibm
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New Analytics YouTube Channel and Profile of DC Water
Mon, Jul 12th 2010 12:25p Adam Gartenberg Today marks the launch of a new YouTube Channel for IBM analytics. Along with serving as a one-stop-shop for all things related to IBM analytics, the site will feature a series of videos focused on client stories. First up is a profile of DC Water, the water and sewer authority for Washington, DC. DC Water is using IBM predictive analytics software integrated with a mapping application to better manage the city's aging water and sewer systems, which serves 1.6 million people and involves [read] Keywords: administration
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InfoSphere Streams Receives Top 100 Innovative Products Award from RD Magazine
Fri, Jul 9th 2010 4:24p Adam Gartenberg Congratulations to my colleagues (and our customers) working with InfoSphere Streams, which was named one of the top 100 innovative products by R&D Magazine. InfoSphere Streams is unique in its ability to process incredibly high volumes of data in real-time from multitudes of data sources, utilizing a new streaming architecture and breakthrough mathematical algorithms. The result is real-time analysis of everything from stock trades to traffic patterns to medical monitoring equipment, at r [read] Keywords: ibm
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Inheriting a Complex World
Wed, Jul 7th 2010 4:25p Adam Gartenberg At IOD EMEA we highlighted some of the results from the recent CEO study IBM conducted (specifically zeroing in on the implications of more than 60% of CEOs surveyed citing industry transformation and the information explosion as the most significant factors facing their organizations over the next 5 years. ) This year we didn't only survey CEOs, but for the first time IBM reached out to 3,600 college and graduate students to see how the views of tomorrow's leaders might differ from today's [read] Keywords: ibm
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Mark Smith: IBM Advances Business Analytics and Optimization in First Year
Wed, Jul 7th 2010 12:25p Adam Gartenberg Mark Smith, CEO & Executive Vice President of Research for Ventana Research, posted a summary on his Information Management blog (IBM Advances Business Analytics and Optimization in First Year) of the Business Analytics and Optimization analyst summit IBM held recently in Washington, DC. In his post, he summarizes the topics touched on by the speakers at the event, which included Rob Ashe, who spoke about IBM's software solutions for business analytics, and Michael Schroeck, who spoke on [read] Keywords: collaboration
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