Actian Corporation, the firm formerly known as Ingres, has unveiled two new platforms aimed at helping firms tackle the challenges of the ‘Age of Data’ by offering tools for big data analytics and integrating data between enterprise applications and services.

Available now, the Actian DataCloud and ParAccel Big Data Analytics pull together technologies the firm has gained from a rash of recent acquisitions, including ParAccel, Pervasive Software and Versant Corporation, as well as Actian’s own Vectorwise database.

The Actian DataCloud is, as its name suggests, a cloud-hosted platform intended to offer seamless data integration between on-premise enterprise applications and cloud-based services.

It offers three tiers, based on the level of control and customisation customers require: Invisible Connect provides pre-built one-click integration, while Basic Connect lets customers conduct some self-serve mapping, and Advanced Connect provides for full customisation, data profiling and data matching.

Actian DataCloud is actually hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS), using that platform to deliver scalability on demand for customers, the firm said.

Meanwhile, the ParAccel Big Data Analytics platform is a suite of tools designed to deliver real-time analysis of large data sets from which customers can derive useful business intelligence.

However, while there are already many solutions for big data and analytics, Actian chief executive Steve Shine told V3 that its new solution is designed to handle the entire data lifecycle of these large datasets, and to deal with constant, ever-changing data feeds.

“We spoke to customers and realised that the [Vectorwise] database alone wasn’t what they wanted. Data has a lifecycle, and you have to look at that lifecycle from the source through the enrichment and optimisation stages through to analysis. You need to do massive Hadoop-level processing, and then serve up the results in the right way,” he said.

“We had the database, but we also needed the data integration and the connector capabilities, that’s why we acquired Pervasive, because they had these connectors to SAP and other enterprise applications and data sources,” Shine explained.

The purpose of the new platform is to enable any company to be able to exploit big data and make use of the vast amounts of digital data feeds that are becoming available, from sources as disparate as social networks or connected sensors.

“The Age of Data is only just getting started. The volume of digital data out there is going to increase exponentially, and we want anyone to be able to take advantage. Big data applications are only just the beginning,” said Shine.

While Actian’s DataCloud is a hosted service, the firm expects the ParAccel Big Data Analytics platform will mostly be deployed on-premise, although it could be hosted, Actian said.

However, the firm has taken care to ensure all of the components to ensure they can be deployed on standard servers and are architected to scale to meet customer requirements, according to Shine.

“What we’ve done is make sure every part can run on commodity hardware and is optimised for the latest processors and clustering,” he said.

For the Actian DataCloud, customers will be charged on a simple metered per-transaction basis, but the ParAccel Big Data Analytics platform is a different matter. The exact implementation of this will depend greatly on a customer’s exact requirements and the volumes of data they need to handle, and so a certain amount of customisation will be necessary.

“A big part of our business model is partnering with system integrators who specialise in serving the needs of pharmaceutical companies or the retail industry, for example,” Shine said.

Customers will also still be able to license individual components such as Vectorwise, if they desire.

Microsoft has announced one of the biggest reorganisations in the company’s history, as it seeks to adapt itself to better meet the challenges of today’s fast-paced IT industry. Existing business units are being swept away to be replaced by four engineering areas comprising OS, Apps, Cloud, and Devices.

The radical restructuring of the software giant was unveiled in an email from Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer to all employees, which has been posted on the firm’s website.

In the email Ballmer said that the changes, “will enable us to execute even better on our strategy to deliver a family of devices and services that best empower people for the activities they value most and the enterprise extensions and services that are most valuable to business.”

To do this, Microsoft is aiming to present itself as “one company, not a collection of divisional strategies”. This strategy is aiming at driving the company forward with a set of shared goals through which its product line-up will be seen holistically rather than seperate areas.

“All parts of the company will share and contribute to the success of core offerings, like Windows, Windows Phone, Xbox, Surface, Office 365 and our EA offer, Bing, Skype, Dynamics, Azure and our servers. All parts of the company will contribute to activating high-value experiences for our customers,” Ballmer said.

To effect this change, the company is being reordered around functions such as engineering, marketing, business development, advanced strategy and research, finance, HR, and legal.

The Engineering function will be split across four engineering teams targeting OS, Apps, Cloud, and Devices, while Dynamics will be kept separate “as it continues to need special focus and represents significant opportunity,” according to Ballmer.

Of these areas, the Operating Systems Engineering Group will be led by Terry Myerson and will encompass all OS work across Microsoft’s mobile devices, PCs, and back-end systems.

The Devices and Studios Engineering Group is being headed by Julie Larson-Green, covering all hardware development from the smallest to the largest devices.

Meanwhile, the Applications and Services Engineering Group led by Qi Lu covers applications and service core technologies across productivity, communication, search and other information categories.

Satya Nadella is heading up the Cloud and Enterprise Engineering Group, developing technologies datacentre and database technologies and other specific tools for enterprise IT scenarios.

The move is a monumental upheaval for Microsoft and its employees, but one that Ballmer said is necessary for the company to move forward and meet the challenges it faces.

“This is a big undertaking. It touches nearly every piece of what we do and how we work. It changes our org structure, the way we collaborate, how we allocate resources, how we best empower our engineers and how we market,” he said.

EMC is updating its Data Domain, Avamar, NetWorker and Mozy data storage lines.

The company said that the update would bring support for additional storage platforms along with additional performance and scalability features.

Among the updates will be four new Data Domain systems. The revamped software will sport up to 10 times the scalability and four times the performance of previous models. EMC claims that the new systems will also reduce customer cost per gigabyte by 38 percent, helping to reduce costs brought on by the rise in virtualised architectures and expanding data centres. The company claims that the new systems will be able to handle up to 540 sources of data.

EMC president of Backup Recovery Systems Guy Churchward said: “Accidental architectures are an outgrowth of users addressing individual data protection challenges reactively as they arise, and applying costly silo’d or ‘one size fits all’ products and solutions that become difficult to manage, optimise and pay for.

“The products we’ve announced today pave the way for our customers to consolidate their data protection strategy and infrastructure, and enable them to proactively prepare for the data protection challenges that accompany transformational IT initiatives.”

In addition to the new Data Domain systems, EMC is expanding its compatibility with outside software vendors. The new systems will support SAP’s HANA and Oracle’s Exadata storage lines as well as OpenText, IBM and Dell storage platforms.

The company is also adding new features to its Avamar platform to allow VM Instant Access and introducing Active Directory compatibility to the Mozy cloud backup platform. The company said that the new tools will be available in the third quarter of the year. The software will also be offered through the VSPEX platform.

EMC is updating its Data Domain, Avamar, Networker and Mozy data storage lines.

The company said that the update would bring support for additional storage platforms along with additional performance and scalability features.

Among the updates will be four new Data Domain systems. The revamped software will sport up to 10 times the scalability and four times the performance of previous models. EMC claims that the new systems will also reduce customer cost per gigabyte by 38 percent, helping to reduce costs brought on by the rise in virtualised architectures and expanding datacentres. The company claims that the new systems will be able to handle up to 540 sources of data.

“Accidental architectures are an outgrowth of users addressing individual data protection challenges reactively as they arise, and applying costly silo’d or ‘one size fits all’ products and solutions that become difficult to manage, optimize and pay for,” said EMC president of backup recovery and systems Guy Churchward.

“The products we’ve announced today pave the way for our customers to consolidate their data protection strategy and infrastructure, and enable them to proactively prepare for the data protection challenges that accompany transformational IT initiatives.”

In addition to the new Data Domain Systems, EMC is expanding its compatibility with outside software vendors. The new systems will support SAP’s HANA and Oracle’s Exadata storage lines as well as OpenText, IBM and Dell storage platforms.

The company is also adding new features to its Avamar platform to allow VM Instant Access and introducing Active Directory compatibility to the Mozy cloud backup platform. The company said that the new tools will be available in the third quarter of the year. The software will also be offered through the VSPEX platform.

Cloud storage firm Dropbox has added 75 million users since October, giving it a total of 175 million users, as it looks to flex its muscles among IT vendors and consumers alike by vowing to replace the hard drive.

The announcement of the new user numbers was made Dropbox’s first developer conference, called DBX, in California.

At the event Dropbox announced that it is expanding its API roster that is already used by developers worldwide, adding a Datastore API, which can sync documents and pictures, but also keeps track of app data such as settings in cross-platform apps, such as to-do list apps that run on multiple operating systems.

A Dropbox blog post explained: “We’ve designed the Dropbox platform to be the best foundation to connect the world’s apps, devices and services. We started with the Sync API, which let developers take advantage of the file syncing technology that took us years to get right.

“Today we’re announcing a suite of tools that fundamentally simplifies how developers can build across devices and platforms.”

Dropbox chief executive Drew Houston added that the demand for the firm’s cloud storage services was removing the need for physical hard drives.

“I don’t mean that you’re going to unscrew your MacBook and find a Dropbox inside, but the spiritual successor to the hard drive is what we’re launching,” he told Wired.

At the end of June, Dropbox also began to shake off its consumer-only reputation, allowing IT vendors to start selling Dropbox products through the Partner Network program. The company already has 150 resellers on its books as it looks to grow this list further.

Dropbox has integrated its services into several major tech brands, including Yahoo Mail, which allows users to send attachments larger than 25MB.