Author: Ramkumar Sundarakalatharan

Fitting BigData into Enterprise IT with SAP's HANA VORA

Fitting BigData into Enterprise IT with SAP's HANA VORA

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SAP has introduced a new technology, dubbed HANA Vora, that almost epitomizes the idea that Big Data and BI are complementary. Vora melds Big Data technologies like Hadoop and Spark with the original SAP HANA, and downstream sources like SAP BW, Business Objects andERP. In the process, it brings BI-style dimensional (drill-down) analysis into the Big Data world.
But, with our experience in building these so-called “Big-Data enabled BI” applications for many of the manufacturing industry’s leaders, we have not come across a single enterprise who can readily implement HANA. despite the fact that many of them had one or more SAP component somewhere in their enterprise IT.
HANA Vora is based on the combination of Apache Spark and Hadoop 2.0/YARN. It then provides connectivity to the original SAP HANA, premised on push-down query delegation. It also layers in Spark SQL enhancements to handle hierarchical queries and a pre-compiled query facility comparable to what relational databases and data warehouses have had for years.
Essentially, Vora federates “data lakes” with Enterprise systems of record and does so without incurring the costs of data movement (since “classic” HANA executes its own queries). Further, it provides for the definition of dimensional hierarchies and the ability to use them in analytical queries against all the data that Vora can address.
Vora requires no dedicated hardware infrastructure, as it co-locates on the cluster nodes on which Hadoop and Spark are themselves deployed. Clearly, if you’re going to integrate Vora with classic HANA, the latter will need its own infrastructure. But Vora can also be used on a standalone basis with no additional hardware requirements. This important element will be a key-consideration for organisations to take a dip into the Data Lakes.
Vora could end up being a very sensible way for SAP customers to move forward with Hadoop, Spark and Big Data in general. And since Vora is a commercial software offering from SAP, and not an open source offering, it fits with SAP’s existing business model, rather than requiring the company to change gears in some contrived manner.
HANA Vora hybridizes on many levels: Big Data with BI; startup technology with established Enterprise software; data lakes with vetted systems of record; and, finally, in-memory and disk-based storage and processing.

The New Quantum Computer from MIT Could render Encryption Obsolete

The New Quantum Computer from MIT Could render Encryption Obsolete

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MIT has developed a new Quantum Computer with 5 atoms. Yes you read it right, “5 Atoms”. Before venturing to the prophecy of the impending doom due to the obsolesce  of encryption, here is a link that might help you understand what a quantum computer is.
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/quantum-computer.htm

An experimental computer made by a Canadian company has proved its ability to solve increasingly complex mathematical problems. But is it quantum mechanics?
An experimental computer made by a Canadian company has proved its ability to solve increasingly complex mathematical problems. But is it quantum mechanics?

With the concept of “Qubits” which can  simultaneously be both “HIGH” and “LOW”, which greatly reduces the number of  “Clock cycles” or “Time” required for performing an operation like calculating the Prime-Factor which is the basis of all encryption. It typically takes about 12 qubits to factor the number 15, but researchers at MIT and the University of Innsbruck in Austria have found a way to pare that down to five qubits, each represented by a single atom, they said this week.
Construction:
Using laser pulses to keep the quantum system stable by holding the atoms in an ion trap, the new system promises scalability as well, as more atoms and lasers can be added to build a bigger and faster quantum computer able to factor much larger numbers. That, in turn, presents new risks for factorization-based methods such as RSA, used for protecting credit cards, state secrets and other confidential data.
The development is in many ways touted to be an answer to a challenge posed way back in 1994, when MIT professor Peter Shor came up with a quantum algorithm that calculates the prime factors of a large number with much better efficiency than a classical computer. Fifteen is the smallest number that can meaningfully demonstrate Shor’s algorithm. Without any prior knowledge of the answers, the new system returned the correct factors with a confidence better than 99 percent.
From the Researchers:
“We show that Shor’s algorithm, the most complex quantum algorithm known to date, is realizable in a way where, yes, all you have to do is go in the lab, apply more technology, and you should be able to make a bigger quantum computer,” said Isaac Chuang, professor of physics and professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT. “It might still cost an enormous amount of money to build — you won’t be building a quantum computer and putting it on your desktop anytime soon — but now it’s much more an engineering effort, and not a basic physics question,” Chuang added.
The results of the new work were published Friday in the journal Science.
This is a really interesting development. Let us await how this progresses.
 

Red Hat and Eurotech team up to deliver IoT solution framework.

Red Hat and Eurotech team up to deliver IoT solution framework.

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Italy-based Eurotech offers machine-to-machine platforms and other IoT products. Red Hat plans to combine its open-source Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat JBoss middleware with Eurotech’s Everyware Software Framework and Eurotech Everyware Cloud to create an end-to-end architecture for IoT. This will let enterprises integrate operational data from computing equipment at the edge of the network with cloud-based back-end services.
Enterprise IoT needs computing capability at the edges of networks so companies don’t have to ship masses of data to the cloud for real-time processing. Instead, data aggregation and transformation, plus data integration and routing, can take place close to the operational devices.
However, for the foreseeable future, most IoT projects will be heavily customized, so vertical industry expertise will remain more critical than horizontal solution.
 
 

Now . . . where were we?

Now . . . where were we?

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Well, my first blog or journal came into being at around 2001. And fast forward some 14 years, (which  in Common Law is a “Lifetime” ) and approximately 11 blogs after, I am back none the wiser but older.
Me On BridgeWill try and chronicle the,  events to come, happenings and stuff that interests me, or affect me or inspires me.
Signing Off Now.

NASA Announces "Roadmap" for Deep Space CEV

NASA Announces "Roadmap" for Deep Space CEV

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It Seems NASA has reached an important milestone for the next U.S. transportation system that will carry humans into Near-deep space. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden announced that the system will be based on designs originally planned for the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle. Those plans now will be used to develop a new spacecraft known as the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV).
“We are committed to human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit and look forward to developing the next generation of systems to take us there,” Bolden said.

“The NASA Authorization Act lays out a clear path forward for us by handing off transportation to the International Space Station to our private sector partners, so we can focus on deep space exploration. As we aggressively continue our work on a heavy lift launch vehicle, we are moving forward with an existing contract to keep development of our new crew vehicle on track.”

Lockheed Martin Corp. will continue working to develop the MPCV. The spacecraft will carry four astronauts for 21-day missions and be able to land in the Pacific Ocean off the California coast. The spacecraft will have a pressurized volume of 690 cubic feet, with 316 cubic feet of habitable space.

It is designed to be 10 times safer during ascent and entry than its predecessor, the space shuttle.

“This selection does not indicate a business as usual mentality for NASA programs,” said Douglas Cooke, associate administrator for the agency’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate in Washington.

“The Orion government and industry team has shown exceptional creativity in finding ways to keep costs down through management techniques, technical solutions and innovation.”

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NASA Announces "Roadmap" for Deep Space CEV

NASA Announces "Roadmap" for Deep Space CEV

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It Seems NASA has reached an important milestone for the next U.S. transportation system that will carry humans into Near-deep space. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden announced that the system will be based on designs originally planned for the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle. Those plans now will be used to develop a new spacecraft known as the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV).
“We are committed to human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit and look forward to developing the next generation of systems to take us there,” Bolden said.

“The NASA Authorization Act lays out a clear path forward for us by handing off transportation to the International Space Station to our private sector partners, so we can focus on deep space exploration. As we aggressively continue our work on a heavy lift launch vehicle, we are moving forward with an existing contract to keep development of our new crew vehicle on track.”

Lockheed Martin Corp. will continue working to develop the MPCV. The spacecraft will carry four astronauts for 21-day missions and be able to land in the Pacific Ocean off the California coast. The spacecraft will have a pressurized volume of 690 cubic feet, with 316 cubic feet of habitable space.

It is designed to be 10 times safer during ascent and entry than its predecessor, the space shuttle.

“This selection does not indicate a business as usual mentality for NASA programs,” said Douglas Cooke, associate administrator for the agency’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate in Washington.

“The Orion government and industry team has shown exceptional creativity in finding ways to keep costs down through management techniques, technical solutions and innovation.”

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PSLV launch successful, 5 satellites placed in orbit

PSLV launch successful, 5 satellites placed in orbit

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In a textbook launch, India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) on Monday successfully placed into orbit remote sensing satellite Cartosat-2B and four other satellites after a perfect lift off from the spaceport here.

At the end of an over 51-hour countdown, the 44.4 metre-tall four-stage PSLV-C-15, costing Rs260 crore, blasted off from a launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre with ignition of the core first stage and placed the satellites in orbit one after the other.

Visibly relieved scientists, headed by Isro chairman Dr K Radhakrishnan, cheered as Isro’s workhorse PSLV soared into clear skies at 9.22 AM from the spaceport in the East Coast in Andhra Pradesh, about 100 km north of Chennai.

The PSLV launch assumes significance as it comes about three months after Isro suffered a major setback on 15 April when the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-D3), which was launched using an Indian-designed and built cryogenic engine for the first time, failed and fell into the Bay of Bengal.

Cartosat-2B is an advanced remote sensing satellite built by Isro. This is the latest in the Indian remote sensing satellite series and the 17th in this series.

Cartosat-2B is mainly intended to augment remote sensing data services to the users of multiple spot scene imagery with 0.8 metre spatial resolution and 9.6 km swath in the panchromatic.

Cartosat-2 and 2A, two Indian remote sensing satellites in orbit, are currently providing such services.

A set of four satellites including Studsat built by students of seven engineering colleges in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, Alsat from Algeria, two nano satellites from Canada and Switzerland, and a pico (very small) satellite called Oceansat 2 accompanied Cartosat 2 on its trip to orbit.

Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahuluwalia, and former Isro chief Dr K Kasturirangan witnessed the launch.

“It has been a wonderful experience. The Isro has made the country proud,” Ahluwalia said, congratulating the scientists after the perfect take off.

Attributing the success of PSLV C-15 to the entire team behind the mission, Isro chairman K Radhakrishnan said, “We had an excellent flight. It injected precisely the five satellites. The entire Isro team is behind the success”.

In an apparent reference to the failure of GSLV D3 cryogenic stage, the space agency’s first mission after he took over as its chief, he said his team of scientists were inspired to work “especially after the last few weeks after a serious problem that we faced.”

“And I also want to say we have understood the problem with regard to the indigenous cryogenic engine and stage. We will confirm it in a few weeks with a few tests and then we will come back”, he said.

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Russian resupply ship docks at International Space Station

Russian resupply ship docks at International Space Station

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An unmanned Russian supply vessel docked Sunday without trouble at the International Space Station, two days after a technical glitch forced a similar maneuver to be aborted.

Space officials said they managed to avoid the radio signal problems that forced them to abandon last week’s docking of the Progress M-06M cargo ship, launched on June 30, is carrying 2.6 tonnes of fuel, food and water for the three Russia and three US astronauts on the station.

“At 20:17 pm Moscow time (16H17 GMT), the ‘Progress M-06M’ docked at the ‘Star’ module of the ISS,” the Russian Mission Control Centre said in an Internet statement.

An attempted docking on Friday was aborted when a radio link with the ISS was lost about 25 minutes before the planned rendezvous.

Sunday’s successful docking was done automatically under the supervision of experts in Moscow and the ISS team, it said, without using the radio link.

Progress launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on June 30.

It is the 40th Russian cargo vessel to dock at the station, the centre said.

In contrast to the troubles that plagued the first rendezvous attempt, Sunday’s second try “was executed flawlessly,” the US space agency NASA said on its website.

The space ship’s failure to dock last week after flying past the ISS was notable largely because it was rare mishap in a space programme which usually strives for and achieves pinpoint accuracy.

During the mishap “in the beginning everything was normal, then the automatic (docking) mode failed, and later the station’s crew could not dock the vessel in manual mode,” a Russian space centre spokesman told the Itar-Tass news agency.

The automatic docking system also failed during the last Progress supply ship docking in May although the process was successfully carried out manually.

The ISS, which orbits 350 kilometres (220 miles) above Earth, is a sophisticated platform for scientific experiments, helping test the effects of long-term space travel on humans, a must for any trip to distant Mars.

Progress is carrying 1,918 pounds (862 kilos) of propellant, 110 pounds (50 kilos) of oxygen, 220 pounds (100 kilos) of water and 2,667 pounds (1,210 kilos) of experiment equipment, spare parts and other supplies to the station.

The rendezvous occurred 220 miles (350 kilometers) above Earth as both the ISS and resupply ship flew over the point where the borders of China, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Russia intersect.

Progress is similar in appearance and design elements to the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, which brings crew members to the station, serves as a lifeboat while they are there and returns them to Earth. And unlike Soyuz, Progress has a refuelling module and a cargo module.

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SMOS Safe in Orbit

SMOS Safe in Orbit

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SMOS Forms Three-Pointed Star In The Sky

Carried on the SMOS satellite, the MIRAS instrument consists of a central structure and three deployable arms, each of which has three segments. During launch, these arms are folded-up. Just over 36 hours after SMOS has been injected into orbit, the arms are gently deployed. Credits: ESA – AOES Medialab. For an animation of this process please go here.
by Staff Writers
Paris, France (ESA) Nov 04, 2009
Following the launch of ESA’s SMOS satellite on 2 November, the French space agency CNES, which is responsible for operating the satellite, has confirmed that the instrument’s three antenna arms have deployed as planned, and that the instrument is in good health.

During launch and the first few orbits around Earth, the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) instrument’s antenna arms remained safely folded up. Today, these three arms folded-out and now form a large three-pointed star shape. With its unusual shape, measuring eight metres across, SMOS can be dubbed a ‘star in the sky’.

The SMOS instrument is called MIRAS – short for Microwave Imaging Radiometer with Aperture Synthesis – and is actually bigger than the satellite platform. It consists of a central hub and the three arms that have just deployed. This deployment is crucial to the success of the mission as they carry the key measuring devices: most of the 69 small antenna receivers called LICEFs.

To acquire data on soil moisture and ocean salinity, each of the LICEF antenna-receivers measures radiation emitted from Earth’s surface within the ‘L-band’, around a frequency of 1.4 GHz. This frequency provides the best sensitivity to variations in moisture in the soil and changes in the salinity of the surface waters of the oceans. In addition, this frequency is not affected too much by the weather, atmosphere and vegetation cover.

To achieve the spacial resolution required by the data users, the MIRAS instrument employs a novel use of technology. Under normal circumstances, measuring these two environmental variables using L-band would only work with a huge antenna – which would be too big to be carried by a satellite. To overcome this challenge, the SMOS mission has borrowed techniques used in radio astronomy.

Radio astronomers, searching for celestial objects that are not detectable in optical astronomy, also faced the challenge of needing to detect small signals from point sources in space at a long wavelength, requiring a big antenna.

Since signals are detected as waves, signals from different telescopes can be added to synthesise the pinpointing of a much larger telescope. To achieve this, radio astronomers combined 27 radio telescopes, each 25 m in diameter, and deployed them on a Y-shaped track that can be extended up to 35 km. This is known as the Very Large Array in New Mexico, US.

Like the Very Large Array, the SMOS instrument also forms a Y-shape and through a process of interferometry the 69 small antenna receivers mimic a much larger antenna.

The deployment of the SMOS arms marks another significant milestone for ESA’s water mission. The satellite will now undergo a series of health checks within its six-month commissioning phase. So far, however, all the signs are good that this second of ESA’s Earth Explorer satellites in orbit is fit and healthy following launch and will be able to deliver the data to advance our understanding of Earth’s water cycle

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India to take second moon shot by 2012, eyes Mars

India to take second moon shot by 2012, eyes Mars

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Buoyed by the success of its maiden lunar mission, India on Thursday said it will send a second unmanned spacecraft to the moon by 2012.
The announcement came less than a week after Chandrayaan-1, India’s first unmanned spacecraft, entered lunar orbit for the start of a two-year mission.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said the second spacecraft would also place a probe on the moon’s surface.

“Chandrayaan-II will be launched by 2012,” ISRO chairman Madavan Nair told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar in the southern Indian city of Chennai.

“We will have a lander that will drop a small robot on the moon, which will pick samples, analyse data and send the data back,” the Press Trust of India quoted Nair as saying.

He said Chandrayaan-1 will on Friday drop a probe, painted in India’s national colours, on the moon.

“Already 95 percent of the mission has been completed. The total success of the mission would be known only after the remaining work is completed,” he said.

During its mission, Chandrayaan-1 will provide a detailed map of the mineral, chemical and topographical characteristics of the moon’s surface.

India hopes the lunar missions will boost its space programme into the same league as regional powerhouses Japan and China.

“We cannot be lagging behind in terms of our capability to access space. China, the US and Japan are going ahead with huge plans for space,” the ISRO chairman said.

Nair also dismissed criticism the 80-million dollar Chandrayaan-1 project was beyond ISRO’s budget and said the agency would use the infrastructure created for the lunar mission for more ambitious programmes.

“Most of the expenses have gone to create infrastructural facilities, which will be used for our plans to send satellites to Mars and Venus,” Nair said, adding the organisation would also launch a satellite to solar emissions.

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