Teradata unveils new suite of big data applications

Teradata is betting that the future lies in big data applications, and to capitalize, the company announced a new suite of apps it says will simplify data science.

The Teradata Aster AppCenter includes prebuilt applications designed for specific uses in industries like retail, healthcare, financial services and others. Applications are accessible through a Web-based interface and run on the Teradata Aster database either on-premises or via the cloud.

Technology vendors have done a good job of providing tools that make it easier to capture and store data, said Chris Twogood, Teradata's vice president of product and services marketing. But missing are applications that make analyzing the data easy. Too often highly skilled data scientists need to hand-code the applications. The AppCenter aims to lower this bar.

"The industry really hasn't gone to the point of apps and empowering to build out data and analyze it," Twogood said.

The big data applications are primarily delivered as prebuilt templates that businesses can then customize for their own purposes.

This type of prebuilt analytic application is becoming more popular among technology vendors. Last week IBM rolled out  a product called Foundation for Energy, a suite of data integration, analytics and visualization tools designed specifically for the utilities industry.

As for demand from businesses, users have expressed frustration with the myriad big data tools they need to manage and analyze data effectively. Prebuilt, specialized apps could fill a niche for simple-to-implement, easy-to-use analytic tools.

Teradata's AppCenter will become available in the second business quarter of 2015.