JT on Oracle Data Mining Update

I got an update from Oracle on Oracle Data Mining (ODM) recently. ODM is an in-database data mining and predictive analytics engine that allows you to build and use advanced predictive analytic models on data that can be accessed through your Oracle data infrastructure. I blogged about ODM extensively last year in this First Look - Oracle Data Mining and since then they have released ODM 11.2.

The fundamental architecture has not changed, of course. ODM remains a "database-out" solution surfaced through SQL and PL-SQL APIs and executing in the database. It has the 12 algorithms and 50+ statistical functions I discussed before and model building and scoring are both done in-database. Oracle Text functions are integrated to allow text mining algorithms to take advantage of them. Additionally, because ODM mines star schema data it can handle an unlimited number of input attributes, transactional data and unstructured data such as CLOBs, tables or views.

This release takes the preview GUI I discussed last time and officially releases it. This new GUI is an extension to SQL Developer 3.0 (which is available for free and downloaded by millions of SQL/database people). The "Classic" interface (wizard-based access to the APIs) is still available but the new interface is much more in line with the state of the art as far as analytic tools go.

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The extension includes help for data miners to use the tool plus training "Cue Cards" and sample data as well as an embedded "infomercial" to introduce data mining concepts to DBAs and others who might come across it while using SQL Developer. There are also an increasing number of training classes available online.

Read more.