Dark data Not if Teradata and Nuix can help it

Dark data is generally considered any data that gets overlooked and underused, often because employees don't know it's there or don't know how to access it. It's widely thought that dark data accounts for a majority of most companies' information assets.

Through their partnership, the companies will integrate Nuix's namesake data processing and indexing engine with Teradata's Aster Analytics software, giving organizations a new way to uncover their dark data and analyze it on the spot.

The Nuix Engine focuses on turning unstructured, structured and semi-structured data into searchable text and metadata. As a result of the integration, companies will be able to use it to extract information from hundreds of file types and millions of documents -- including emails and PDFs, for example -- and then perform an initial analysis.

Once they've identified the most relevant data from that set, they can feed it directly into Teradata's Aster Analytics and apply sophisticated machine learning, text analytics and other analysis techniques to uncover new insights.

Aster can look for words and phrases and then apply analytical business rules to find compliance infractions or fraud, for instance, helping human investigators target their auditing efforts.

Nuix and Teradata will focus initially on creating a communication compliance product for the financial services sector, but eventually they see a much broader range of applications, including also litigation, cybersecurity, intelligence, and information governance.

"It’s a logical move for Teradata and for the Aster platform in particular," said Tony Baer, a principal analyst with Ovum.

With an ecosystem of third-party products, "the Aster platform does not have to be known as one that requires homegrown coding," he said.