IBM has releases cloud-based data analytics software and has extended its mobile business intelligence solution to the iPad.

IBM has made InfoSphere BigInsights available on its SmartCloud cloud system. InfoSphere BigInsights is IBM’s Hadoop-based data processing and analytics platform, and the new release is designed to make it easier to provide any user with the ability to carry out analysis of big data sets.

The software was announced at the 2011 Business Analytics Forum, and can be used to analyze both structured data in databases and unstructured data from sources such as social networks, mobile devices and sensors. The software ranks the data according to its quality so results are presented in the most useful way.

There’s a basic, preconfigured edition that’s free to download and try out for anyone who wants to experiment with Hadoop here, subject to registration.

IBM has also extended the reach of IBM Cognos Mobile. The recently released version 10.1.1 supports Apple iPad, in addition to iPhone, Android and BlackBerry. A demo of this business intelligence and analytics package can be seen here, subject to registration.

The latest version of SPSS Statistics was also announced by IBM at the Business Analytics Forum, under the jazzy title of “Geographic Mapping for Predictive Analytics”. This grand claim is made on the basis that SPSS Statistics 20.0 now comes with a mapping feature so users can add a geographic dimension to analysis and reporting.

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