ORLANDO, Fla., April 25, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Delivering the future of business analytics, Pentaho Corporation today announced the general availability of Pentaho Business Analytics 4.5. With this release, Pentaho provides new user-driven, interactive visualization and data exploration capabilities that access all data sources, including big data, as well as a pluggable and extensible interface for software and SaaS companies to easily add third-party visualizations.

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Pentaho's unique value comes from its unified data integration and business analytics platform. With Pentaho, both IT and line of business users can quickly and easily collaborate and iterate to achieve better analysis and make better business decisions.

Enhanced user-driven visualization

Key new features in Pentaho Business Analytics 4.5 include location-based data visualization and enhanced analytics capabilities for business users, such as:

• Geo mapping, heat grids, scatter/bubble chart visualizations
• Interactive visual analysis such as lasso filtering, zoom and attribute highlighting on all chart types
• Interactive reporting enhancements designed for non-technical users
• In-memory cache performance improvements

"The new visualization features in Pentaho Business Analytics 4.5 such as heat grids and lasso filtering will greatly enhance our marketing analytics solutions and are sure to impress our end users," said Michael Winner, Vice President, Consulting Services, Numeric Analytics. "Because Pentaho has a unified environment for data integration and visualization tools, it is much easier and quicker to deliver useful business analytics solutions as compared to other analytics and big data tools I have worked with in the past."

Expanded insight into big and diverse data

A leader in the big data ecosystem since May 2010, Pentaho continues to expand its capabilities to access, integrate, visualize and analyze all data sources, including big data, with the following additions:

• Simplified deployment options for efficient distribution across Hadoop clusters, including a new Debian RPM for MapR and support for Hadoop's distributed cache
• Expanded NoSQL database integration including read, write and reporting with Apache Cassandra, DataStax and MongoDB
• Performance and ease-of-use improvements in the Pentaho MapReduce visual designer
• Support for secure Hadoop clusters
• Availability of an extensive online, distribution specific "how to" resource center community.pentaho.com/BigData

Easier to embed and customize within OEM and enterprise applications

Pentaho Business Analytics' pluggable, extensible interface for software and SaaS has been enhanced with new features to support:

• A pluggable visualization framework that allows the addition of custom or 3rd party visualizations
• Ability to tailor the report viewing experience with scriptable data source logic and custom report parameter prompts

"Pentaho Business Analytics 4.5 delivers interactive visualization and big data integration in a unified pluggable platform that speeds time to business insights for both IT and line of business," said Jake Cornelius, senior vice president, products, Pentaho Corporation. "We built the Pentaho platform from the ground up with an understanding that data integration and business analytics are better together."

"Pentaho is the exact bridging mechanism we were searching for," said Randy Walsh, Vice President of Professional Services, AssetWorks. "We've embedded Pentaho in AiM™ IQ, a product we feel embodies 'intelligence for everyone' and provides end-users with a simple to use yet robust interface to access their data. It speaks volumes about Pentaho's ability to be used in the field, in the boardroom and everywhere in-between."

• Visit pentaho.com to learn more about the new release and why 'Better Together' is best.
• Download a free 30-day fully supported trial of the Pentaho Business Analytics 4.5.
• Attend the live demo of what's new in Pentaho Business Analytics 4.5 on May 3, 2012. Register at pentaho.com/4.5-webinar.

About Pentaho Corporation

Pentaho is delivering the future of business analytics. Pentaho's open source heritage drives our continued innovation in a modern, integrated, embeddable platform built for the future of analytics, including diverse and big data requirements. Powerful business analytics are made easy with Pentaho's cost-effective suite for data access, visualization, integration, analysis and mining. For a free evaluation, download Pentaho Business Analytics at www.pentaho.com/get-started.

SOURCE Pentaho Corporation