HPCC Systems from LexisNexis Celebrates Third Open-Source Anniversary, And Releases 5.0 Version

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Aug 06, 2014, 01:33 ET

ATLANTA, Aug. 6, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- LexisNexis^® Risk Solutions today announced the third anniversary of HPCC Systems^®, its open-source, enterprise-proven platform for big data analysis and processing for large volumes of data in 24/7 environments. HPCC Systems also announced the upcoming availability of version 5.0 with enhancements to provide additional support for international users, visualization capabilities and new functionality such as a Juju charm that makes the platform easier to use.

"We decided to open-source HPCC Systems three years ago to drive innovation for our leading technology that had only been available internally and allow other companies and developers to experience its benefits to solve their unique business challenges," said Flavio Villanustre, Vice President, Products and Infrastructure, HPCC Systems, LexisNexis.

Big Data Success Examples from Customers
HPCC Systems underpins the data services of LexisNexis Risk Solutions, with revenues of $1.4 billion. LexisNexis Risk Solutions creates data, risk, analytics and anti-fraud solutions for customers in the industries financial services, government, health care, insurance and retail.

For example, using LexisNexis Identity Analytics and HPCC Systems to verify and authenticate the identities of customers applying electronically for public assistance benefits, the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) has saved more than $12 million in cost avoidance by preventing fraud and creating increased efficiencies within its first five months rolling out a statewide program.

"We are extremely pleased with the savings we've already realized in the short time our program has been implemented," Florida DCF Office of Public Benefits Director Andrew McClenahan said. "We look forward to continuing to protect the identity of our clients and stopping fraud at the front door, making sure only those who truly need help receive it."

A Growing Ecosystem for HPCC Systems, 100% Open Source and Community Driven
The HPCC Systems ecosystem has grown since the open source launch, with community members, partners, consultants, academia and customers.

"We have established an HPCC Centre of Excellence and are training engineers on this important technology, said Deva Senapathy, Regional head of Americas at Infosys Limited, a global leader in consulting, technology and outsourcing solutions. "This unique partnership will see us work closely with LexisNexis to jointly identify opportunities to bring the benefits of HPCC Systems to clients who want to unlock the power of the data within their organization."

Free, online training classes have helped community members learn the platform and the programming language called Enterprise Control Language (ECL) and be competitive in the job market.

"I learned how to clean and transform 'Big Data' with ECL, said Dora Pan as a student at Florida State University and now working at Comrise. "After the training, I got the job offer. Now I use ECL to solve 'Big Data' problems every day in my work. The training enriched my 'Big data' analysis knowledge."

HPCC Systems celebrates its third birthday in the form of software releases, user value-downloads, ongoing development, community forums and additions of developers.
Highlights from the last year include:

Thousands of downloads and installations
External community growth of 9 percent from 2012 to 2013 with top countries including USA, India, China, UK, France
More than doubled users
An Academic community with eight percent growth from 2012 to 2013
Thousands have completed instructor-led training
Hundreds have completed online training since 2012
Thousands of forum posts; the most active being the ECL Developer forum with thousands of posts as a group

More users drive innovation in areas of interest like visualization and machine learning functionality. One developer worked on integration with machine learning library in about two weeks without prior experience using HPCC Systems Enterprise Control Language (ECL). The integration, considered seamless from an ECL programming standpoint, represents approximately 100,000 lines of existing C++ libraries, uses embedded C++ wrappers, ECL macros and ECL functions.

5.0 Enhancements
With community contributions from developers and analysts across the globe, HPCC Systems is offering translations and localization in its version 5.0 for languages including Chinese, Spanish, Hungarian, Serbian and Brazilian Portuguese with other languages to come in the future.
Additional enhancements include:

Visualizations
Linux Ubuntu Juju Charm Support
Embedded language features
Apache Kafka Integration
New Regression Suite
External Database Support (MySQL)
Web Services-SQL

The HPCC Systems source code can be found here: https://github.com/hpcc-systems
The HPCC Systems platform can be found here: http://hpccsystems.com/download/free-community-edition

About HPCC Systems®
HPCC Systems® from LexisNexis^® Risk Solutions offers a proven, data-intensive supercomputing platform designed for the enterprise to process and deliver Big Data analytical solutions. HPCC Systems offers a consistent data-centric programming language, two processing platforms and a single architecture for efficient processing.
Customers, such as financial institutions, insurance carriers, insurance companies, law enforcement agencies, federal government and other enterprise-class organizations leverage the HPCC Systems technology through LexisNexis^® products and services. For more information, visit http://hpccsystems.com.

About LexisNexis Risk Solutions
LexisNexis Risk Solutions (www.lexisnexis.com/risk) is a leader in providing essential information that helps customers across industries and government predict, assess and manage risk. Combining cutting-edge technology, unique data and advanced analytics, Risk Solutions provides products and services that address evolving client needs in the risk sector while upholding the highest standards of security and privacy. LexisNexis Risk Solutions is part of Reed Elsevier, a leading global provider of professional information solutions across a number of sectors.

Media Contact
Stephen Loudermilk
LexisNexis
Phone: +1 678.694.2353
[email protected]

Jill Ratkevic
Black Swans Media for LexisNexis
Phone: +1.408.399.5100
[email protected]

SOURCE LexisNexis