Oracle Buys Big Data Analytics Firm DataRaker

Oracle has purchased yet another company, this time snapping up big data analytics vendor DataRaker. The smaller firm makes tools that allow utilities to analyze data from “smart meters.”

All Things D’s Arik Hesseldahl reported, “Oracle says it will acquire DataRaker, a player in the business of big data analytics that specializes in working with data generated by smart meters used by the gas and electrical industries. Since DataRaker is relatively small and privately held, financial terms aren’t being disclosed. By my count, and it may be wrong, this is Oracle’s ninth acquisition of 2012.”

According to GigaOm’s Barb Darrow, “DataRaker’s technologies will tie into Oracle’s existing Utilities Solutions, according to Oracle. Energy and water load tracking and forecasting using data from dispersed meters as well as weather and other data is a textbook big data use case and Oracle is busily chasing big data opportunities.”

Eric Savitz from Forbes observed, “This sounds like an ‘Internet of things’ play. Oracle notes that ‘leading-edge utilities are investing in infrastructure to collect massive amounts of data from millions of distributed smart meters and sensors, and they require modern technologies to analyze and understand the insights provided by this data.'”

Bloomberg’s Randall Hackley noted, “Besides Sausalito, California-based DataRaker, meter data management vendors such as eMeter, now part of Siemens AG (SIE), Ecologic Analytics of Toshiba Corp. (6502) and Itron Inc. (ITRI) ‘have all boosted the analytical capabilities of their products,’ [Bloomberg analyst Maxime] Serrano Bardisa said from London. Oracle Utilities ‘competes closely with each of these companies and the DataRaker acquisition helps strengthen their position,’ he said.”