Resource Industry to Mine Data Faster with Actian and Geological Data Design

Actian Corporation has announced that Geological Data Design (GDD), a specialist in the collection, management and analysis of exploration and mining data, has selected the analytical database Vectorwise to power its Field Data Integrator. GDD’s Field Data Integrator is an end-to-end mining and exploration solution that makes working with large volumes of resource data, including GPS, faster and simpler, Actian said.
 
GDD’s Field Data Integrator automatically synchronizes sample data from GPS, various field instruments, and cameras onto a "tough" tablet using Bluetooth. Geologists enter notes directly onto the tablet using on-screen or wireless keyboards, enabling all data on samples to be collected automatically into a single source. The tablet then automatically synchronises with a master database running Vectorwise whenever in mobile range, saving geologists time in manual data entry.

The end-to-end solution enables geologists to collect samples in shorter time frames, and then quickly analyze large volumes of sample data for complex scenarios such as such as project timings, cash flows, and profitability with greater sensitivity levels.
 
“For the last 25 years GDD has been helping companies in the resource sector collect, manage, and analyze their data. Today’s technology enables us to do this more quickly and effectively,” said Tony Shellshear, principal and founder of GDD. “Geologists traditionally carry a lot of different field equipment to explore, record observations and take samples. They make notes and drawings, record coordinates, take photos, videos, or perhaps audio recordings. Collating this data can be very time consuming, and geologists can spend up to 1-2 hours a day manually entering these different information types into the database. GDD’s Field Data Integrator does all this automatically by synchronizing information from the various devices to the tablet computer, which then uploads the data to the main Vectorwise database when in reach of a wireless signal. This means geologists can spend more time collecting samples, or analysing the data, rather than being tied to the clerical work.”
 
While the field data collected during the day is not always large, this data often integrates into a very large database, in some cases hundreds of millions or even billions of records. GDD chose the Vectorwise database for its ability to deliver significantly faster analysis of this data on commodity hardware, Actian said.