Technology Advisory Board

Lou Agosta

Lou Agosta is an independent industry analyst, covering data warehousing, data quality, data management, and related business intelligence issues. Lou spent six years as a technology analyst with Giga Information Group and in years prior was a database administrator and large systems data architect. Lou has published frequently in Data Management Review (now Information Management Review). He is a contributor to B-Eye-network.com. He has published nearly 60 articles and reviews on data warehousing, business intelligence, and business and IT integration. He specializes in translating information technology into business value. Lou has provided unbiased research, consulting, and business advise to such companies as ABN Amro, Aegon, Allstate, Bank One (Chase), Blue Cross of Illinois, BP, Citadel Group, Boeing, Kraft General Foods, LandsEnd, LexisNexis, 3M, NBC, Nestle/Purina, Northwestern Mutual, RBC, Reuters, Sabre, Sears, Time/Life Books, UBS, and the U.S. Department of the Interior. Lou has also served as an instructor in logic and system design at DePaul, Loyola and Roosevelt Universities in Chicago. Lou's book, The Essential Guide to Data Warehousing, is published by Prentice Hall. Lou's Ph.D. is in philosophy, which is always good for a laugh, from the University of Chicago.

Francois Raab

An award winning expert and a leading member of the system testing and performance measurement community, Francois Raab is the original author of TPC-C, the most successful and longest standing industry standard benchmark. With over 25 years of experience in the use of databases for commercial data processing and decision support, he has built a reputation for independence and vendor neutrality. As such, he is accredited as a Certified Benchmark Auditor by the Transaction Processing Performance Council. His consulting services (www.sizing.com) are retained by IT organizations looking to acquire cutting edge technologies to increase their competitive advantage, and by IT vendors building and marketing products where performance is a vital component and a strategic asset. His clients include Boeing, Bull, Compaq, Dell, Exasol, Fujitsu, HP, Hitachi, IBM, IDC, Intel, Lenovo, MCI, Microsoft, Nixdorf, Teradata, NEC, Oracle, ParAccel, SGI, Siemens, Sun, Sybase, United Airlines and the US Justice Department. He is a co-author of "The Benchmark Handbook", has taught classes in database system architectures, performance engineering and system sizing, has conducted technology evaluations for venture capital firms and acted as an expert witness to the courts. He received his Engineering degree from the ESIEA in Paris, France.

Development Team