Guiding Your Way to Tools and Techniques
Discover essential resources curated to boost your expertise in data analysis and management. These are in general public or third party resources, and the links are provided for your convenience.
This page will be updated frequently
Database Engines and Tools for Transforming and Loading
The level of data analytics that makes it all work: the structured and optimized storage and retrieval.
Datasets and Tools for Capturing and Generating Data
Publicly available datasets, and methods, tools, and techniques for creating your own sets.
Tools for Analysis, Process Management, and Visualization
Everything that helps bring you from raw data to actionable insights.
All-In-One Data Analytical Platforms
Cloud-based platforms that provide a broad set of features, potentially all that you need for your data analytics.
Database Engines and Tools for Transforming and Loading
This section provides an overview of different tools and products that can be at assistance when loading, storing, maintaining, and transforming data. The basis of your data analytics approach, but also useful for other data related activities.
The links have been sorted after the country of the currently controlling owner of the software, or of the operator of a cloud-based service, as this has increasing importance in the prevailing geopolitical and data protection reality. Open Source is considered neutral.
Please be aware that open source isn’t necessarily without payment, and commercial software isn’t necessarily with payment. Check each product for different editions and prices, before deciding what to use.
Database Engines
A curated list of both relational, NoSQL, and other types of database engines.
Open Source
- Apache Cassandra
NoSQL database - Apache CouchDB
NoSQL database - Apache Doris
OLAP database - ClickHouse
OLAP MPP database with SQL support - DuckDB
OLAP database with SQL support (embedded) - Firebird
Relational database - MariaDB
Relational database - Neo4j Graph Database
NoSQL database - PostgreSQL
Object-relational database - SQLite
Relational database as a C library (embedded) - Trino
Query engine for big data, allows query federation
From the USA
- Microsoft Access
Individual relational database app, part of MS 365 - Microsoft SQL Server
Relational database - Oracle AI Database
Relational database
From Europe
- Coming soon
From the rest of the world
- Coming soon
Extract, Transform, Load
Tools for actually putting data into the database storage in the shape needed.
Open Source
- Apache Airflow
Workflow management platform for data engineering flows - dbt
Data build tool, for data warehouse data transformation
From the USA
- Quest erwin Data Management Platform
A set of tools for designing and maintaining SQL and NoSQL databases
From Europe
- Coming soon
From the rest of the world
- Coming soon
Query, Analyse, Report
Where the analyst turns the raw data into extracts, sums, and calculations.
Open Source
- DbVisualizer
SQL query tool - LibreOffice
Office automation package, including spreadsheet app - Neo4j Graph Data Science
Graph data analyzing and visualization - Orange Data Mining
From the USA
- Microsoft Excel
Spreadsheet app, part of MS 365 - Quest Toad
A series of SQL query tools for Oracle, DB2, and SQL Server
From Europe
- SAP Crystal Reports
SQL reports with both tabular data, visuals, and text, in screen and pdf editions
From the rest of the world
- Coming soon
Datasets and Tools for Capturing and Generating Data
Many datasets are available for data analysts, and they cover all kinds of topics. The best things is, that almost everything is free to download and use.
Hundreds of thousands of available datasets can definitely help you find and show valuable insights, also for comparing/benchmarking with your own company’s internal data.
The links are sorted after their price structure, assuming that some readers would like to know which data are available for free. And no matter if the data are free or not, there might be restriction on their use, so check each site and dataset carefully when downloading.
Active, Updated Data Sources
Providers of current data for research, benchmarking, or other real life purposes in business or research contexts.
Free
- European Union – European Data
- Government of Canada – Open Government
- Google Dataset Search
Will find datasets from many different sites - Harvard Dataverse
Researchers’ datasets uploaded and available for others - NASA Earthdata
- National Bureau of Statistics of China
- U.S. Government’s Open Data
- United Nations – UN data
- WHO, World Health Organization data
- World Bank Open Data
Requires payment
- Coming soon
Historical Data
Older datasets, or sets about historical topics. Useful mostly for comparisons over time, or for general research.
Free
- Coming soon
Requires payment
- Coming soon
Demo and Educational
Datasets used for practicing data analytics, or for showing the features of tools. Usually not used for commercial applications.
Tools for Analysis, Process Management, and Visualization
The front-end activities of data analytics spread over a broad palette of programming, preparing, and visualizing, and there are tools for all of this, and more. Often, these tools will also provide for analysis and some level of data management.
The links have been sorted after the origin of the software, as this has increasing importance in the current geopolitical reality. Open source is considered neutral.
Please be aware that open source isn’t necessarily without payment, and commercial software isn’t necessarily with payment. Check each product for different editions and prices, before deciding what to use.
Programming and Scripting
For typing your way to insights, or simply for organizing the process, or the final results into useful overviews or workbooks.
Open Source
- Bash
Command line and scripting; text and file manipulation.
Part of Linux, on Mac as Terminal, and part of several packages for Windows: - Julia
Programming language - JupyterLab and Jupyter Notebook
IDEs for several languages, including R, Python, and Julia - Python
Programming language - R
Programming language - RStudio
IDE for R and Python - Visual Studio Code
Versatile editor and IDE with support for many languages and puposes
From the USA
- Microsoft Visual Studio
IDE and code editor with support for several languages, including Python
From Europe
- JetBrains PyCharm
Python IDE with notebooks and SQL
From the rest of the world
- Coming soon
Integrated and Process Tools
For arranging a flow of activities in one environment. This may include various types of tools, supporting various tasks.
Open Source
- Grafana
Multi-platform analytics and interactive visualization web application - Knime Analytics Platform
Automated data access, transformation, visualization, and distribution platform
From the USA
- Microsoft Power BI
Data source management, visualization, and dashboard distribution - Salesforce Tableau
A suite of modules for data management and visualization - Alteryx
Automated cleansing, analytics, and reporting tool
From Europe
- Coming soon
From the rest of the world
- Coming soon
Visualization Tools
Tools with the main focus on calculating and displaying ready results, as reports or dashboards, possibly with storytelling.
Open Source
- Apache Superset
- Matomo
Web and app analytics - Metabase
- Redash
- SigNoz, various apps
Cloud app metrics monitoring and visualization
From the USA
- IBM Cognos Analytics
- Qlik Cloud Analytics
- Datadog, various apps
Cloud app metrics monitoring and visualization
From Europe
From the rest of the world
- Coming soon
All-In-One Analytical Platforms
These are all cloud-based and provide ways to store, transform, and analyze date. Some organizations may want to choose to use one of these instead of arranging for an individually chosen set of tools.
They are all from the USA, and all commercial – even if there may be open source products included, these are sold as some level of managed service.
All-In-One
- Cloudera Platform
Databases, data lake, transformation and flow tools, and analytics - Databricks Platform
OLAP MPP database as well as relational databases, ETL, and analysis tools
- Google BigQuery
Databases, data lake, transformation and flow tools, and analytics - Microsoft Fabric
Databases, data lake, transformation and flow tools, and analytics
- Teradata VantageCloud
Databases, data lake, transformation and flow tools, and analytics - Snowflake Platform
OLAP MPP database, cloud-based environment with analysis and other tools, but mainly a data warehouse and ETL