Consequently, buyers of such tools were mostly researchers, and the market for these tools remained limited. Meanwhile, an entirely different group of vendors sold visualization software as a separate entity. Today, all this has changed. They also need to be scalable in all dimensions. Commercial data mining tools today integrate more easily, for example, with COM-enabled or ActiveX clients.
Some tools are now HTML-based to allow users to create and publish analytics in Web pages.
Most integrate with standard commercial database offerings from companies like Sybase, Informix, IBM, and Microsoft. A large number of commercial tools also provide interfaces to popular desktop programs such as Microsoft's Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and any ODBC-compliant database. A Gathering of Quants Six years ago at the first KDD conference, there was virtually no industry representation. Sessions focused on which algorithm or particular method was faster or more effective at finding patterns. Data mining was considered an esoteric activity, confined largely to academic circles and research departments within large corporations.