1. Palantir as Intelligence Infrastructure
Matthew Steckman
Forward Deployed Engineer
Palantir Technologies
Forward Deployed Engineer – fancy name for our 100% technical business development team. Spend time doing…

2. Binary, not Billboards Silicon Valley, CA based We are Engineers
Founded in 2004 by Stanford computer scientists and the same team that started PayPal
Developed on our own dime in partnership with the community

3. A visualization or charting tool A data mining platform
What Palantir ISN’T!
A visualization or charting tool
A data mining platform
A closed environment
One database to rule them all
Palantir is not a visualization tool – Visualization tools are individual installations of our software on analyst’s desks used to build visual representations of what is already known.  There are other really lightweight tools that do this and do it well, like Analyst Notebook, Renoir, AxisPro, Starlight and others like Visio or even PowerPoint. Palantir does perform visualization, but this is done in the context of an enterprise intelligence platform.
Palantir is not a data mining platform – We aren’t going to replace your analysts.  Lending back to the lessons we learned at Paypal, we don’t believe automation is the solution to our problems.  The human brain is the only tool capable of recognizing critical patterns that lead to true analysis.  Palantir is in the business of enabling this. Palantir does use automation where appropriate but all important decisions are presented to the analyst so they can leverage their intellect and experience.
Palantir is not a proprietary end game – Being a Silicon Valley Company, we believe that it would be truly heretical for us to be anything other than entirely open.  Our data saves as open XML files, we have a totally extensible Open API, and we import and export from a whole host of other file types, including proprietary ones from visualization tools like those I previously mentioned.
Palantir is not going to replace all of your existing databases and attempt to replicate everything into one mammoth system.

4. What is Palantir?
A powerful backend technology with an attractive and intuitive user interface that has been designed to address the challenges of data assurance, collaboration, security, and data integration from the outset.
So, then, what IS Palantir? Well, as you can see there are many capabilities provided by the Palantir platform. I don’t expect you to try and read this slide or even decipher all the various services just yet, but the important thing to realize is that Palantir is much, much deeper than a front-end tool for analysts to use. It combines a powerful backend technology with an easy to use front-end that has been designed, from the outset, to address the challenges of data assurance, collaboration, security, and data integration.

5. What is Palantir?

6. Visualization is what you see first
Like An Iceberg
Visualization is what you see first
It is true, visualization is what you see at first when you casually look at Palantir. But, like an iceberg, there is so much more under the water line. The Palantir platform provides a number of enterprise-grade services in an enterprise-scale platform that is both horizontally (more users) and vertically (more data) scalable.

7. Sexy Outside, Substantive Insides
[optional slide]
At Palantir, we like to joke…

8. What’s Below the Water Line?

9. Data Integration

10. Single view of structured & unstructured data
Data Integration
Single view of structured & unstructured data
Everything from the Enterprise to the Desktop
Full enforcement of security across data sources
Federated search
Sits on top of, doesn’t replace, your data sources …
Palantir is your Enterprise Data Layer
The first Pillar is Data Integration, which involves taking disparate sets of structured and unstructured data as well as media and creating a single, common way to view and manipulate the data across all sources.  This is what we like to call “breaking down stovepipes”.  Palantir has built a variety of technologies that allow us to create this single point of access for the analyst.

11. Search and Discovery

12. Search all your enterprise data from a single interface
Search & Discovery
Search all your enterprise data from a single interface
Use Palantir as a search service (SOA)
Conceptual searches, persistent searches, geospatial searches
Statistical, temporal, and geospatial discovery
Full security across searches, ICD 501 compliant …
Palantir is your Enterprise Search Service
The second pillar is Search & Discovery.  This is the process of turning raw data into actionable intelligence by allowing an analyst to intuitively search across the enterprise (utilizing that single point of access), find data and do something with it.  In other words, this is more than just giving you a view of data that you already know about.  Search & Discovery means that the analyst can interact with discovered data through powerful search capabilities across the enterprise.

13. Knowledge Management

14. Knowledge Management

15. Knowledge Management

16. Knowledge Management

17. Because a Data Layer isn’t Enough for your Enterprise
Knowledge Management
Because a Data Layer isn’t Enough for your Enterprise
A secure repository for analysis
Analysts can build on each others’ work
Most robust security model in the IC
Manages resolutions across datasources and security levels
Revolutionary Revisioning Database …
Palantir is your Knowledge Management solution
The third pillar is Knowledge Management, which I think is really the most powerful part of the Palantir Platform.  Our Knowledge Management Model leverages a revolutionary technology referred to as the ‘Revisioning Database’ which takes intelligence and lets the user know how it has changed over time, how it varies by analyst or classification, how reliable this source has been historically, etc.  This model provides unparalleled data transparency as well as a security model that is the most fine-grained, flexible and sophisticated in the intelligence community.

18. Collaboration

19. Not lip service, real collaboration
Concepts based on how engineers collaborate
Share more than data, share analysis
Inside and across agencies
Across compartments, across classification
Only system designed with civil liberties and privacy protections …
Palantir is your solution for Collaboration in the IC
The fourth pillar is Collaboration, which takes this powerful framework for analysis at the analyst level and allows them to share across teams, agencies, and borders.  This is one of the hallmarks of a true enterprise Analytic Platform and is being used across the community by analysts today. Palantir’s powerful collaborative ability only exists due to our equally powerful security model which allows the maximum amount of information to be shared without leaking anything that should be protected.

20. What’s Below the Water Line?

21. For the IC: Intelligence Infrastructure
Palantir is your intelligence infrastructure
Delivered to you commercially, not as a custom development project
Costs 5% of building it yourself
Takes 1% of the time deploy
“If we tried to build this, it would cost us $500MM”
- IC COTR
Palantir is not a risk – It’s already built.  There is no development investment required.  We can be deployed for 5% of the cost, 1% of the time and with 0% of the risk.

22. Civil Liberties Protections
Combating
Terrorism
Traditionally, doing combating terrorism has been associated with violating civil liberties and a loss of privacy. With many of the technological innovations we have made, we firmly believe that we have developed a system that has not only increased your ability to protect civil liberties, but also increase your effectiveness in fighting terrorism at the same time through better collaboration, knowledge management, and data security.
Protecting Civil Liberties