December 16, 2008
Introduction to SAND Technology
SAND Technology has a confused history. For example:
- SAND has been around in some form or other since 1982, starting out as a Hitachi reseller in Canada.
- In 1992 SAND acquired a columnar DBMS product called Nucleus, which originally was integrated with hardware (in the form of a card). Notwithstanding what development chief Richard Grodin views as various advantages vs. Sybase IQ, SAND has only had limited success in that market.
- Thus, SAND introduced a second, similarly-named product, which could also be viewed as a columnar DBMS. (As best I can tell, both are called SAND/DNA.) But it’s actually focused on archiving, aka the clunkily named “near-line storage.” And it’s evidently not the same code line; e.g., the newer product isn’t bit-mapped, while the older one is.
- The near-line product was originally focused on the SAP market. Now it’s moving beyond.
- Canada-based SAND had offices in Germany and the UK before it did in the US. This leads to an oddity – SAND is less focused on the SAP aftermarket in Germany than it still is in the US.
SAND is publicly traded, so its numbers are on display. It turns out to be doing $7 million in annual revenue, and losing money.
OK. I just wanted to get all that out of the way. My main thoughts about the DBMS archiving market are in a separate post.
Categories: Archiving and information preservation, Columnar database management, Data warehousing, SAND Technology
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[…] is a UK-based startup in a similar market to what SAND Technology has gotten into – DBMS archiving, with a strong focus on compression and general […]
[…] similar companies reached out to me recently – SAND Technology and Clearpace. Their current market focus is somewhat different: Clearpace talks mainly of […]
[…] http://www.dbms2.com/2008/12/16/introduction-to-sand-technology/ […]
[…] http://www.dbms2.com/2008/12/16/introduction-to-sand-technology/ […]
[…] Their visit to the BBBT is documented by Shawn Rogers on the BBBT blog here. Arthur Ritchie, President and CEO, is a charismatic man, with a wonderful facility for telling stories, an engaging ability to challenge thoughtful people to re-think fundamental assumptions, and a visible passion for his product. Our meeting with him was no exception. Many of us know of Sand, and a predecessor product called the Nucleus database, from the 1980s. We revisited the history. recalling how the firm started working with Hitachi decades ago, and its many years attempting to market its technology. Curt Monash has also looked at Sand, and offers a bit more historical detail here. […]
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