Storage
Analysis of storage technologies, especially in the context of database management. Related subjects include:
Teradata hardware strategy and tactics
In my opinion, the most important takeaways about Teradata’s hardware strategy from the Teradata Partners conference last week are:
- Teradata’s future lies in solid-state memory. That’s in line with what Carson Schmidt told me six months ago.
- To Teradata’s surprise, the solid-state future is imminent. Teradata is 6-9 months further along with solid-state drives (SSD) than it thought a year ago it would be at this point.
- Short-term, Teradata is going to increase the number of appliance kinds it sells. I didn’t actually get details on anything but the new SSD-based Blurr, but it seems there will be others as well.
- Teradata’s eventual future is to mix and match parts (especially different kinds of storage) in a more modular product line. Teradata Virtual Storage is of pretty limited value otherwise. I probably believe Teradata will go modular more emphatically than Teradata itself does, because I think doing so will meet users needs more effectively than if Teradata relies strictly on fixed appliance configurations.
In addition, some non-SSD componentry tidbits from Carson Schmidt include:
- Teradata really likes Intel’s Nehalem CPUs, with special reference to multi-threading, QuickPath interconnect, and integrated memory controller. Obviously, Nehalem-based Teradata boxes should be expected in the not too distant future.
- Teradata really likes Nehalem’s successor Westmere too, and expects to be pretty fast to market with it (faster than with Nehalem) because Nehalem and Westmere are plug-compatible in motherboards.
- Teradata will go to 10-gigabit Ethernet for external connectivity on all its equipment, which should improve load performance.
- Teradata will also go to 10-gigabit Ethernet to play the Bynet role on appliances. Tests are indicating this improves query performance.
- What’s more, Teradata believes there will be no practical scale-out limitations with 10-gigabit Ethernet.
- Teradata hasn’t decided yet what to do about 2.5” SFF (Small Form Factor) disk drives, but is leaning favorably. Benefits would include lower power consumption and smaller cabinets.
- Also on Carson’s list of “exciting” future technologies is SAS 2.0, which at 6 gigabits/second doubles the I/O bandwidth of SAS 1.0.
- Carson is even excited about removing universal power supplies from the cabinets, increasing space for other components.
- Teradata picked Intel’s Host Bus Adapters for 10-gigabit Ethernet. The switch supplier hasn’t been determined yet.
Let’s get back now to SSDs, because over the next few years they’re the potential game-changer. Read more
| Categories: Data warehouse appliances, Data warehousing, Solid-state memory, Storage, Teradata | 13 Comments |
This week at the Teradata Partners user conference
Teradata tells me that its press embargoes are ending at 9:00 this morning. Here are some highlights of what’s going on, although names, dates, and details will have to await conversations and press releases this week.
- Teradata is productizing “private cloud,” under names including “Teradata Enterprise Analytics Cloud,” “Teradata Agile Analytics Cloud,” and “Teradata Elastic Mart Builder.” I.e., Teradata hopes to leapfrog Greenplum in its “Enterprise Data Cloud” strategy. This is only fair, in that Greenplum lifted the idea from Teradata and eBay in the first place. It also provides major support for what I think is an extremely sensible trend. Give or take issues of who announces and ships what a couple months before or after a competitor, my early thinking is that the main differences between Greenplum and Teradata in this regard will be:
- Virtual as opposed to just physical data marts, based on robust workload management software. (Advantage: Teradata)
- Pricing, deployment options. (Advantage: Greenplum)
- Features that don’t directly relate to enterprise/private cloud. (Advantage: Either, often Teradata.)
- Teradata is generally strengthening its data movement technology, e.g. for making various appliances work in sync. I’m not too clear yet on the details of that. I think this is what Teradata’s phrase “ecosystem management” refers to.
- Teradata is (pre-)announcing – at least as a statement of direction — an appliance based on solid-state drives (SSDs). I’ve thought for a while that Teradata was a leader in thinking through the issues around solid-state memory in data warehousing, so it makes sense that they’re among the leaders in actually coming to market as well. I plan to say more after meeting with, e.g., Carson Schmidt.
- Teradata has achieved a 300%ish speed-up in geospatial processing. I gather this is largely a byproduct of the parallel analytics work Teradata did around strengthening its SAS integration. However, there don’t seem to be a lot of Teradata geospatial users yet.
- Teradata Express, Teradata’s free Windows-based crippleware, is being ported to Amazon EC2 and VMware as well. Presumably to avoid cannibalizing Teradata product sales, there are quite a few limitations on Teradata Express, including system capacity, database size, and “no production use.”
- Teradata continues to extend its optimizations to handle queries issued by business intelligence tools. Previously, the focus of what Teradata discussed in this regard was query rewrite. But soon automatic recommendation and creation of Aggregate Join Indexes – i.e.., materialized views – will be included as well.
Thoughts on the integration of OLTP and data warehousing, especially in Exadata 2
Oracle is pushing Exadata 2 as being a great system for any of OLTP (OnLine Transaction Processing), data warehousing or, presumably, the integration of same. This claim rests on a few premises, namely: Read more
| Categories: Analytic technologies, Data warehouse appliances, Data warehousing, Exadata, OLTP, Oracle, Solid-state memory, Theory and architecture | 36 Comments |
Notes on the Oracle Database 11g Release 2 white paper
The Oracle Database 11g Release 2 white paper I cited a couple of weeks ago has evidently been edited, given that a phrase I quoted last month is no longer to be found. Anyhow, here are some quotes from and comments on what evidently is the latest version. Read more
Storage humor
A Microsoft Answers message board got the question:
I’ve noticed that as I copy data/install programs on my Laptop, the weight of the Laptop increases. I have a bad back and am medically limited on the amount of weight I can carry so I need to be very carefull not to inflict injury upon myself.
I have also noticed my XBox feels heavier as well (the more games I save or purchase from arcade). I generally don’t travel with my XBox so that is not an issue for me, but note the I am having the same results.
My ask, what is the weight/file ratio? So for example, how many GB’s = 6oz? I dread the day I need a dolly to commute to work with my Laptop.
Hilarity ensued.
| Categories: Fun stuff, Humor, Storage | 6 Comments |
Data warehouse storage options — cheap, expensive, or solid-state disk drives
This is a long post, so I’m going to recap the highlights up front. In the opinion of somebody I have high regard for, namely Carson Schmidt of Teradata:
- There’s currently a huge — one order of magnitude — performance difference between cheap and expensive disks for data warehousing workloads.
- New disk generations coming soon will have best-of-both-worlds aspects, combining high-end performance with lower-end cost and power consumption.
- Solid-state drives will likely add one or two orders of magnitude to performance a few years down the road. Echoing the most famous logjam in VC history — namely the 60+ hard disk companies that got venture funding in the 1980s — 20+ companies are vying to cash in.
In other news, Carson likes 10 Gigabit Ethernet, dislikes Infiniband, and is “ecstatic” about Intel’s Nehalem, which will be the basis for Teradata’s next generation of servers.
| Categories: Data warehouse appliances, Data warehousing, eBay, Solid-state memory, Storage, Teradata | 16 Comments |
EMC’s take on data warehousing and BI
I just ran across a December 10 blog post by Chuck Hollis outlining some of EMC’s — or at least Chuck’s — views on data warehousing and business intelligence. It’s worth scanning, a certain “Where you stand depends upon where you sit” flavor to it notwithstanding. In a contrast to my usual blogging style, Chuck’s post is excerpted at length below, with comments from me interspersed. Read more
| Categories: Analytic technologies, Data warehousing, EMC, MOLAP, Solid-state memory, Storage | 2 Comments |
Carson Schmidt of Teradata on SSDs
Carson Schmidt is, in essence, Teradata’s VP of product development for everything other than applications and database software. For example, he oversees Teradata’s hardware, storage, and switching technology. So when Teradata Chief Development Officer Scott Gnau didn’t have answers at his fingertips to some questions about SSDs (Solid-State Drives), he bucked me over to Carson. A very interesting discussion about SSDs (and other subjects) ensued.
Highlights included: Read more
| Categories: Data warehousing, Solid-state memory, Storage, Teradata | 1 Comment |
Oracle notes
I spent about six hours at Oracle today — talking with Andy Mendelsohn, Ray Roccaforte, Juan Loaiza, Cetin Ozbutun, et al. — and plan to write more later. For now, let me pass along a few quick comments. Read more
| Categories: Data warehousing, Exadata, Oracle, Parallelization, Pricing, Storage, Theory and architecture | 10 Comments |
Teradata Virtual Storage
One of the big features of Teradata 13.0, announced this week (Edit: and to be shipped some time in 2009), is Teradata Virtual Storage, which sounds pretty cool. So far as I can tell, Teradata Virtual Storage has two major aspects, namely: Read more
| Categories: Data warehousing, Solid-state memory, Storage, Teradata | 3 Comments |