Memory-centric data management
Analysis of technologies that manage data entirely or primarily in random-access memory (RAM). Related subjects include:
- Oracle TimesTen
- solidDB
- QlikTech
- SAP‘s BI Accelerator
- Exasol
- Solid-state memory as a replacement for disk
Web analytics — clickstream and network event data
It should surprise nobody that web analytics – and specifically clickstream data — is one of the biggest areas for high-end data warehousing. For example:
- I believe that both of the previously mentioned petabyte+ databases on Greenplum will feature clickstream data.
- Aster Data’s largest disclosed database, by almost two orders of magnitude, is at MySpace.
- Clickstream analytics is a big application area for Vertica Systems.
- Clickstream analytics is a big application area for Netezza.
- Infobright’s customer success stories appear to be concentrated in clickstream analytics.
- Coral8 tells me that CEP is also being used for clickstream data, although I suspect that a lot of Coral8’s evidence in that regard comes from a single flagship account. Edit: Actually, Coral8 has a bunch of clickstream customers.
| Categories: Aleri and Coral8, Aster Data, Greenplum, Infobright, Netezza, Streaming and complex event processing (CEP), Vertica Systems, Web analytics | 2 Comments |
When BI, CEP, BAM, and Gartner meet together
Doug Henschen has two good articles based on Gartner’s Event Processing conference, on the theme of BI/event processing integration — an overview, and a detailed interview with Roy Schulte. And as I note elsewhere, Seth Grimes has a good article based on the conference too.
I have my own thoughts on these subjects, but I’m not ready to post them at the moment. In the mean time, I recommend the articles linked above.
| Categories: Analytic technologies, Business intelligence, Streaming and complex event processing (CEP) | Leave a Comment |
Teradata/Netezza/Tesco kerfuffle
Netezza evidently put out a press release bragging of a competitive replacement of Teradata at UK retailing giant Tesco. That press release cannot be now found on Netezza’s site, but it lives on elsewhere. Meanwhile, Teradata has put out a press release in which Tesco is quoted emphatically contradicting what it is quoted as saying in the Netezza press release. While I haven’t discussed this with Netezza, my guess is that somebody there got a little overenthusiastic in advance of their user conference next week and thought they’d gotten a permission they really hadn’t.
Beyond that, I’d note that the Netezza quote made reference to around 25 heavy analytical users, while the Teradata quote talked of 8000 people across more than 2000 suppliers.
| Categories: Data warehouse appliances, Data warehousing, Memory-centric data management, Netezza, Oracle, Specific users, Teradata | 2 Comments |
Exasol technical briefing
It took 5 ½ months after my non-technical introduction, but I finally got a briefing from Exasol’s technical folks (specifically, the very helpful Mathias Golombek and Carsten Weidmann). Here are some highlights: Read more
| Categories: Analytic technologies, Benchmarks and POCs, Columnar database management, Data warehousing, Exasol, In-memory DBMS, Memory-centric data management, Pricing | 1 Comment |
QlikTech/QlikView update
I talked with Anthony Deighton of memory-centric BI vendor QlikTech for an hour and a half this afternoon. QlikTech is quite the success story, with disclosed 2007 revenue of $80 million, up 80% year over year, and confidential year-to-date 2008 figures that do not disappoint as a follow-on. And a look at the QlikTech’s QlikView product makes it easy to understand how this success might have come about.
Let me start by reviewing QlikTech’s technology, as best I understand it.
| Categories: Analytic technologies, Business intelligence, Columnar database management, Database compression, Memory-centric data management, QlikTech and QlikView | 17 Comments |
Microsoft is buying DATAllegro
I’ve long argued that:
- Oracle and Microsoft are doomed in the data warehouse market unless they acquire MPP/shared-nothing data warehouse DBMS and/or data warehouse appliances.
- DATAllegro is the ideal acquisition for either of them.
Microsoft has now validated my claim by agreeing to buy DATAllegro. As you probably know, we’ve been covering DATAllegro extensively, as per the links listed below.
Basic deal highlights include: Read more
Event processing vs. data-driven processing
Marco Seiriö offers a distinction between event processing and data-driven processing. Specifically, he says that if an event has an ID, then it’s true event processing; if it doesn’t, and what you’re doing looks somewhat like event processing anyway, then you’re doing data-driven processing. Read more
Detailed analysis of Perst and other in-memory object-oriented DBMS
Dan Weinreb — inspired by but not linking to my recent short post on McObject’s object-oriented in-memory DBMS Perst — has posted a detailed discussion of Perst on his own blog. For context, he compares it briefly to analogous products, most especially Progress’s — which used to be ObjectStore, of which Dan was the chief architect.
This was based on documentation and general sleuthing (Dan figured out who McObject got Perst from), rather than hands-on experience, so performance figures and the like aren’t validated. Still, if you’re interested in such technology, it’s a fascinating post.
| Categories: In-memory DBMS, McObject, Memory-centric data management, Object | Leave a Comment |
Open source in-memory DBMS
I’ve gotten email about two different open source in-memory DBMS products/projects. I don’t know much about either, but in case you care, here are some pointers to more info.
First, the McObject guys — who also sell a relational in-memory product — have an object-oriented, apparently Java-centric product called Perst. They’ve sent over various press releases about same, the details of which didn’t make much of an impression on me. (Upon review, I see that one of the main improvements they cite in Perst 3.0 is that they added 38 pages of documentation.)
Second, I just got email about something called CSQL Cache. You can read more about CSQL Cache here, if you’re willing to navigate some fractured English. CSQL’s SourceForge page is here. My impression is that CSQL Cache is an in-memory DBMS focused on, you guessed it, caching. It definitely seems to talk SQL, but possibly its native data model is of some other kind (there are references both to “file-based” and “network”.)
| Categories: Cache, DBMS product categories, In-memory DBMS, McObject, Memory-centric data management, Object, OLTP, Open source | 5 Comments |
McObject eXtremeDB — a solidDB alternative
McObject — vendor of memory-centric DBMS eXtremeDB — is a tiny, tiny company, without a development team of the size one would think needed to turn out one or more highly-reliable DBMS. So I haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about whether it’s a serious alternative to solidDB for embedded DBMS, e.g. in telecom equipment. However:
- IBM’s acquisition of Solid seems to suggest a focus on DB2 caching rather than the embedded market
- McObject actually has built up something of a customer list, as per the boilerplate on any of its press releases.
And they do seem to have some nice features, including Patricia tries (like solidDB), R-trees (for geospatial), and some kind of hybrid disk-centric/memory-centric operation.