HP and Neoview
Discussion of computer giant HP, especially its efforts in data warehousing and business intelligence. Covered are both HP’s own data warehouse appliance Neoview and its partnerships with other software vendors. Related subjects include:
First thoughts on Oracle acquiring Sun
- Wow.
- And during the week of the MySQL conference, too.
- In the must-read slide presentation, Oracle’s says all the right things about being committed to all product lines and technologies. On the whole, this is believable.
- Oracle says it’s focusing Sun hardware sales on existing Oracle/Sun customers. Makes sense.
- Oracle mentions OpenStorage prominently. Makes sense. Integrating DBMS with storage is Oracle’s high-end DBMS future. (E.g., Exadata.)
- HP can’t be happy.
- MySQL and InnoDB are reunited.
- MySQL is apt to get decent, much as it would have under IBM.
- Even so, if you really believe in open source’s freedom, it’s time to look at PostgreSQL …
- … or EnterpriseDB’s Postgres Plus, although my recent dealings with EnterpriseDB underscore the importance of being VERY careful about counting your fingers after you shake hands with that company.
- And I wouldn’t be surprised if another shoe dropped soon on the EnterpriseDB front. (Please excuse the mixed metaphor.)
- I used to laugh at how many different app servers Sun had acquired. Oracle acquired a number too. Together it’s quite a pile of them.
- Oracle says acquiring Java is a great big deal. I’m not sure I see why that would really be true.
More later. I have a radio interview in a few minutes on a very different subject.
| Categories: EnterpriseDB and Postgres Plus, HP and Neoview, MySQL, Open source, Oracle, PostgreSQL | 20 Comments |
Somebody is spreading Teradata acquisition rumors again
An mass email from Tom Coffing was forwarded to me today that starts:
I have heard from reliable sources that both HP and SAP have purchased more than 5% of Teradata stock. My sources tell me that both companies appear to be positioning themselves for a bid.
I got my version of the same email from Coffing yesterday with a different introduction but otherwise the same substance (he’s pushing a new product of his). It also had a different From address.
Possible explanations include but are not limited to:
- Coffing knows something (seems unlikely, but I haven’t actually checked www.sec.gov to confirm or disconfirm)
- Coffing thinks he knows something
- Coffing just made this up (I hope not)
- There’s an April Fool’s Day prank going on (not by me — after my bizarre March, I’m recusing myself from April Fool’s pranks this year)
| Categories: Data warehousing, HP and Neoview, SAP AG, Teradata | 4 Comments |
HP and Neoview update
I had lunch with some HP folks at TDWI. Highlights (burgers and jokes aside) included:
- HP’s BI consulting (especially the former Knightsbridge) and analytic product groups (including Neoview) are now tightly integrated.
- HP is trying to develop and pitch “solutions” where it has particular “intellectual property.” This IP can come from ordinary product engineering or internal use, because HP Labs serves both sides of the business. Specific examples offered included:
- Telecom. Apparently, HP made specialized data warehouse devices for CDRs (Call Detail Records) long ago, and claims this has been area of particular expertise ever since.
- Supply chain – based on HP’s internal experiences.
- Customer relationship – ditto
- The main synergy suggested between consulting and Neoview is that HP’s experts work on talking buyers into such a complex view of their requirements that only Neoview (supposedly) can fit the bill.
- HP insists there are indeed new Neoview sales.
- Neoview sales seem to be concentrated in what Aster might call “frontline” applications — i.e., low latency, OLTP-like uptime requirements, etc.
- HP says it did an actual 80 TB POC. I asked whether this was for an 80 TB app or something a lot bigger, but didn’t get a clear answer.
Given the emphasis on trying to exploit HP’s other expertise in the data warehousing business, I suggested it was a pity that HP spun off Agilent (HP’s instrumentation division, aka HP Classic). Nobody much disagreed.
| Categories: Analytic technologies, Business intelligence, Data warehouse appliances, Data warehousing, HP and Neoview, Telecommunications | 4 Comments |
Gartner’s 2008 data warehouse database management system Magic Quadrant is out
February, 2011 edit: I’ve now commented on Gartner’s 2010 Data Warehouse Database Management System Magic Quadrant as well.
Gartner’s annual Magic Quadrant for data warehouse DBMS is out. Thankfully, vendors don’t seem to be taking it as seriously as usual, so I didn’t immediately hear about it. (I finally noticed it in a Greenplum pay-per-click ad.) Links to Gartner MQs tend to come and go, but as of now here are two working links to the 2008 Gartner Data Warehouse Database Management System MQ. My posts on the 2007 and 2006 MQs have also been updated with working links. Read more
History, focus, and technology of HP Neoview
On the basis of market impact to date, HP Neoview is just another data warehouse market participant – a dozen sales or so, a few systems in production, some evidence that it can handle 100 TB+ workloads, and so on. But HP’s BI Group CTO Greg Battas thinks Neoview is destined for greater things, because: Read more
| Categories: Data warehouse appliances, Data warehousing, HP and Neoview | 12 Comments |
HP Neoview in the market to date
I evidently got HP’s attention by a recent post in which I questioned its stance on the relative positioning of the Exadata-based HP Oracle data warehouse appliance and the HP Neoview data warehouse appliance. A conversation with Greg Battas and John Miller (respectively CTO and CMO of HP’s BI group) quickly ensued. Mainly we talked about Neoview product goals and architecture. But before I get to that in a separate post, here are some Neoview market-presence highlights, so far as I’ve been able to figure them out: Read more
| Categories: Data warehouse appliances, Data warehousing, HP and Neoview | 1 Comment |
So what does Oracle Exadata mean for HP Neoview?
That HP is committed to selling a lot of data warehouse hardware — and probably data warehouse appliances in particular — seems obvious, for reasons including:
- HP bought a big BI/data warehousing consulting operation in Knightsbridge.
- HP has put considerable effort into its data warehouse appliance Neoview.
- HP CEO Mark Hurd comes from data warehouse appliance vendor Teradata.
- Data warehousing where the big bucks are.
But Oracle Exadata could produce those appliance sales. So where does HP Neoview fit in?
I was told by an investor today that HP’s investor relations department is saying Oracle Exadata is a Netezza competitor, while Neoview is more in the Teradata market. That’s laughable. Read more
| Categories: Data warehouse appliances, Data warehousing, Exadata, HP and Neoview, Netezza, Teradata | 16 Comments |
Positioning the data warehouse appliances and specialty DBMS
There now are four hardware vendors that each offer or seem about to announce two different tiers of data warehouse appliances: Sun, HP, EMC, and Teradata. Specifically:
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Sun partners with both Greenplum and ParAccel.
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HP sells Neoview, and also is partnered with Vertica.
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EMC (together with Dell in North America and Bull in Europe) sells DATAllegro. Now EMC is also entering a partnership with ParAccel.
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Teradata is pretty far down the road toward releasing a low-end product.
The other shoe finally drops for Oracle and BEA
As previously noted, I’ve been writing about an Oracle/BEA merger since 2002. So like many observers, I find I have little more to say on the subject. Let’s go straight to the bullet points: Read more
| Categories: HP and Neoview, IBM and DB2, Oracle, Oracle TimesTen, SAP AG | 2 Comments |
Intelligent Enterprise’s list of 12/36/48 vendors
I’m getting a flood of press releases today, because many of the companies I write about were selected to Intelligent Enterprise’s list of 12 most influential vendors plus 36 more to watch in the areas Intelligent Enterprise covers (which seems to be pretty much the analytics-related parts of what I write about here and on Text Technologies). It looks like a pretty reasonable list, although I think they forced the issue in some of the small analytics vendors they selected, and of course anybody can quibble with some of the omissions.
Among the companies they cited, you can find topical categories here for IBM (and Cognos), Informatica, Microsoft, Netezza, Oracle, SAP/Business Objects (both), SAS, and Teradata; QlikTech; Cast Iron, Coral8, DATAllegro, HP, ParAccel, and StreamBase; and Software AG. On Text Technologies you’ll find categories for some of the same vendors, plus Attensity, Clarabridge, and Google. There also are categories for some of these vendors on the Monash Report.