With the August announcement of Vertica Analytic Database 3.5, Vertica is laying claim to leadership of the new ADBMS vendors. With its most recent numbers – several dozens of customers are now in production and the company expects to pass 100 this year – the assertion bears thinking about. Driving forward with an aggressive releaseContinue reading “Vertica Projects Leadership, Embraces MapReduce (Sorta)”
Author Archives: Merv Adrian
YouCalc Launches into Bubbling SaaS Analytics Space
The land rush into the SaaS analytics space continues; Danish startup Youcalc is seeing solid results from its December 2008 commercial launch. Its value proposition: create custom analytics applications on live data from SaaS systems. Rasmus Madsen and Henrik Kjaer co-founded Youcalc with the idea that a community-based approach to creating analytics applications and sharing them in theContinue reading “YouCalc Launches into Bubbling SaaS Analytics Space”
Why Virtual Conferences Suck
Lately, I get a lot of questions about “virtual conferences” and how much I believe they will replace the struggling live conference business of today. My answer? In the next 12-18 months we will see a lot of awful failed experiments. Just like the ones we’ve been seeing for the past 12 months or so.
TDWI Disappoints, But There is Hope Ahead
Few events offer as much promise as The Data Warehouse Institute World Conferences. With a deep educational focus, TDWI provides important opportunities for users. For vendors, the event offers one of the most focused, serious prospect audiences possible. My expectations, tempered though they were by economic realities, were still fairly high for this year’s San Diego event.Continue reading “TDWI Disappoints, But There is Hope Ahead”
TDWI and Wi-fi on San Diego Bay
The Data Warehouse Institute (TDWI) came to San Diego this year, with a sharply reduced crowd but a few intriguing announcements and a crew of attendees determined to get value out of a rich set of educational offerings and informal and formal discussions. I had the privilege of sitting on a panel with analyst and consultantContinue reading “TDWI and Wi-fi on San Diego Bay”
It’s On: IBM To Acquire SPSS
With one stroke, IBM has signalled that it believes itself ready to redraw the BI map. After a multi-year, multi-billion dollar spending spree, IBM has assembled the product portfolio, marketing and sales organization, and a 4000-person services army to launch a full-scale assault. It’s a lucrative opportunity: Mary Weier at InfoWeek quotes IDC to the effectContinue reading “It’s On: IBM To Acquire SPSS”
Sybase’s DBMS Business Shows Sea Legs – But Challenges Lay Ahead
Sybase has rolled out a good Q2 in difficult times, reflecting once again the steady, effective management that has characterized the past few years. All-time highs in margins, earnings, and cash flow – coming at the bottom (one hopes) of the current recession – are nothing to sneeze at. The first highlighted item in chairmanContinue reading “Sybase’s DBMS Business Shows Sea Legs – But Challenges Lay Ahead”
IBM’s Smart Analytics System: More Than An Appliance?
When is an appliance not an appliance? When it’s more. On July 28, IBM’s Software Group and Systems and Technology Group (i.e., the hardware folks) hosted an analyst event to introduce the Smart Analytics System.The discussion began with a series of conversations about the value of “workload optimization,” or the effective tuning of processors, storage, memory andContinue reading “IBM’s Smart Analytics System: More Than An Appliance?”
Would You Pay For Room to Work in the Air?
Airline travel in coach continues to be difficult for the business user who would like to be productive. On this trip the man across the aisle has a lovely little netbook. Much smaller than my laptop which is admittedly gargantuan with its beautiful big screen.
GoldenGate Software Buy a Win for Oracle
Oracle today announced it is buying GoldenGate Software for an undisclosed sum, likely a couple of hundred million dollars. To revisit some facts from an earlier post, Goldengate had been in business 15 years, with some 500 customers, 4000 solutions deployed, and strong partnerships with Oracle, Teradata and Ingres on the database side, and MicrostrategyContinue reading “GoldenGate Software Buy a Win for Oracle”