Perspectives on Hadoop: Procurement, Plans, and Positioning

I have the privilege of working for the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company, covering information management with a strong focus for the past few years on an emerging software stack called Hadoop. In the early part of 2015, that particular technology is moving from early adopter status to early majority in its marketplaceContinue reading “Perspectives on Hadoop: Procurement, Plans, and Positioning”

Oracle Hardware – No, The News is Not Good. (Yet.)

As an information management software analyst, I don’t spend a great deal of time looking at hardware, but when I look for a more holistic view, I occasionally check in with Gartner colleagues. Recently I had a few questions about Oracle’s hardware mix during inquiries, so I decided to check in with my colleague ErrolContinue reading “Oracle Hardware – No, The News is Not Good. (Yet.)”

Hadoop 2013 – Part Three: Platforms

In the first two posts in this series, I talked about performance and projects as key themes in Hadoop’s watershed year. As it moves squarely into the mainstream, organizations making their first move to experiment will have to make a choice of platform. And – arguably for the first time in the early mainstreaming of an information technology wave – thatContinue reading “Hadoop 2013 – Part Three: Platforms”

EMC Buys Greenplum – Big Data Realignment Continues

EMC’s acquisition of Greenplum, announced today as a cash transaction, reaffirms the obvious: the Big Data tsunami upends conventional wisdom. It has already reshaped the market, spawning the most ferment in the RDBMS (and non-R DBMS via the noSQL players) space in years. When I first posted on Greenplum over a year ago, I saidContinue reading “EMC Buys Greenplum – Big Data Realignment Continues”

Migrate From Mainframe? To What?

From Joe Clabby, http://www.clabbyanalytics.com Gartner, the industry’s preeminent information technology (IT) research and analysis firm, has published several reports and case studies over the past few years that promote the idea that IT buyers should migrate their applications off of mainframes and move them to other, more “modern platforms”.  Part of Gartner’s logic, it appears,Continue reading “Migrate From Mainframe? To What?”

The Mainframe Skills Shortage Urban Myth

Contributed by Joe Clabby (www.clabbyanalytics.com) In this CounterOpinion, we challenge the advice and opinions of the Gartner Group, a well-known and highly respected IT research and analysis firm, on the subject of IBM System z (mainframe) migration. In March, 2007, Gartner put forward research suggesting that, due to the aging of the current generation ofContinue reading “The Mainframe Skills Shortage Urban Myth”

Just a Glimpse of Windows Phone 7

Roger Kay examines Microsoft’s much-needed new smartphone OS play. I’m delighted to welcome Roger to the blog. Next Iteration of Microsoft’s Mobile Platform Connects Well with Backend Services The much-missing Microsoft mobile effort was on display for a brief flash — which you could easily have missed if you sneezed at the wrong moment —Continue reading “Just a Glimpse of Windows Phone 7”

Microsoft’s Parallel DW – Still Waiting

Microsoft’s SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse (PDW) has been eagerly awaited for a long time. It still is. Though much of the news at the BI Conference running in parallel with TechEd in New Orleans (discussed here) was generally quite good, the PDW story was much less so. It’s late, and it’s not all there.

Oracle Exadata: Early Signs Promising

Exadata is looking good. In the past few months, I’ve had the chance to talk to several early adopters of Oracle Exadata V2, some in connection with a sponsored white paper Oracle has just published. It’s still early, but I see this product as a milestone, regardless of its commercial success. That is still toContinue reading “Oracle Exadata: Early Signs Promising”

Oracle’s Surprise Layoff: Is Snorkel (Sun + Oracle) Underwater?

From Rob Enderle, Enderle Group Mergers are very difficult to do, and while Oracle is one of the best at doing them there are degrees of difficulty.  On a scale of 1 to 10 the Sun acquisition by Oracle is likely an 11 and will probably fail.   Whether it takes Oracle with it may beContinue reading “Oracle’s Surprise Layoff: Is Snorkel (Sun + Oracle) Underwater?”