Rod Adkins, the SVP and Group Executive of IBM’s Systems and Technology Group (STG) took the time to engage the influencer community quite early in his tenure for a well-run event at the Watson Research Lab in Yorktown Heights. “I’ve been in this position for 38 days,” he reminded us, as STG’s AR team widenedContinue reading “IBM’s “Smarter Planet” Will Capitalize on HW, Analytics”
Category Archives: Hardware platforms
Oracle’s TPC Assertions Don’t Help Its Credibility
Oracle has been making much of its recent benchmark results. Its new TPC campaign may backfire, however; its deceptive assertions do it no credit, and obscure some interesting technical advances (such as its first use of flash technology) behind mislabeling and deliberate omission of important facts. The “benchmark wars” are far less active than theyContinue reading “Oracle’s TPC Assertions Don’t Help Its Credibility”
Xkoto’s Database Virtualization Expands Cloud Opportunities
Xkoto, the database virtualization pioneer, has generated substantial interest since its first deployments in 2006. Still privately held and in investment mode, Xkoto sees profitability on the horizon, but offers no target date, and appears in no hurry. Its progress has been steady: in early 2008, a B round of financing led by GrandBanks Capital allowed a step up toContinue reading “Xkoto’s Database Virtualization Expands Cloud Opportunities”
Oracle Touts Cost Savings With New RAC, Storage Features
Oracle has high expectations for its newest release (Oracle Database 11g R2.) “We expect 45-50% adoption of R2 by next year,” said Mark Townsend, Vice President of Product Management, at the database analyst day during Oracle Open World recently. Such a rate would be unprecedented, but Oracle has good reasons for its optimism. Many new featuresContinue reading “Oracle Touts Cost Savings With New RAC, Storage Features”
Teradata Transition On Course in Steady Quarter, With Exciting New Offerings Ahead
How good was Teradata’s Q3? Not bad, but no improvement over a so far lackluster year, which nonetheless has seen the stock price rise steadily. In 2008, the striking rise in Teradata’s Linux revenue growth was matched only by the corresponding drop in its Unix revenue, and that “steady as she goes” performance continues through its stillContinue reading “Teradata Transition On Course in Steady Quarter, With Exciting New Offerings 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?”
Aster Appliance Elevates MapReduce Chatter, ADBMS Visibility
Since my last post about Aster, the analytic DBMS (ADBMS) vendor has added another arrow to its quiver. Its new MapReduce Data Warehouse Appliance Express Edition starts at $50,000, and includes Aster nCluster on Dell hardware and a copy of MicroStrategy BI software for up to 1 Tb of user data, which Aster clearly sees as a sweet spot.Continue reading “Aster Appliance Elevates MapReduce Chatter, ADBMS Visibility”