Open – For Business – At the ASF

The Apache Software Foundation is about to celebrate an anniversary, and its extraordinary contribution to the economic refactoring of software stacks seems to be gaining more momentum with every passing year. After three Gartner Data and Analytics events on 3 continents with thousands of attendees in the past 4 weeks, I find myself more impressedContinue reading “Open – For Business – At the ASF”

The Era of Microsoft on Windows-Only Is Over – OMG

Written by Donald Feinberg and Merv Adrian On 25-Sep-2017 at Ignite, Microsoft announced general availability of SQL Server 2017, now supporting both Windows and Linux platforms, as well as support for containers. It can now book revenue for a product already widely used by early release customers. What does this imply for the $34.4 billion database management system (DBMS) Market? Over theContinue reading “The Era of Microsoft on Windows-Only Is Over – OMG”

Symposium Notes – Day Four Returns to Data Security, and to Hadoop

Thursday, the final day, reinforced a theme for the week: data security is heating up, and organizations are not ready. It came up in half of today’s final 10 meetings. “Is my data more secure, or less, in the cloud?” “Does using open source software for data management compromise how well I can protect it?”Continue reading “Symposium Notes – Day Four Returns to Data Security, and to Hadoop”

Perspectives on Hadoop Part Two: Pausing Plans

By Merv Adrian and Nick Heudecker  In the first post in this series , I looked at the size of revenue streams for RDBMS software and maintenance/support and noted that they amount to $33B, pointing out that pure play Hadoop vendors had a high hill to climb. (I didn’t say so specifically, but in 2014, Gartner estimates thatContinue reading “Perspectives on Hadoop Part Two: Pausing Plans”

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”

Amazon Redshift Disrupts DW Economics – But Nothing Comes Without Costs

At its first re:Invent conference in Late November, Amazon announced Redshift, a new managed service for data warehousing. Amazon also offered details and customer examples that made AWS’  steady inroads toward enterprise, mainstream application acceptance very visible. Redshift is made available via MPP nodes of 2TB (XL) or 16TB (8XL), running Paraccel’s high-performance columnar, compressedContinue reading “Amazon Redshift Disrupts DW Economics – But Nothing Comes Without Costs”

For GoodData, SaaS Changes The Channel Model Too

Last time I mentioned GoodData, it was in passing, as I discussed YouCalc and other SaaS BI players. In the ensuing year, many other toes have been dipped into the water. I sat down with GoodData CEO and founder Roman Stanek and Marketing VP Sam Boonin this week to catch up on how it’s allContinue reading “For GoodData, SaaS Changes The Channel Model Too”

Oracle Sets Sights on BI Leadership. Has it Picked the Right Target?

Oracle is not first in BI, and wants to change that – that was the clear message of a well executed, multi-site “real plus virtual” event with top executives showing off the result of a multi-year effort to rationalize and integrate a set of leading but overlapping components into a seamless suite. Oracle Business IntelligenceContinue reading “Oracle Sets Sights on BI Leadership. Has it Picked the Right Target?”

Microsoft Murky on Cloud Licensing

By Laura DiDio, ITIC Microsoft did a very credible job at its TechEd conference in New Orleans last week, laying out the technology roadmap and strategy for a smooth transition from premises-based networks/services to its emerging Azure cloud infrastructure and software + services model. One of the biggest challenges facing Microsoft and its customers asContinue reading “Microsoft Murky on Cloud Licensing”