I read this article by Curt Monashwhere he mentions that” Data warehouse appliance and software appliance vendors like to claim that they’ve worked out just the right hardware configuration(s), and that a single configuration is correct for a fairly broad range of workloads.” In short I agree with Curt but I think he needs to have a better understanding of the vision (we call N Sight). Netezza gets it for sure!!
Then I ran across this study by IBM The New Voice of the CIO which represents the insights and vision of 2,500 CIOs from 78 countries and 19 industries. Pat Toole, CIO of IBM, said “CIOs are investing in business analytics capabilities to help them improve decision-making at all levels.”
Well, now I have to raise some points that I think are worth consideration. I also once again want to remind the readers that I am not an analyst. What I am, however, is someone that has extensive experience with database technology and many facets of data processing in general. And I do not speak for Netezza but I can surely speak of them because not only am I an employee but also a former user and someone who has lived database and processing solutions for thirty years - working directly with the business.
Let us take a look at several highlights from the aforementioned study.
1. 83% of respondents identified business intelligence and analytics, as the way they will enhance their organization’s competitiveness
Netezza from day one has said they have a purpose-built appliance for BI and analytics. The biggest challenges that are the hardest to process and optimize, but most valuable to the business are perfect for Netezza to tackle.. Let’s not forget that Netezza is the company that changed this industry forever. Whatever Netezza does, it keeps its roots in mind and does nothing to jeopardize its simplicity, ease of use and appliance differentiation.
2. 71% of CIOs are planning to make additional investments in risk management and compliance
Netezza understands this and with Mantra, a compliance package that is now included with Netezza TwinFin systems, Companies that are concerned about security and compliance with the combination can now collect and analyze data that will identify and in the future, predict, risks and violations of compliance-based on rules and profiles.
3. 76% of CIOs anticipate building a centralized infrastructure in the next five years
Once again an area that Netezza clearly has a vision on. Right off the website - “Our vision is for multiple appliances deployed in grids, globally scalable and manageable; of information management simplified, of data easily integrated, easily managed in a global analytic platform and easily exploited in analytic applications.” From my perspective, this alone demonstrates how Netezza appliances built to serve various purposes across the enterprise will allow for the integration, distribution, protection and use of our most valuable asset- data. Businesses can truly gain insight and sustain competitive edge in this dynamic business landscape.
What Relational database appliance or, for that matter, relational database software can process an algorithm on-stream against the data of three credit bureaus, containing records for every individual in the US and examine over 80 credit attributes with over 300 branch points to apply a score that identifies the best record - IN 20 MINUTES? This is just one example of how the simplicity of the Netezza appliance is used for processing that would typically be handled across a bunch of servers, a number of different software packages and people with different skills to achieve results. I won’t even discuss the complexity of the infrastructure and days of processing this would typically take.
The world is changing and we will see purpose-built solutions through innovation and partnerships that will be optimized for functions that have specific processing requirements. This, along with the surrounding connectors and certified partner tools to support a totally connected intelligent data infrastructure that will construct, distribute and allow end user consumption and utilization of the resulting smart data products, is the future of our data-driven world.Even Larry wants to be an appliance company but doesn’t agree that OLTP and analytic processing have different requirements especially in I/O and memory utilization.
To conclude, I agree with Curt but Netezza get’s it. Putting much more thought into the business problem and next to none into the processing of that problem is what Netezza enables for both database and non-database challenges. Watch out world -Netezza is here to stay and will continue to change the industry. Vision is what created Netezza and vision is what will keep our focus and resources on business value and results and away from complexity.
