May 20, 2008
Top-end data warehouse sizes have grown hundreds-fold over the past 12 years
I just tripped across a link from February, 1996 in which NCR/Teradata:
- Bragged that it had half a dozen customers with >1 TB of raw user data
- Showed off a “record-breaking” 11 TB simulation
That represents roughly a 60-70% annual growth rate in top-end database sizes in the intervening 12 years.
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4 Responses to “Top-end data warehouse sizes have grown hundreds-fold over the past 12 years”
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Note that the NCR person quoted in the article is Mark Hurd – now head of H-P (chairman, CEO, and president), if I am not mistaken.
You are quite right. HP’s data warehousing strategy is obviously influenced by Hurd’s background at Teradata.
CAM
For the mathematically challenged, what are you suggesting is top-end today? 1.7^12 = 582 so are you saying 500 TB to 5 PB is the top-end today? (Please don’t shred me on the math!)
Dave,
That would indeed be about correct.
Last year, Teradata had a handful of sites >1/2 terabytes in user data. Their marketing chief was referring to these as >1 petabyte, based on total disk, but that’s not my favored metric. eBay is even bigger, as I first noted in http://www.dbms2.com/2008/02/11/ebay-is-over-5-petabytes-now/ .
If you use the handy-dandy Google search box on the right, and search on “petabyte”, you’ll find much of the top-end discussion. (Yeah, I know it’s just Google custom search, but that’s a lot better than nothing. Besides, plans are afoot to upgrade that with technology from — well, from one of your quasi-competitors.
)
Some of the uncertainty in my growth-rate range came from questioning what was meant in the original press release. Just as a petabyte isn’t always a petabyte now, all terabytes weren’t created equal back then.
Best,
CAM