Research agenda for 2010
As you may have noticed, I’ve been posting less research/analysis in November and December than during some other periods. In no particular order, reasons have included: Read more
More miscellany
Adding to yesterday’s varied quick comments: Read more
| Categories: Continuent, Infobright, Rainstor, Software as a Service (SaaS) | 2 Comments |
Clearing up MapReduce confusion, yet again
I’m frustrated by a constant need — or at least urge 🙂 — to correct myths and errors about MapReduce. Let’s try one more time: Read more
| Categories: Analytic technologies, Aster Data, Cloudera, Data warehousing, Google, Hadoop, MapReduce, SenSage, Splunk | 8 Comments |
This and that
I have various subjects backed up that I don’t really want to write about at traditional blog-post length. Here are a few of them. Read more
Introduction to Gooddata
Around the end of the Cold War, Esther Dyson took it upon herself to go repeatedly to Eastern Europe and do a lot of rah-rah and catalysis, hoping to spark software and other computer entrepreneurs. I don’t know how many people’s lives she significantly affected – I’d guess it’s actually quite a few – but in any case the number is not zero. Roman Stanek, who has built and sold a couple of software business, cites her as a key influence setting him on his path.
Roman’s latest venture is business intelligence firm Gooddata. Gooddata was founded in 2007 and has been soliciting and getting attention for a while, so I was surprised to learn that Gooddata officially launched just a few weeks ago. Anyhow, some less technical highlights of the Gooddata story include: Read more
Oracle lifts the cloud hanging over MySQL storage engine vendors
Oracle has put out a press release promising to play nicely with MySQL if its Sun takeover is approved. The parts in italics below are quotes. My comments are in plain text.
1. Continued Availability of Storage Engine APIs. Oracle shall maintain and periodically enhance MySQL’s Pluggable Storage Engine Architecture to allow users the flexibility to choose from a portfolio of native and third party supplied storage engines.
MySQL’s Pluggable Storage Engine Architecture shall mean MySQL’s current practice of using, publicly-available, documented application programming interfaces to allow storage engine vendors to “plug” into the MySQL database server. Documentation shall be consistent with the documentation currently provided by Sun.
Well, duh.
2. Non-assertion. As copyright holder, Oracle will change Sun’s current policy and shall not assert or threaten to assert against anyone that a third party vendor’s implementations of storage engines must be released under the GPL because they have implemented the application programming interfaces available as part of MySQL’s Pluggable Storage Engine Architecture.
A commercial license will not be required by Oracle from third party storage engine vendors in order to implement the application programming interfaces available as part of MySQL’s Pluggable Storage Engine Architecture.
Oracle shall reproduce this commitment in contractual commitments to storage vendors who at present have a commercial license with Sun.
This is the biggie, lifting a major cloud from the MySQL storage engine business. It sounds like the third of four options I suggested as to how Oracle could legitimately earn antitrust approval of its MySQL takeover. Sure, Infobright, Kickfire, et al. already had what they saw as adequate safeguards or contingency plans vs. Oracle skullduggery. It’s still big even so.
(Quoted out of order.) The geographic scope of these commitments shall be worldwide and these commitments shall continue until the fifth anniversary of the closing of the transaction.
Not a disaster, but with respect to at least point #2 there should be no time limit whatsoever. I’d like to see the EC require that change as a further Oracle concession. Read more
| Categories: MySQL, Open source, Oracle, Pricing | 17 Comments |
The legit part of the NoSQL idea
I’ve written some snarky things about the “NoSQL” concept – or at least the moniker. (Carl Olofson’s term “non-schematic databases” seems less bad.) Yet I’m actually favorable about the increasing use of SQL alternatives. Perhaps I should pull those thoughts together. Read more
| Categories: Data models and architecture, Database diversity, Hadoop, NoSQL, Theory and architecture | 21 Comments |
NoSQL Q and A
Neal Leavitt is writing an article for IEEE on NoSQL. So he’s circulated a long list of questions, encouraging people to answer as many or few as they choose. Unfortunately, most of the questions are technically meaningless, in that they implicitly rely on the false assumption that there is such a thing as a single or at least reasonably well-defined NoSQL technology. (I imagine most of his questions are really about key-value stores.) Nonetheless, I took a crack at a number of them before getting bored. Anybody else want to pitch in too? Read more
| Categories: Data models and architecture, Database diversity, NoSQL, Theory and architecture | 10 Comments |
Notes on RainStor, the company formerly known as Clearpace
Information preservation* DBMS vendor Clearpace officially changed its name to RainStor this week. RainStor is also relocating its CEO John Bantleman and more generally its headquarters to San Francisco. This all led to a visit with John and his colleague Ramon Chen, highlights of which included: Read more
| Categories: Archiving and information preservation, Market share and customer counts, Oracle, Rainstor, SenSage, Telecommunications | 1 Comment |
Ray Wang on SAP
Ray Wang made a terrific post based on SAP’s annual influencer love-in, an event which I no longer attend. Ray believes SAP has been in a “crisis”, and sums up his views as
The Bottom Line – SAP’s Turning The Corner
Credit must be given to SAP for charting a new course. A shift in the management philosophy and product direction will take years to realize, however, its not too late for change. SAP must remember its roots and become more German and less American. The renewed focus must put customer requests and priorities ahead of SAP’s bureaucracy. The emphasis must focus on the relationship. When that reemerges in how SAP works with customers, partners, influencers, and its own employees, SAP will be back in good graces. In the meantime, its time to get to work and deliver. Oracle’s Fusions Apps are coming soon and competitors such as IBM, Microsoft, Epicor, IFS, and SalesForce.com will not relent.
I recall the 1980s, when SAP’s main differentiator, at least in the English-speaking US, was a total commitment to customer success, and when it could be taken for granted that SAP would do business ethically. Things change, and not always for the better.
Anyhow, the reason I’m highlighting Ray’s post is that he makes reference to a number of interesting SAP-cetric technology trends or initiatives. Read more