SAP AG
Analysis of SAP AG, and most especially its memory-centric BI Accelerator technology. Also covered are SAP’s overall database, connectivity, and analytics strategies. Related subjects include:
- SAP’s Business Objects business intelligence subsidiary
- Memory-centric data management
- Columnar database management
- (in Text Technologies) SAP’s TREX search engine and Inxight text analytics technology
- (in The Monash Report) Strategic issues for SAP
- (in Software Memories) Historical notes on SAP
Some interesting links
In no particular order: Read more
| Categories: Business intelligence, EnterpriseDB and Postgres Plus, Fun stuff, Hadoop, Humor, In-memory DBMS, MapReduce, Memory-centric data management, Open source, Oracle, SAP AG | 1 Comment |
Various quick notes
As you might imagine, there are a lot of blog posts I’d like to write I never seem to get around to, or things I’d like to comment on that I don’t want to bother ever writing a full post about. In some cases I just tweet a comment or link and leave it at that.
And it’s not going to get any better. Next week = the oft-postponed elder care trip. Then I’m back for a short week. Then I’m off on my quarterly visit to the SF area. Soon thereafter I’ve have a lot to do in connection with Enzee Universe. And at that point another month will have gone by.
Anyhow: Read more
| Categories: Analytic technologies, Business intelligence, Data warehousing, Exadata, GIS and geospatial, Google, IBM and DB2, Netezza, Oracle, Parallelization, SAP AG, SAS Institute | 3 Comments |
Further quick SAP/Sybase reactions
Raj Nathan of Sybase has been calling around to chat quickly about the SAP/Sybase deal and related matters. Talking with Raj didn’t change any of my initial reactions to SAP’s acquisition of Sybase. I also didn’t bother Raj with too many hard questions, as he was clearly in call-and-reassure mode, reaching out to customers and influencers alike.
That said, Read more
SAP believes in database proliferation
For as long as we’ve had the concept of database management, there’s been a debate as to whether it is realistic for large enterprises to have a single Grand Unified Enterprise Storehouse Of All Information, or whether database proliferation actually makes sense. This argument has been particularly intense in the area of data warehouse/data marts. I’m generally on the side of data mart proliferation.
4 1/2 years ago, I noted that SAP believed strongly in database proliferation: Read more
| Categories: Data warehousing, SAP AG, Theory and architecture | 3 Comments |
Quick reactions to SAP acquiring Sybase
SAP is acquiring Sybase. On the conference call SAP said Sybase would be run as a separate division of SAP (no surprise). Most of the focus was on Sybase’s mobile technology, which is forecast at >$400 million in 2010 revenues (which would be 30%ish of the total). My quick reactions include: Read more
Quick news, links, comments, etc.
Some notes based on what I’ve been reading recently: Read more
Intelligent Enterprise’s Editors’/Editor’s Choice list for 2010
As he has before, Intelligent Enterprise Editor Doug Henschen
- Personally selected annual lists of 12 “Most influential” companies and 36 “Companies to watch” in analytics- and database-related sectors.
- Made it clear that these are his personal selections.
- Nonetheless has called it an Editors’ Choice list, rather than Editor’s Choice.
(Actually, he’s really called it an “award.”)
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
| Categories: Analytic technologies, Business intelligence, MOLAP, Memory-centric data management, SAP AG, Solid-state memory | 1 Comment |
Some issues in comparing analytic DBMS performance
The analytic DBMS/data warehouse appliance market is full of competitive performance claims. Sometimes, they’re completely fabricated, with no basis in fact whatsoever. But often performance-advantage claims are based on one or more head-to-head performance comparisons. That is, System A and System B are used to run the same set of queries, and some function is applied that takes the two sets of query running times as an input, and spits out a relative performance number as an output. Read more
| Categories: Data warehousing, Exadata, Oracle, SAP AG | 1 Comment |
Initial reactions to IBM acquiring SPSS
IBM is acquiring SPSS. My initial thoughts (questions by Eric Lai of Computerworld) include:
1) good buy for IBM? why or why not?
Yes. The integration of predictive analytics with other analytic or operational technologies is still ahead of us, so there was a lot of value to be gained from SPSS beyond what it had standalone. (That said, I haven’t actually looked at the numbers, so I have no comment on the price.)
By the way, SPSS coined the phrase “predictive analytics”, with the rest of the industry then coming around to use it. As with all successful marketing phrases, it’s somewhat misleading, in that it’s not wholly focused on prediction.
2) how does it position IBM vs. competitors?
IBM’s ownership immediately makes SPSS a stronger competitor to SAS. Any advantage to the rest of IBM depends on the integration roadmap and execution.
3) How does this particularly affect SAP and SAS and Oracle, IBM’s closest competitors by revenue according to IDC’s figures?
If one of Oracle or SAP had bought SPSS, it would have given them a competitive advantage against the other, in the integration of predictive analytics with packaged operational apps. That’s a missed opportunity for each.
One notable point is that SPSS is more SQL-oriented than SAS. Thus, SPSS has gotten performance benefits from Oracle’s in-database data mining technology that SAS apparently hasn’t.
IBM’s done a good job of keeping its acquired products working well with Oracle and other competitive DBMS in the past, and SPSS will surely be no exception.
Obviously, if IBM does a good job of Cognos/SPSS integration, that’s bad for competitors, starting with Oracle and SAP/Business Objects. So far business intelligence/predictive analytics integration has been pretty minor, because nobody’s figured out how to do it right, but some day that will change. Hmm — I feel another “Future of … ” post coming on.
4) Do you predict further M&A?
Always.
Related links
- Official word from SPSS and IBM
- Blog posts from Larry Dignan and James Taylor
- James Kobelius’s post, which includes the obvious point that Oracle — unlike SAP — has pretty decent data mining of its own
- Eric Lai’s actual article
| Categories: Analytic technologies, Cognos, IBM and DB2, Oracle, SAP AG, SAS Institute | 7 Comments |