Exadata
Analysis of Oracle Exadata and the Oracle Database Machine. Related subjects include:
Oracle and Exadata: Business and technical notes
Last Friday I stopped by Oracle for my first conversation since January, 2010, in this case for a chat with Andy Mendelsohn, Mark Townsend, Tim Shetler, and George Lumpkin, covering Exadata and the Oracle DBMS. Key points included: Read more
MySQL soundbites
Oracle announced MySQL enhancements, plus intentions to use MySQL to compete against Microsoft SQL Server. My thoughts, lightly edited from an instant message Q&A, include:
- Given how hard Oracle fought the antitrust authorities to keep MySQL around the time of the acquisition, we always knew they were serious about the business.
- We’ll know they’re even more serious if they buy MySQL enhancements such as Infobright, dbShards, or Schooner MySQL.
- Oracle-quality MySQL’s most obvious target is SQL Server.
- But if you’ve bought into the Windows stack, why not stay bought-in?
- MySQL vs. SQL Server competition is mainly about new applications; few users will actually switch.
- A lot of SaaS vendors use Oracle Standard Edition, and have some MySQL somewhere as well. They don’t want to pay up for Oracle Enterprise Edition or Exadata. Good MySQL could suit them.
- Mainly, I see the Short Request Processing market as being a battle between MySQL versions and NoSQL systems. (I’m a VoltDB pessimist.)
The last question was “Is there an easy shorthand to describe how Oracle DB is superior to MySQL even with these improvements?” My responses, again lightly edited, were: Read more
| Categories: Analytic technologies, Exadata, MySQL, NoSQL, Oracle, Software as a Service (SaaS) | 2 Comments |
Comments on the 2011 Forrester Wave for Enterprise Data Warehouse Platforms
The Forrester Wave: Enterprise Data Warehouse Platforms, Q1 2011 is now out,* hot on the heels of the Gartner Magic Quadrant. Unfortunately, this particular Forrester Wave is riddled with inaccuracy. Read more
| Categories: Analytic technologies, Columnar database management, Data warehousing, EMC, Exadata, Greenplum, Netezza, Oracle, Pricing, SAP AG, Sybase, Teradata, Vertica Systems | 7 Comments |
Columnar compression vs. column storage
I’m getting the increasing impression that certain industry observers, such as Gartner, are really confused about columnar technology. (I further suspect that certain vendors are encouraging this confusion, as vendors commonly do.) So here are some basic points.
A simple way to think about the difference between columnar storage and columnar (or any other kind of) compression is this:
- Columnar storage is a reference to how data is grouped together on disk (or in solid-state memory).
- (Columnar) compression is a reference to whether the actual data is on disk, or whether you save space by storing some smaller substitute for the actual data.
Specifically, if data in a relational table is grouped together according to what row it’s in, then the database manager is called “row-based” or a “row store.” If it’s grouped together according to what column it’s in, then the database management system is called “columnar” or a “column store.” Increasingly, row-based and columnar storage are being hybridized.
There are two main kinds of compression — compression of bit strings and more intelligent compression of actual data values. Compression of actual data values can reasonably be called “columnar,” in that different columns of data can be compressed in different ways, often depending only on the data in that column.* Read more
| Categories: Columnar database management, Data warehousing, Database compression, Exadata, Vertica Systems | 18 Comments |
Comments on the Gartner 2010/2011 Data Warehouse Database Management Systems Magic Quadrant
Edit: Comments on the February, 2012 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Warehouse Database Management Systems — and on the companies reviewed in it — are now up.
The Gartner 2010 Data Warehouse Database Management Systems Magic Quadrant is out. I shall now comment, just as I did to varying degrees on the 2009, 2008, 2007, and 2006 Gartner Data Warehouse Database Management System Magic Quadrants.
Note: Links to Gartner Magic Quadrants tend to be unstable. Please alert me if any problems arise; I’ll edit accordingly.
In my comments on the 2008 Gartner Data Warehouse Database Management Systems Magic Quadrant, I observed that Gartner’s “completeness of vision” scores were generally pretty reasonable, but their “ability to execute” rankings were somewhat bizarre; the same remains true this year. For example, Gartner ranks Ingres higher by that metric than Vertica, Aster Data, ParAccel, or Infobright. Yet each of those companies is growing nicely and delivering products that meet serious cutting-edge analytic DBMS needs, neither of which has been true of Ingres since about 1987. Read more
Exadata notes
It’s been a while since I penetrated Oracle’s tight message control and actually talked with them about Exadata. But Doug Henschen wrote a good article about Exadata based on an Andy Mendelsohn webcast. I agree with almost all of it. At first I was a little surprised that Exadata’s emphasis shift from data warehousing to OLTP/generic consolidation hasn’t gone more quickly, but on the other hand:
- On the data warehouse side Exadata can alleviate screaming pain points.
- In OLTP consolidation, Exadata mainly can save money. (Yes, I just said a product from Oracle can save customers money, and I meant it. You may stop laughing at any time.)
Doug did overstate when he said that columnar architectures give 100X or more compression. That doesn’t happen. Yes, columnar compression can be >10X in a variety of use cases, while pre-Exadata Oracle index bloat can approach 10X at times; but even if you’re counting that way I doubt there are many instances in which it actually multiplies out to >100.
In other Exadata news, the long-standing observation that Oracle doesn’t like to do on-site Exadata POCs still holds true. A couple of existing Oracle users — one rather well-known — recently told me that Oracle won’t let them text Exadata except on Oracle premises. In one case, this is a deal-breaker keeping Exadata from being considered for a purchase, and Oracle still won’t budge.
Finally, I’m pretty sure that this “new” Softbank Teradata replacement Oracle has been touting since September as competitive evidence — which Doug’s article also references — isn’t quite what it sounds like. I believe Teradata’s version of the story, which somewhat edited goes like this: Read more
| Categories: Benchmarks and POCs, Columnar database management, Data warehouse appliances, Database compression, Exadata, Oracle, Teradata | 25 Comments |
Architectural options for analytic database management systems
Mike Stonebraker recently kicked off some discussion about desirable architectural features of a columnar analytic DBMS. Let’s expand the conversation to cover desirable architectural characteristics of analytic DBMS in general. Read more
Notes on data warehouse appliance prices
I’m not terribly motivated to do a detailed analysis of data warehouse appliance list prices, in part because:
- Everybody knows that in practice data warehouse appliances tend to be deeply discounted from list price.
- The only realistic metric to use for pricing data warehouse appliances is price-per-terabyte, and people have gotten pretty sick of that one.
That said, here are some notes on data warehouse appliance prices. Read more
| Categories: Data warehouse appliances, Data warehousing, Database compression, EMC, Exadata, Greenplum, Netezza, Oracle, Pricing | 6 Comments |
Notes on the EMC Greenplum Data Computing Appliance
The big confidential part of my visit last week to EMC’s Data Computing Division, nee’ Greenplum, was of course this week’s announcement of the first EMC/Greenplum “Data Computing Appliance.” Basics include: Read more
| Categories: Analytic technologies, Data warehousing, EMC, Exadata, Greenplum, Oracle, Parallelization, Storage | 1 Comment |
Soundbites about Mark Hurd joining Oracle
I’m on “vacation”, so I don’t know how timely I’ll be in getting back to reporters with quotes on Mark Hurd’s new job at Oracle. I put “vacation” in quotes because my father has been in a coma for over a week back in Ohio; I’m getting stonewalled for information about his and especially about my senile mother’s condition (while there’s a support structure making sure nothing too ridiculous happens, the whole thing has been even harder to block out for a while than if a full set of medical ethics were being used); Linda arrived here with an injury that has largely wrecked the vacation for her (if we had confidence in the local doctors we’d be seeing them for sure, and may yet see them anyway); and the mix of lesser factors is otherwise normal — great place, I took way too much work with me and had clients demanding more, connectivity was deplorable and is still unreliable (this post has been spread out over several hours by yet another connectivity outage), and weather has been a pleasant surprise to date (but clearly I’m benefiting from it a lot less than usual).
My thoughts on Mark Hurd (who I’ve never met) joining Oracle include:
- Mark Hurd is one of the least successful leaders in the modern history of the DBMS industry.
- Mark Hurd presided over Teradata while Teradata allowed a bunch of smaller competitors to grow up.
- Mark Hurd was said to be the prime mover behind HP Neoview, which has been an epic failure.
- Mark Hurd was in charge of HP when HP lost the Exadata business to Sun, and it’s not clear that the loss was just because Oracle bought Sun.
- Mark Hurd seems to have done poorly running services businesses at HP as well, at least in terms of their reputations.
- None of this means that Mark Hurd can’t do a good job on the volume-hardware side of Oracle. Nor does it seem likely that Hurd would get the power to gut Oracle’s R&D the way he is reputed to have gutted HP’s. And by the way, the investment in the HP Neoview fiasco shows that Hurd didn’t COMPLETELY gut R&D at HP either.
- The Mark Hurd hire is a signal that Oracle is very serious about hardware/software integration. Notwithstanding any of the foregoing, Hurd can surely talk the hardware/software integration game. And one can reasonably spin Hurd’s HP Neoview failure as a high-desire, low-odds attempt to get into the database software/hardware stack business.
- The time to assess whether Oracle will continue with the hardware/software integration emphasis will be when Mark Hurd leaves. Just as Ray Lane’s departure coincided with a reversal of the software/services integration strategy he so successfully championed, Hurd’s eventual departure could signal a backing off from emphasizing a software/hardware stack.
- Mark Hurd’s sexual harassment problems sound similar to Al Gore’s:
- He got services of the sort that are often a euphemism (massage in Gore’s case, escort in Hurd’s).
- The provider(s) just wanted to provide the real thing, not the euphemistic part as well.
- Unpleasantness ensued.
| Categories: Data warehouse appliances, Exadata, HP and Neoview, Oracle, Teradata | 11 Comments |