SAS brings DataFlux into the fold. PostgreSQL’s place in the New World Order. And more.
And that’s the Data Day, today.
Oracle reports Q3. EMC acquires Pivotal Labs. ClearStoty launches. And much, much more.
An occasional series of data-related news, views and links posts on Too Much Information. You can also follow the series @thedataday.
* Oracle Reports Q3 GAAP EPS Up 20% to 49 Cents; Q3 Non-GAAP EPS Up 15% to 62 Cents Database and middleware revenue up 10%.
* EMC Goes Social, Open and Agile With Big Data EMC acquires Pivotal Labs, plans to release Chorus as an open source project
* ClearStory Data Launches With Investment From Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and Khosla Ventures
* HP Lead Big Data Exec Chris Lynch Resigns
* “Hortonworks Names Ari Zilka Chief Products Officer
* DataStax Enterprise 2.0 Adds Enterprise Search Capabilities to Smart Big Data Platform
* MapR Unveils Most Comprehensive Data Connection Options for Hadoop
* New Web-Based Alpine Illuminator Integrates with EMC Greenplum Chorus, The Social Data Science Platform
* RainStor and IBM InfoSphere BigInsights to Address Growing Big Data Challenges
* IBM Introduces New Predictive Analytics Services and Software to Reduce Fraud, Manage Financial Performance and Deliver Next Best Action
* Datameer Releases Major New Version of Analytics Platform
* Kognitio Announces Formation of “Kognitio Cloud” Business Unit
* HStreaming Announces Free Community Edition of Its Real-Time Analytics Platform for Hadoop
* Talend and MapR Announce Certification of Big Data Integration and Big Data Quality
* Schooner Information Technology Releases Membrain 4.0
* Gazzang Launches Big Data Encryption and Key Management Platform
* Logicworks Solves Big Data Hosting Challenges With New Infrastructure Services for Hadoop
* “Big Data” Among Most Confusing Tech Buzzwords
* For 451 Research clients
# Infochimps launches Chef-based platform for Hadoop deployment Impact Report
# Big-data security, or SIEM buzzword parity? Spotlight report
# DataStax adds enterprise search and elastic reprovisioning to database platform Market Development report
# With a new CEO and IBM as a reseller, Revolution Analytics charts next growth phase Market Development report
# Cray branches out, offering storage and a ‘big data’ appliance Market Development report
# CodeFutures sees a future beyond database sharding Market Development report
# Third time lucky for ScaleOut StateServer 5.0? Market Development report
# Attunity looks to 2012 for turnaround; up to the cloud and ‘big data’ movement Market Development report
# Panorama rides Microsoft’s coattails into in-memory social BI using SQL Server 2012 Market Development report
And that’s the Data Day, today.
Yesterday The 451 Group published a report asking “How will the database incumbents respond to NoSQL and NewSQL?”
That prompted the pertinent question, “What do you mean by ‘NewSQL’?”
Since we are about to publish a report describing our view of the emerging database landscape, including NoSQL, NewSQL and beyond (now available), it probably is a good time to define what we mean by NewSQL (I haven’t mentioned the various NoSQL projects in this post, but they are covered extensively in the report. More on them another day).
“NewSQL” is our shorthand for the various new scalable/high performance SQL database vendors. We have previously referred to these products as ‘ScalableSQL’ to differentiate them from the incumbent relational database products. Since this implies horizontal scalability, which is not necessarily a feature of all the products, we adopted the term ‘NewSQL’ in the new report.
And to clarify, like NoSQL, NewSQL is not to be taken too literally: the new thing about the NewSQL vendors is the vendor, not the SQL.
So who would be consider to be the NewSQL vendors? Like NoSQL, NewSQL is used to describe a loosely-affiliated group of companies (ScaleBase has done a good job of identifying, some of the several NewSQL sub-types) but what they have in common is the development of new relational database products and services designed to bring the benefits of the relational model to distributed architectures, or to improve the performance of relational databases to the extent that horizontal scalability is no longer a necessity.
In the first group we would include (in no particular order) Clustrix, GenieDB, ScalArc, Schooner, VoltDB, RethinkDB, ScaleDB, Akiban, CodeFutures, ScaleBase, Translattice, and NimbusDB, as well as Drizzle, MySQL Cluster with NDB, and MySQL with HandlerSocket. The latter group includes Tokutek and JustOne DB. The associated “NewSQL-as-a-service” category includes Amazon Relational Database Service, Microsoft SQL Azure, Xeround, Database.com and FathomDB.
(Links provide access to 451 Group coverage for clients. Non-clients can also apply for trial access).
Clearly there is the potential for overlap with NoSQL. It remains to be seen whether RethinkDB will be delivered as a NoSQL key value store for memcached or a “NewSQL” storage engine for MySQL, for example. While at least one of the vendors listed above is planning to enable the use of its database as a schema-less store, we also expect to see support for SQL queries added to some NoSQL databases. We are also sure that Citrusleaf won’t be the last NoSQL vendor to claim support for ACID transactions.
NewSQL is not about attempting to re-define the database market using our own term, but it is useful to broadly categorize the various emerging database products at this particular point in time.
Another clarification: ReadWriteWeb has picked up on this post and reported on the “NewSQL Movement”. I don’t think there is a movement in that sense that we saw the various NoSQL projects/vendors come together under the NoSQL umbrella with a common purpose. Perhaps the NewSQL players will do so (VoltDB and NimbusDB have reacted positively to the term, and Tokutek has become the first that I am aware of to explicitly describe its technology as NewSQL). As Derek Stainer notes, however: ” In the end it’s just a name, a way to categorize a group of similar solutions.”
In the meantime, we have already noted the beginning for the end of NoSQL, and the lines are blurring to the point where we expect the terms NoSQL and NewSQL will become irrelevant as the focus turns to specific use cases.
The identification of specific adoption drivers and use cases is the focus of our forthcoming long-form report on NoSQL, NewSQL and beyond, from which the 451 Group reported cited above is excerpted.
The report contains an overview of the roots of NoSQL and profiles of the major NoSQL projects and vendors, as well as analysis of the drivers behind the development and adoption of NoSQL and NewSQL databases, the evolving role of data grid technologies, and associated use cases.
It will be available very soon from the Information Management and CAOS practices and we will also publish more details of the key drivers as we see them and our view of the current database landscape here.
Considering Gear6 recently took up the cause of refuting the death of memcached it is somewhat ironic that it is now Gear6 that is rumoured to be close to death.
Not just rumoured, in fact. eWeek reports that the company is in the process of shutting down its operations, while rival Schooner Information Tech has declared that Gear6 recently filed for a business liquidation process called Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors.
The erstwhile caching appliance vendor, which changed its focus to the Memcached open source distributed memory object-caching system just over a year ago, has not issued a response – despite requests for clarification from us and others.
The lack of response is ominous, and we are sure the company built up some baggage thanks to its previous incarnation as cache appliance provider, but there are a few reasons why now would seem to me to be an inopportune one to cut and run:
The current Memcached strategy has only be going a year.
The company recently claimed to have added 100 new customers since the launch of a version of its Web Cache software for cloud platforms in December 2009 (not all of which are paying no doubt, but….
The profile of Memcached has never been higher.
Gear6 also recently inked a partnership with Hewlett-Packard that apparently sees Gear6 added to HP’s Extreme Scale-Out portfolio and HP’s field staff and channel partners trained to deploy and support Web Cache on HP’s BL, SL and DL servers.
The company raised $4m of an expected $12.7m financing round in August 2009, according to SEC filings.
.
It is perfectly possible, of course, that the rest of that planned $12.7m was harder to come by than executives – or investors – had anticipated, but my first thought when reading about the Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors was that of a change of ownership for the company’s assets rather than total disappearance.
We shall see.
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