Connect – a Simba Technologies Blog

Could Dell buy Aster Data?

A few days ago, I commented on an article about Oracle's shopping spree and someone responded to me about the possibility of Dell acquiring Aster Data.  Worth a quick read: http://seekingalpha.com/article/223107-winners-and-losers-in-data-warehousing.  Here, Ben Kolada at Seeking Alpha indicates that Aster Data is a premier company in the data warehousing space and could be an acquisition target for Dell.  Interesting though that of the 3 deals that Ben discusses:

1. Microsoft acquiring DATAllegro

2. EMC acquiring Greenplum

3. Teradata acquiring Kickfire

Teradata seems to have paid the least.  Maybe a continuation from the days when Mark Hurd was running the company and keeping a tight rein on spending.  Also, Teradata is further ahead in the high end, big data space than Microsoft or EMC so they don't have to make as much of a splash.

Teradata OLAP Connector - MDX Query Language access to Teradata Database

A little over a week ago, I wrote about how Teradata is now supporting direct connectivity from Excel Pivot Tables via the MDX Query Language.  The Teradata product is called Teradata OLAP Connector.  Here is a link to Teradata's brochure for the Teradata OLAP Connector: http://www.teradata.com/t/brochures/Teradata-OLAP-Connector-eb6212/?type=BR.  Teradata is touting the following as advantages to this product:

- real-time data

- reduced IT workload

- continued security

- workload management

- consistent results

- competitive advantage

The reality is that in the past, Teradata has not really supported OLAP.  You needed to have a mid-tier server that sat between the Teradata database and your BI application.  Now, you just build your cubes within Teradata and so there is no mid-tier and no data movement.  Your BI application gets direct access to the power of your Teradata implementation.  Of course, at this time, Teradata OLAP Connector is only supporting Excel Pivot Tables.  However, since this is an MDX query language solution, well, you do the math...

Oracle's shopping spree and who might Oracle buy next...

I was reading a very interesting opinion on sandhill.com by Steven Janisse entitled "Oracle's Mergers and Acquisitions: Who Will Be Next?"  Janisse has a very nice history of the companies that Oracle has acquired since acquiring PeopleSoft in 2004/2005.  He has a very nice graphic that shows the companies acquired and the amount paid by Oracle.  The graphic has a circle for every acquisition with the size of the circle denoting the amount paid.  Janisse then goes on to list potential future acquisitions by Oracle.  Given recent remarks by Oracle President Charles Phillips about Oracle wanting to do more aquisitions, the opinion by Steven Janisse is worth a read.  Janisse mentions companies such as Teradata, Informatica, TIBCO, etc. as potential Oracle targets.  You can read more at: http://sandhill.com/opinion/daily_blog.php?id=31&post=684.

Teradata supports MDX query language

Well, it is now official, Teradata has launched their Teradata OLAP Connector product which allows Microsoft Excel Pivot Tables to connect to a Teradata database.  Basically, you can define a virtual OLAP cube on top of your existing tables within a Teradata database and then use Excel Pivot Tables to do ad-hoc query and analysis on your data.  Excel connects to the Teradata Database using the MDX Query Language.  The really nice part of this solution is that all your data stays in Teradata and you get more options on how to analyze the data.  You get the full power of Excel Pivot Tables and you get the full analytics power of the Teradata database.  Teradata now supports both the SQL and MDX query languages!  You can read more here:

http://www.teradata.com/t/News-Releases/2010/Teradata-OLAP-Connector-Enriches-Direct-Excel-Connectivity-Enhancing-Enterprise-and-Real-time-Analytics/

http://www.simba.com/news/Simba-Builds-Custom-ROLAP-BI-Solution-for-Teradata.htm

http://cwebbbi.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!7B84B0F2C239489A!7726.entry

Minding your bits...

I note that Window's transition from 32-bit to 64-bit has been an on-going saga for the last few years. The 64-bit variant of Windows XP was a big step forward. Another major milestone was just recently crossed when Microsoft released the first 64-bit variant of Microsoft Office as part of the Office 2010 launch in May.

For those who were around when Windows last made a machine-word-size transition--from 16 to 32-bit--things will be a deja vu of sorts.

I've noticed that this time around, everyone seems to be jumping onboard the biggest, baddest Excel (64-bit 2010) with a lot more enthuasism than I recall the last time around.

One impediment lurking in the background that many people may be caught off-guard by is the availability of the appropriate 64-bit database drivers/providers. Simba's been working hard to catch up here.

So what are people's experience with 64-bit Excel so far? How has your transition to 64-bit been? What sorts of difficulities have you ran into when you made the leap to 64-bit?

The case for a custom ODBC driver

I was talking to a customer recently and they were telling me they have a very high performance database that scales very well, but they have poor reporting.  They were complaining that they spent so much time on building such a great database product and all their customers see is that they cannot get the reports they need.  So what to do?

The answer is simple, build a custom ODBC driver for the database.  The database product already supports SQL so all they need is ODBC.  The customer complained that they didn't have anyone in the company who understands ODBC.  Again, the answer is simple.  I asked one of our engineers to work with the customer and they literally had Crystal Reports talking to their database using the custom ODBC driver in about a week.  The customer was amazed.  They went to one of their users and gave them a demo of the proof of concept ODBC driver.  The user loved it.  Our customer was ecstatic because they now had access to all ODBC compliant applications to show off their database.  Win-win-win.