Netezza
Encyclopedia
Netezza designs and markets high-performance data warehouse appliance
s and advanced analytics
applications for uses including enterprise data warehousing, business intelligence
, predictive analytics
and business continuity
planning.
Netezza is widely credited for either inventing or bringing renewed attention to the data warehouse appliance category, depending upon whether one regards long-time data warehouse technology vendor Teradata
as having been in the data warehouse appliance category all along.
Founded in 2000, the company is based in Marlborough, Massachusetts
, with 19 offices in more than 12 countries, including the UK, Japan, China and Germany. As of August 2010, Netezza had a workforce of 469 employees. The company opened a new development lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts
in August 2010.
On September 20, 2010, IBM
and Netezza announced a definitive agreement for IBM to acquire Netezza for $27 per share.
s (FPGAs).
FPGAs are increasingly used in conventional high performance computing applications where specific computational kernels are performed on the FPGA instead of a microprocessor. Netezza’s FPGA implementation performs complex data filtering so that only relevant portions of big data
sets are passed along to the processor to run the SQL
query. Additionally, spare FPGA cycles are used to perform data compression and decompression, reducing the load on the processor. Because the FPGA handles the compression and the data set is smaller, data throughput is accelerated. In-database processing
reduces latency and speeds data analysis by eliminating the need to move data out of and results back into the warehouse..
under the ticker “NZ” on NYSE Arca
.
Jim Baum was appointed CEO of Netezza in January, 2008 after founder Jit Saxena announced his retirement. Baum started at Netezza as COO in 2006. Prior to joining Netezza, Baum was president and CEO of Endeca in Boston for five years. Before Endeca, Baum was executive vice president and general manager during his 11-year tenure at Parametric Technology Corporation
(PTC) in Needham, Massachusetts.
IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Netezza Corporation (NYSE: NZ) on September 20, 2010 announced they have entered into a definitive agreement for IBM to acquire Netezza, a publicly held company based in Marlborough, Massachusetts, in a cash transaction at a price of $27 per share or at a net price of approximately $1.7 billion, after adjusting for cash. Netezza will expand IBM's business analytics initiatives to help clients gain faster insights into their business information.
s into which Netezza sells are digital media, energy and utilities, retailing, telecommunications, financial services, health care, and government. Most of Netezza's business continues to be in the United States, and much of the rest in the United Kingdom, but the company makes sales in a growing number of additional countries: 75% of the company's product revenue was from U.S.-based customers, while 25% was from international customers for the three months ended July 31, 2010, as compared to 88% of its product revenue from customers in the United States and 12% from international customers for the three months ended July 31, 2009. Netezza is reported to have made recent inroads into Japan and Europe.
, the company reported 373 customers worldwide for its primary product, up from 191 in July 2008.
In February 2010, Netezza announced that it had opened up its systems to support major programming models, including Hadoop
, MapReduce
, Java
, C++, and Python models. Netezza's partners predicted to leverage this analytic application support are Tibco Spotfire
, MicroStrategy
, Pursway, DemandTec
and QuantiSense.
The company also markets specialized appliances for retail, spatial, complex analytics and regulatory compliance
needs. Netezza additionally sells software-based products for migrating from Oracle Exadata and for implementing data virtualization
and federation (data abstraction) schemes.
The first tier is a high-performance Linux SMP
host that compiles data query tasks received from business intelligence applications, and generates query execution plans. It then divides a query into a sequence of sub-tasks, or snippets that can be executed in parallel, and distributes the snippets to the second tier for execution.
The second tier consists of one to hundreds of snippet processing blades, or S-Blades, where all the primary processing work of the appliance is executed. The S-Blades are intelligent processing nodes that make up the massively parallel processing (MPP) engine of the appliance. Each S-Blade is an independent server that contains multi-core Intel-based CPUs and Netezza’s proprietary multi-engine, high-throughput FPGAs. The S-Blade is composed of a standard blade-server combined with a special Netezza Database Accelerator card which snaps alongside the blade. Each S-Blade is, in turn, connected to multiple disk drives processing multiple data streams in parallel in TwinFin or Skimmer.
AMPP employs industry-standard interfaces (SQL, ODBC, JDBC, OLE DB) and provides load times in excess of 2 TB/hour and backup/restore data rates of more than 4 TB/hour.
In 2009, the company transitioned from PowerPC processors to Intel CPUs. In August, 2009, with the introduction of the 4th generation TwinFin product, Netezza moved from proprietary blades to IBM blades.
of Massachusetts, Capital Blue Cross of Harrisburg Pennsylvania, Con-way Freight
, DataLogix, Epsilon, interCLICK, IntercontinentalExchange
, Japan Medical Data Center, Kelley Blue Book, Marshfield Clinic, MediaMath, MetroPCS, MicroAd, MyLife.com
, NYSE Euronext, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Safeway
and The Nielsen Company.
In April 2010 the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) purchased a data warehouse and analytics appliance from Netezza as part of a $178m smart-grid project being funded by the US Department of Energy.
Netezza also holds an annual user conference called Enzee Universe which hosts technology tracks, case studies, trainings, and speakers such as Stephen L. Baker
.
and Teradata
, and also include Microsoft
, Sybase IQ
, Vertica
, Aster Data Systems
and Greenplum
.
Data warehouse appliance
In computing, a data warehouse appliance consists of an integrated set of servers, storage, operating system, DBMS and software specifically pre-installed and pre-optimized for data warehousing...
s and advanced analytics
Analytics
Analytics is the application of computer technology, operational research, and statistics to solve problems in business and industry. Analytics is carried out within an information system: while, in the past, statistics and mathematics could be studied without computers and software, analytics has...
applications for uses including enterprise data warehousing, business intelligence
Business intelligence
Business intelligence mainly refers to computer-based techniques used in identifying, extracting, and analyzing business data, such as sales revenue by products and/or departments, or by associated costs and incomes....
, predictive analytics
Predictive analytics
Predictive analytics encompasses a variety of statistical techniques from modeling, machine learning, data mining and game theory that analyze current and historical facts to make predictions about future events....
and business continuity
Business continuity
Business continuity is the activity performed by an organization to ensure that critical business functions will be available to customers, suppliers, regulators, and other entities that must have access to those functions. These activities include many daily chores such as project management,...
planning.
Netezza is widely credited for either inventing or bringing renewed attention to the data warehouse appliance category, depending upon whether one regards long-time data warehouse technology vendor Teradata
Teradata
Teradata Corporation is a vendor specializing in data warehousing and analytic applications. Its products are commonly used by companies to manage data warehouses for analytics and business intelligence purposes. Teradata was formerly a division of NCR Corporation, with the spinoff from NCR on...
as having been in the data warehouse appliance category all along.
Founded in 2000, the company is based in Marlborough, Massachusetts
Marlborough, Massachusetts
Marlborough is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 38,499 at the 2010 census. Marlborough became a prosperous industrial town in the 19th century and made the transition to high technology industry in the late 20th century after the construction of the...
, with 19 offices in more than 12 countries, including the UK, Japan, China and Germany. As of August 2010, Netezza had a workforce of 469 employees. The company opened a new development lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
in August 2010.
On September 20, 2010, IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
and Netezza announced a definitive agreement for IBM to acquire Netezza for $27 per share.
Introduction
Data warehouse appliances architecturally integrate database, server and storage components into a single unit. Netezza's appliances use a proprietary Asymmetric Massively Parallel Processing (AMPP) architecture that combines open, blade-based servers and disk storage with a proprietary data filtering process using field-programmable gate arrayField-programmable gate array
A field-programmable gate array is an integrated circuit designed to be configured by the customer or designer after manufacturing—hence "field-programmable"...
s (FPGAs).
FPGAs are increasingly used in conventional high performance computing applications where specific computational kernels are performed on the FPGA instead of a microprocessor. Netezza’s FPGA implementation performs complex data filtering so that only relevant portions of big data
Big data
Big data are datasets that grow so large that they become awkward to work with using on-hand database management tools. Difficulties include capture, storage, search, sharing, analytics, and visualizing...
sets are passed along to the processor to run the SQL
SQL
SQL is a programming language designed for managing data in relational database management systems ....
query. Additionally, spare FPGA cycles are used to perform data compression and decompression, reducing the load on the processor. Because the FPGA handles the compression and the data set is smaller, data throughput is accelerated. In-database processing
In-database processing
In-database processing, sometimes referred to as in-database analytics, refers to the integration of data analytics into data warehousing functionality...
reduces latency and speeds data analysis by eliminating the need to move data out of and results back into the warehouse..
History
Netezza was incorporated in Delaware on August 18, 2000 as Intelligent Data Engines, Inc. and changed its name to Netezza Corporation in November 2000. In July 2007, Netezza Corporation had its initial public offeringInitial public offering
An initial public offering or stock market launch, is the first sale of stock by a private company to the public. It can be used by either small or large companies to raise expansion capital and become publicly traded enterprises...
under the ticker “NZ” on NYSE Arca
NYSE Arca
NYSE Arca, previously known as ArcaEx, an abbreviation of Archipelago Exchange, is a securities exchange on which both stocks and options are traded...
.
Jim Baum was appointed CEO of Netezza in January, 2008 after founder Jit Saxena announced his retirement. Baum started at Netezza as COO in 2006. Prior to joining Netezza, Baum was president and CEO of Endeca in Boston for five years. Before Endeca, Baum was executive vice president and general manager during his 11-year tenure at Parametric Technology Corporation
Parametric Technology Corporation
Parametric Technology Corporation is a U.S.-based company that develops, markets and supports software for product development. Its main products are for CAD/CAM, engineering calculations, and product lifecycle management. Its customers include companies in manufacturing, publishing, services,...
(PTC) in Needham, Massachusetts.
IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Netezza Corporation (NYSE: NZ) on September 20, 2010 announced they have entered into a definitive agreement for IBM to acquire Netezza, a publicly held company based in Marlborough, Massachusetts, in a cash transaction at a price of $27 per share or at a net price of approximately $1.7 billion, after adjusting for cash. Netezza will expand IBM's business analytics initiatives to help clients gain faster insights into their business information.
Markets
, the primary vertical marketVertical market
A vertical market is a group of similar businesses and customers that engage in trade based on specific and specialized needs. Often, participants in a vertical market are very limited to a subset of a larger industry...
s into which Netezza sells are digital media, energy and utilities, retailing, telecommunications, financial services, health care, and government. Most of Netezza's business continues to be in the United States, and much of the rest in the United Kingdom, but the company makes sales in a growing number of additional countries: 75% of the company's product revenue was from U.S.-based customers, while 25% was from international customers for the three months ended July 31, 2010, as compared to 88% of its product revenue from customers in the United States and 12% from international customers for the three months ended July 31, 2009. Netezza is reported to have made recent inroads into Japan and Europe.
, the company reported 373 customers worldwide for its primary product, up from 191 in July 2008.
Products
TwinFin, Netezza’s primary product, is designed for rapid analysis of data volumes scaling into petabytes. The company introduced the 4th generation of the TwinFin product in August 2009. Netezza introduced a scaled-down version of this appliance under the Skimmer brand in January 2010.In February 2010, Netezza announced that it had opened up its systems to support major programming models, including Hadoop
Hadoop
Apache Hadoop is a software framework that supports data-intensive distributed applications under a free license. It enables applications to work with thousands of nodes and petabytes of data...
, MapReduce
MapReduce
MapReduce is a software framework introduced by Google in 2004 to support distributed computing on large data sets on clusters of computers. Parts of the framework are patented in some countries....
, Java
Java (programming language)
Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
, C++, and Python models. Netezza's partners predicted to leverage this analytic application support are Tibco Spotfire
Spotfire
Spotfire was a business intelligence company based in Somerville, Massachusetts. It was bought by TIBCO in 2007.-History:Spotfire's origins trace back to the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory at the University of Maryland, College Park where, in the early 1990s, Christopher Ahlberg, a visiting...
, MicroStrategy
MicroStrategy
MicroStrategy, Inc. , is a business intelligence software vendor. MicroStrategy's software enables leading organizations worldwide to analyze the vast amounts of data stored across their enterprises to make more strategic business decisions...
, Pursway, DemandTec
DemandTec
DemandTec is the collaborative optimization network for retailers and consumer products companies. All software services are delivered on DemandTec, a network of common tools for retailers and consumer products companies to transact, interact, and collaborate on core merchandising and marketing...
and QuantiSense.
The company also markets specialized appliances for retail, spatial, complex analytics and regulatory compliance
Regulatory compliance
In general, compliance means conforming to a rule, such as a specification, policy, standard or law. Regulatory compliance describes the goal that corporations or public agencies aspire to in their efforts to ensure that personnel are aware of and take steps to comply with relevant laws and...
needs. Netezza additionally sells software-based products for migrating from Oracle Exadata and for implementing data virtualization
Data virtualization
Data virtualization describes the process of abstracting disparate data sources through a single data access layer ....
and federation (data abstraction) schemes.
Technology
Netezza’s proprietary AMPP architecture is a two-tiered system designed to quickly handle very large queries from multiple users.The first tier is a high-performance Linux SMP
Symmetric multiprocessing
In computing, symmetric multiprocessing involves a multiprocessor computer hardware architecture where two or more identical processors are connected to a single shared main memory and are controlled by a single OS instance. Most common multiprocessor systems today use an SMP architecture...
host that compiles data query tasks received from business intelligence applications, and generates query execution plans. It then divides a query into a sequence of sub-tasks, or snippets that can be executed in parallel, and distributes the snippets to the second tier for execution.
The second tier consists of one to hundreds of snippet processing blades, or S-Blades, where all the primary processing work of the appliance is executed. The S-Blades are intelligent processing nodes that make up the massively parallel processing (MPP) engine of the appliance. Each S-Blade is an independent server that contains multi-core Intel-based CPUs and Netezza’s proprietary multi-engine, high-throughput FPGAs. The S-Blade is composed of a standard blade-server combined with a special Netezza Database Accelerator card which snaps alongside the blade. Each S-Blade is, in turn, connected to multiple disk drives processing multiple data streams in parallel in TwinFin or Skimmer.
AMPP employs industry-standard interfaces (SQL, ODBC, JDBC, OLE DB) and provides load times in excess of 2 TB/hour and backup/restore data rates of more than 4 TB/hour.
In 2009, the company transitioned from PowerPC processors to Intel CPUs. In August, 2009, with the introduction of the 4th generation TwinFin product, Netezza moved from proprietary blades to IBM blades.
Customers
, the company's customer base includes Blue Cross Blue ShieldBlue Cross Blue Shield Association
The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association is a federation of 39 separate health insurance organizations and companies in the United States. Combined, they directly or indirectly provide health insurance to over 100 million Americans. The history of Blue Cross dates back to 1929, while the history of...
of Massachusetts, Capital Blue Cross of Harrisburg Pennsylvania, Con-way Freight
Con-way Freight
Headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Con-way Freight is a less-than-truckload motor carrier utilizing a network of freight service centers to provide regional, inter-regional and transcontinental less-than-truckload freight services throughout North America. The business unit provides...
, DataLogix, Epsilon, interCLICK, IntercontinentalExchange
IntercontinentalExchange
IntercontinentalExchange, Inc., known as ICE, is an American financial company that operates Internet-based marketplaces which trade futures and over-the-counter energy and commodity contracts as well as derivative financial products...
, Japan Medical Data Center, Kelley Blue Book, Marshfield Clinic, MediaMath, MetroPCS, MicroAd, MyLife.com
MyLife
MyLife is a social network service founded in 2002 by Jeffrey Tinsley after meeting his wife at their high school reunion. The company began with the acquisition of highschoolalumni.com and PlanetAlumni.com...
, NYSE Euronext, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Safeway
Safeway Inc.
Safeway Inc. , a Fortune 500 company, is North America's second largest supermarket chain after The Kroger Co., with, as of December 2010, 1,694 stores located throughout the western and central United States and western Canada. It also operates some stores in the Mid-Atlantic region of the Eastern...
and The Nielsen Company.
In April 2010 the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) purchased a data warehouse and analytics appliance from Netezza as part of a $178m smart-grid project being funded by the US Department of Energy.
Netezza also holds an annual user conference called Enzee Universe which hosts technology tracks, case studies, trainings, and speakers such as Stephen L. Baker
Stephen L. Baker
Stephen L. Baker is an American journalist, author and blogger. His first published book, The Numerati, discusses the increasing role that data-mining plays in shaping politics, business, law enforcement, and even romance...
.
Competition
Netezza’s main competitors include Oracle ExadataOracle Exadata
Oracle Exadata is a database appliance with support for both OLTP and OLAP workloads. It was initially designed in collaboration between Oracle Corporation and Hewlett Packard where Oracle designed the database, operating system , and storage software whereas HP designed the hardware for it...
and Teradata
Teradata
Teradata Corporation is a vendor specializing in data warehousing and analytic applications. Its products are commonly used by companies to manage data warehouses for analytics and business intelligence purposes. Teradata was formerly a division of NCR Corporation, with the spinoff from NCR on...
, and also include Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
, Sybase IQ
Sybase IQ
Sybase IQ is a relational database software system used for business intelligence and data warehousing, produced by Sybase.-Features:As a column-oriented DBMS, Sybase IQ stores data tables as sections of columns of data rather than as rows of data...
, Vertica
Vertica
Vertica Systems is an analytic database management software company. Vertica was founded in 2005 by database researcher Michael Stonebraker, and Andrew Palmer; its President and CEO is Christopher P. Lynch. HP announced it would acquire the company in February 2011. On March 22, 2011, HP completed...
, Aster Data Systems
Aster Data Systems
Aster Data Systems is a data management and analysis software company headquartered in San Carlos, California. It was founded in 2005 and acquired in 2011.-Products:...
and Greenplum
Greenplum
Greenplum is a database software company in San Mateo, California, specializing in enterprise data cloud solutions for large-scale data warehousing and analytics...
.
External links
- Official Home Page
- Netezza TwinFin Pricing - Netezza TwinFin base pricing and information
- Enzee Universe - Netezza user conference