July 2, 2009 - Aster Data Systems, a provider of high-performance database systems for data warehousing and analytics, has unveiled a new massively parallel (MPP) data warehousing appliance.
The new Aster MapReduce Data Warehouse Appliance – Express Edition pre-packages the Aster nCluster analytic database software on Dell hardware, along with an option to include MicroStrategy’s business intelligence software for up to one terabyte of user data. Aster also announced the availability of the Aster MapReduce Data Warehouse Appliance – Enterprise Edition, in sizes ranging from one terabyte to one petabyte of user data.
The differentiator for this product release in the appliance space is in its price point, which starts at $50,000. The company claims the product will change the economics of data warehousing by providing a ‘compute rich’ appliance on a lower-cost architecture that is also cheaper to administer and operate.
Forrester Research Analyst Jim Kobielus advises in a Tweet regarding the announcement that only a focus on dollars per usable terabyte enables apples-to-apples comparisons.
Mark Smith, Ventana Research CEO and EVP of research, blogs about this week’s announcements in the analytic database space. To be successful, Smith says, the technology must be simpler and significantly faster and cheaper than other providers in a crowded market.
Julie Langenkamp is editor-in-chief of Information Management. She can be reached at julie.langenkamp@sourcemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JulieLangenkamp.
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