I don't normally devote a lot of space to a single company, but while researching to write about real-time business intelligence and analytics I ran across one I had never heard of before.
Vertica Systems specializes in databases that are built specifically for real-time and near real-time business intelligence and analytics. They claim database performance that is 50-1000 times faster than traditional data warehouses. How does Vertica accomplish this? In the most non-technical terms I can muster:
1. They organize the data differently than a traditional database, using a method called "columnar orientation." This makes it easier to get at just the data that are needed, faster than traditional queries.
2. They compress the data very aggressively. This allows them to, for example, store multiple copies of the same data sorted in different ways.
3. They store data for reading by queries differently than data to be written to the database, again to optimize the speed of data reads for queries.
4. They can take advantage of multiple processors on the database server.
5. Vertica wasn't designed to run on a specific kind of server hardware, but can run on anything that runs the Linux operating system. This should help hold down hardware costs.
Even though I hadn't heard of them, Vertica must be doing something right. They've quietly racked up an impressive client list that spans multiple industries. Clients include Twitter, Verizon, Bank of America, Comcast, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Sunoco, and most recently Groupon.
No comments:
Post a Comment