Bay Area Inbound Marketing Blog

Actian's Vectorwise vs Dell Data Warehouse QuickStart 1000 for SME

Posted by Laurie Monahan on Fri, Aug 10, 2012 @ 06:55 AM

Mid-size companies, like their larger counterparts, are becoming overwhelmed by a tsunami of data. They are storing data in different databases such as marketing analytics, inventory and supply chain records, e commerce, sales and CRM records, video, among others. 

They are storing so much data it becomes hard to derive any meaningful information from all the data they are paying to store.

Inexpensive mass storage hardware like SSDs and open source software like Hadoop are letting SMEs store massive amounts of data across multiple servers. But then how do they query the data, analyze it, and report their findings so that it becomes meaningful and aids in strategic business decisions and market advantage? How do they analyze massive amounts of data stored in different formats in different databases? This dilemna is known as Big Data.

The Big Data market is predicted to be in the billions of dollars over the next 3 years for obvious reasons. The good news for SMEs is there are new low-cost-easy-to-use-data-warehousing-and-data-management offerings out there from a variety of database manufacturers. Even Server hardware manufacturers like HP and Dell are coming on board by adding Enterprise Software Stacks to their hardware offerings to help you manage all that data.

This is article compares two of these affordable options: Actian’s Vectorwise Workgroup Edition Analytical Database Engine with the new Dell Quick Start 1000 Data Warehouse Appliance bundle, both targeted towards SME and Workgroups and the Big Data problem.

So Dell and Actian are addressing the same market, but this is where the similarities end between the two solutions. Let’s take a closer look at what you can get for $70K to buy Big Data Analytics…

Dell’s solution is focusing on a hardware appliance with a set of limited functionality “appliance version” software targeted towards SME. Actian is focused on record-breaking software that will run on your existing hardware.

Background on Vectorwise:

In 2010, Actian submitted Vectorwise for the Transaction Processing Performance Council’s Industry Standard TPC-H benchmark assessment for the first time. Since then, Vectorwise smashed every previous TPC-H@100GB (non-clustered) result by the largest margin ever recorded. On May 04, 2011 - Vectorwise, broke two TPC-H benchmark assessment for the across 300GB and 1TB data sets running Vectorwise on a Dell PowerEdge R910 server with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.0. Adding to its previous 100GB record-breaking benchmark, the new 300GB and 1TB benchmarks underscore improved scalability, delivering a solid foundation for real-time information retrieval and analysis as companies continue to grapple with increasing volumes of data.

Vectorwise was written from the ground up to leverage modern chips and memory. As a result, VW can process data exponentially faster than other relational databases and doesn’t require additional hardware, extensive tuning, complex schema designs, indices, aggregations, or OLAP cubes.

Vectorwise has certified interoperability with other major existing databases so you don’t have to migrate your data to take advantage of Vectorwise’s high-speed analytics engine to do queries, analysis and reports including: SAP, Microsoft SQL, Oracle and others. Vectorwise supports industry standard ANSI SQL and connectivity over JDBC, ODBC and .Net.

All commonly used Business Intelligence Software are certified and supported including Pentaho, Tableau, Yellowfin, MicroStrategy, Business Objects, Cognos, SAS, and others.

Some Background on the Dell Bundle:

Dell, like all HW manufacturers, is finding that profits no longer lie in just hardware alone but in the integration packages combining Hardware and Enterprise Software.

So, with this bundled offering, Dell is making a first run at entrance into the Business Intelligence Software market (albeit in a limited way) with its Boomi data integration SW. Dell will possibly use their recent acquisition of Quest Software for $2.4 billion, including it’s Business Intelligence Software, to try to deliver real business intelligence software to their data warehouse bundles sometime in the future.

What’s Included with the Dell Bundle:

• Dell Server Hardware, including Microsoft Windows R2 SP1 Enterprise Edition

• Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Data Warehouse Appliance Edition, but quoting InformationWeek: a Dell spokesperson said, “if customers already have SQL Server licenses on other servers, they can use those with the Quickstart Appliance, but even though Microsoft SQL Server 2012 is preinstalled and configured as part of the appliance, the appliance license does not include access to SQL Server Integration Services, Analysis Services, or Reporting Services. As for query and analysis, what most people think of when they hear 'BI', Dell said it recommends that those tools be run on a separate server."

• A one-year subscription to Dell Boomi (also limited functionality, not real BI Software).  Dell’s Boomi is described as a "lightweight, subscription-based data integration service." a Dell spokesperson told InformationWeek that "the subscription-based software includes a library of data connectors, visual integration tools, and a run-time execution engine."

•  It also includes the storage hardware (probably in the form of SSD cards) to support up to 5 terabytes of user data

• “Support services” to get up and going and a one-year checkup.

• Base Price Quick Start 1000 Appliance is $69,900 and requires an additional Server for BI Queries, Analysis, and Reporting

• Dell’s solution currently can manage up to 5 terabytes of data. Forrester and Gartner state that most companies (85%) now need or will ever need only up to 10 terabytes of data.

What’s Included with Actian’s WorkGroup Edition?

• 10x – 1,000x faster performance than other databases. Best performance, price/performance, and most energy-efficient database in the market.

• Certified on Dell, HP, Cisco and Lenovo servers. No additional hardware needed.

• Enterprise-class “Quick Start Support Program” to get you up and going in one day from a vendor with a proven track record to support mission-critical database applications for over 10,000 database customers world-wide.

• Faster project delivery: simply load data and start running queries instead of spending time and resources to carefully design, optimize and tune the database. Download a free version of Vectorwise at Actian and see for yourself.

Use of Vectorwise Workgroup Edition is restricted and designed to be an entry-level data analytical engine for SME:

• Supports: Windows 7, Windows 2008, up to 100 GB of Data, up to 10 Database Users, up to 4 Core Processors. List Price is USD $4,995 for a one year subscription.

Easy Migration to Vectorwise Enterprise Edition should you exeed the restrictions, today or in the future, pay as you grow:

• No theoretical limit to how much data you can manage, query, and report on. Everything included above plus Linux and other OS. Buy as much as you want.

• List price for Vectorwise Enterprise Edition is $10K per core (processor) on your server; 2 Core Minimum- 8 cores subscription $68K a year, includes support and all updates, no additional hardware needed. For more details contact Actian Sales.

• If you don’t own or want to own a server, Rackspace with Vectorwise is in the cloud so you can rent the hardware and buy your data analytics as SaaS.

When it comes to analyzing big data, only you and your customers can decide how quickly you want to access and analyze your data, and if you rather spend your money on lightning fast analytical database engine software or on additional hardware.

The opinions expressed are those of Bay Area Inbound and no other party.
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Sources: Dell, InformationWeek 2012, Gartner Data Warehouse Magic Quadrant Report, SAP, EMC, TPC-H, Microsoft, and Actian.

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Topics: Inbound Marketing, marketing analytics, Big Data, Dell Data Warehouse Quick Start 1000, Actian's Vectorwise, business intelligence software, BI Software, Data Warehouse, Quickstart 1000