Big data vs. traditional databases: Can you reproduce YouTube on Oracle’s Exadata?
Review of a report by Cowen & Co. analyst Peter Goldmacher on Big Data and traditional relational database vendors. Goldmacher is quoted as saying:
We believe the vast majority of data growth is coming in the form of data sets that are not well suited for traditional relational database vendors like Oracle. Not only is the data too unstructured and/or too voluminous for a traditional RDBMS, the software and hardware costs required to crunch through these new data sets using traditional RDBMS technology are prohibitive. To capitalize on the Big Data trend, a new breed of Big Data companies has emerged, leveraging commodity hardware, open source and proprietary technology to capture and analyze these new data sets. We believe the incumbent vendors are unlikely to be a major force in the Big Data trend primarily due to pricing issues and not a lack of technical know-how.
I doubt traditional relational database vendors like Oracle are going to be sitting targets for “…a new breed of Big Data companies….”
True, the “new breed” companies come without some of the licensing costs of traditional vendors, but licensing costs are only one factor in choosing a vendor.
The administrative and auditing requirements for large government contracts, for example, are likely only to be met by large traditional vendors.
And it is the skill with which Big Data is analyzed that makes it of interest to a customer. Skills that traditional vendors have in depth to bring to commodity hardware and open source technology.
Oracle, for example, could slowly replace its licensing revenue stream with a data analysis revenue stream that “new breed” vendors would find hard to match.
Or to paraphrase Shakespeare:
NewBreed:
“I can analyze Big Data.”
Oracle:
“Why, so can I, or so can any man; But will it be meaningful?”
(Henry IV, Part 1, Act III, Scene 1)
BTW, ZDNet forgot to mention in its coverage of this story that Peter Goldmacher worked for Oracle Corporation early in his career. His research coverage entry reads in part:
He started his career at Oracle, working for six years in variety of departments including sales ops, consulting, marketing, and finance, and he has also worked at BMC Software as Director, Corporate Planning and Strategy. (Accessed 10 June 2011, 11:00 AM, East Coast Time)
In the interest of fairness, I should point out that after Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems, they have sponsored my work as the OpenDocument Format (ODF) editor. I don’t speak on behalf of Oracle with regard to ODF, much less its other ventures. Their sponsorship simply enables me to devote time to the ODF project.