IT infrastructure giant EMC is intent on becoming a major force in the analytics/business intelligence market after acquiring a fast-growing provider of “big data” clouds and self-service analytics, Greenplum.
Greenplum will spearhead a new data computing product division within EMC’s Information Infrastructure business.
EMC said that new forms of data — massive amounts of it — are emerging more quickly than ever before, thanks to always-on networks, the web, a flood of consumer content, surveillance systems, sensors and the like.
In a recent report, IDC predicted that over the next 10 years the amount of digital data created annually will grow 44 fold. Companies are increasingly turning to new architectures and new tools to help make sense of this “big data” phenomenon.
Greenplum utilises a “shared-nothing” massively parallel processing (MPP) architecture that has been designed from the ground up for analytical processing using virtualised x86 infrastructure.
What Greenplum does
Greenplum is capable of delivering 10 to 100 times the performance of traditional database software at a dramatically lower cost. Data-driven businesses around the world, including Euronext, Skype, Equifax, T-Mobile and Fox Interactive Media have adopted Greenplum for sophisticated, high-performance data analytics.
“The data warehousing world is about to change. Greenplum’s massively-parallel, scale-out architecture, along with its self-service consumption model, has enabled it to separate itself from the incumbent players and emerge as the leader in this industry shift toward ‘big data’ analytics,” said Pat Gelsinger, president and chief operating officer, EMC Information Infrastructure Products.
“Greenplum’s market-leading technology combined with EMC’s virtualised private cloud infrastructure provides customers, today, with a best-of-breed solution for tomorrow’s ‘big-data’ challenges.”
The acquisition of Greenplum will be an all-cash transaction and is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2010, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.
Greenplum CEO on the company and EMC
Bill Cook, Greenplum CEO, said EMC and Greenplum bring extraordinary potential to customers at the intersection of `big data’ and sophisticated analytics.
“As technology and business partners, EMC and Greenplum witness daily the enthusiasm with which customers embrace how together we impact their businesses in very tangible, positive and meaningful ways. The technology speaks for itself. What energises us most now is EMC’s ability to open new doors of opportunity and accelerate delivery of our joint vision for the future.”
Scott McNealy, executive adviser to Greenplum, said EMC’s strength in the enterprise, and Greenplum’s push to fully transform data warehousing and business analytics, makes for a perfect fit.
“Together they are brilliantly bringing together the power of cloud computing, virtualisation, and social collaboration to help customers as they venture into the next phase of computing and business analytics,” McNealy said.
