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Oracle Announces Next Generation of Data Warehousing
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Companies must take steps to ensure that the systems delivering information to decision-makers are aligned both with business activities and with corporate goals and objectives. The discipline that guides this is Performance Management.
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Summary
Oracle, a longtime provider of data warehousing products and technologies, is about to step up its efforts in that market. The next release of its database, Oracle 11g, due later this year, will provide improved data warehousing features. Perhaps more importantly, the company also plans to launch its first appliance initiative, which could result in hardware vendors offering embedded Oracle databases in their products. Both developments should improve the company’s already well-established position in the data warehousing market, and end-user organizations should be happy to hear that Oracle has not forgotten their needs. Ventana Research has been waiting for Oracle to take more progressive steps for data warehousing, and it appears to be gearing up to do so.
Assessment
Data warehousing is nothing new for Oracle; it has been a key supplier of data warehousing and supporting technologies since it began to focus on this industry segment in 1996. As this industry has matured over the last decade, Oracle has added features to support more sophisticated data warehousing and business intelligence (BI) requirements. The upcoming 11g release provides significant improvements in database manageability, very large databases (VLDBs), analytical processing and data mining, performance, scalability and BI caching.
Last year Oracle decided to bundle a basic set of data integration capabilities with Oracle Warehouse Builder and the Oracle 10g database. It also provided optional data quality and enterprise application connectors. However, because of its string of BI acquisitions, many observers have questioned whether Oracle Warehouse Builder remains a key component of the company’s data warehousing strategy. Through its Sunopsis acquisition, for instance, Oracle now offers Oracle Data Integrator. Oracle still sells Informatica, a BI application it acquired with Siebel Systems, and its recent acquisition of Hyperion has added more to its BI holdings. Our analysis shows that Oracle Warehouse Builder will continue to be a critical component of the underlying database technology, while the Sunopsis technology will play a larger role in addressing middleware and distributed BI platform requirements. Ventana Research believes that taken together, these acquisitions show Oracle is serious about providing whatever technology is required to integrate its products with third-party applications and tools.
Oracle is also aware that several rivals – including Datallegro, Netezza and Teradata – already offer data warehousing appliances or pre-integrated systems. In response to their continued growth, Oracle decided in late 2006 to launch an appliance effort of its own. Oracle has tried to re-energize its hardware partnerships to provide better support for preconfigured systems, but those partners have not executed in simplifying the purchasing of Oracle on their hardware. Oracle is also working with a number of hardware technology vendors to address this market need. One of those is a small vendor named Panta, which already has introduced an Oracle-based data appliance that will also be available to address data warehousing requirements. We expect that Oracle soon will announce partnerships with larger hardware vendors. This is critical for the company, since Sun and HP already have established alternative strategies for appliances, even as they continue to enjoy longstanding, mutually beneficial relationships with Oracle.
Market Impact
The data warehousing market continues to grow. The focus has shifted, however, to data warehouse hardware-based appliances that offer embedded and commercial databases and simplified administration and configuration. Oracle’s new 11g database and its embrace of data warehouse appliances are key parts of a new data warehousing strategy. HP’s recent announcement of NeoView – which brings back remnants of the historic Tandem team that was an early market provider in data warehousing– and Sun’s embrace of Greenplum’s open source data warehouse technology have raised many eyebrows. IBM has not yet entered the appliance market because it believes this product is not practical for midsize or large enterprises. The release of Oracle 11g and the company’s entry into the appliance market will surely make it more difficult for organizations to determine the right strategy to lower data warehousing costs and administration. Oracle also needs to simplify its data integration options, since this is critical to the success of any organization’s data warehouse implementation.
Recommendation
The need to manage ever-larger volumes of historical data will not go away. Oracle plans a larger market presence with Oracle 11g, which should give the company a significant technological lead over many rival providers. Oracle also has decided to support hardware vendors that want to embed its database in data warehouse appliances. Organizations that have had problems providing enough memory and processing power for data warehousing will welcome the Oracle 11g release. However, it will take time to know if Oracle’s appliance initiative will have as much impact on the market as Datallegro, Netezza and Teradata, which capitalized on appliance activities over the last 15 years. Ventana Research believes that because data warehousing is a critical component of organizations’ information management and BI strategies, they should examine all options that provide an appropriate return on investment, paying close attention to the total cost of ownership to ensure the business value of the investment.About the Author Mark is responsible for the overall direction of Ventana Research, and drives the global performance management research agenda, which covers both business and technology areas. He researches the specific areas of Workforce Performance Management and Business Process Management. He is also the Director of the Intelligent Business Performance Management Conference and the community editor of IntelligentBPM.com, the industry's first independent forum for information, news, and discussion about business performance management. An industry veteran with more than 17 years of industry experience in business and technology, before founding Ventana Research, Mark worked at companies including SAP, META Group, Oracle and IRI Software. Mark can be contacted at .
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