Newly emergingdata management and database technologies like analytic and NoSQL databases,Hadoop andMapReduceare gradually becoming mainstream alternatives to traditional relational databases -- especially for enterprises with highly data-intensive computing requirements, according to experts.
But with all of the vendor hype that inevitably accompanies game-changing software, enterprises can have a tough time figuring out whichnew database technologies -- if any -- are right for them.
To help out on this front, SeachDataManagement got on the phone with data management technology expertDavid Menninger, a vice president and research director with Ventana Research Inc. in Belmont, Calif. Menninger talked about the definitions, benefits and drawbacks of analytic databases, Hadoop and MapReduce, and he explained why NoSQL databases should probably be called “Not-only-SQL databases.”
Why do we keep hearing so much about analytic databases these days?
David Menninger: Analytic databases are appealing because they are SQL-based, so it’s the knowledge that you currently have about using Oracle or IBM or Teradata or whatever. You can apply that same SQL-based knowledge to these analytic databases. In the analytic database category, I would include columnar databases and MPP, [however, most analytic databases] include both...
Google announced today that it's acquisition of online video source YouTube has been completed as expected. The search company paid an estimated $1.65 billion dollars in stock for YouTube and plans to use its extensive advertising portfolio to generate revenue from the site.
What does this mean for those who advertise through Google?
It means the time is now to start thinking about and preparing for video advertising. Traditional varieties of ads are likely to appear on YouTube first. But as I mentioned yesterday and others are talking about elsewhere, online video is the next big corner of the web to be harnessed. The DoubleClick Touchpoints study backs the assertion that we're looking at the infancy of online video advertising today.
Google has been successful time and again in areas that others have not been. They revolutionized online text-based advertising and internet search. Are we poised to watch another Google revolution take place?
How will Google tackle the issue of video advertising? Can they succeed in finding a balance between successful marketing and unobtrusive advertising that consumers will tolerate?
Whatever the answer may be… I think we're in for an interesting ride. Do you...
Move over, Microsoft. This year Adobe took center stage for cybercriminal
At the beginning of this decade, Microsoft represented a cybercriminal's dream target: universally-used software, brimming with bugs ready to be exploited to hijack users' PCs. But as the software giant has slowly cleaned up its security flaws, hackers are looking toward another vendor whose products are nearly as ubiquitous and whose bounty of vulnerabilities are just being discovered: Adobe.According to Verisign's bug tracking division iDefense, 45 bugs in Adobe's ( ADBE - news - people ) Reader software were found by either cybersecurity researchers or malicious hackers this year and patched. In 2008, iDefense found 14 Reader bugs, double the number in 2007.Meanwhile, the number of bugs found in commonly-used Microsoft ( MSFT - news - people ) programs like Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player and Microsoft Office remained flat or dropped. Just 30 bugs were exposed in Internet Explorer compared with the same number last year, and 41 bugs were found in all of Microsoft's Office programs like PowerPoint, Word and Excel, down from 44 in 2008. When Forbes asked a group of cybersecurity researchers from security firms TippingPoint, iDefense and Qualys to...[More]
Posted at: 04:39 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
The Death of the PC
December 11, 2009
Well, not quite yet. But among corporate customers, the future is beginning to look very uncertain.In the science fiction staple of virtual reality, people live not in the real world but as ciphers inside a computer somewhere. That's analogous to what happens with the virtual desktops at Reed. To the user, Microsoft Windows looks just as it does coming from a PC. But the electronic desktop doesn't exactly reside on the desk.Switching to virtualized desktops is often expensive at the outset because the networking software is complicated. But the maintenance costs are a lot lower. When something goes wrong--say, a computer has a software error--Whetstone doesn't need to send someone from tech support out to the employee's desk. Instead, a technician simply logs on to the main computer and tinkers with the program running there. Whetstone expects to save 20%, or $2.4 million a year, off his technology expenses.Desktop virtualization is Act II of a tech shift that began earlier in the decade involving the servers that labor behind the scenes, running databases and hosting Web sites. While crucial to a company's operations, servers tend to be busy only in spurts, spending much of their time sitting...[More]
Posted at: 04:32 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
King of Pop Tops Search Engines
December 2, 2009
Michael Jackson was the most-searched phrase in 2009.BURLINGAME, Calif. -- It's official: Michael Jackson beat out Facebook, Twitter and swine flu as the most searched words in 2009 on Google, Yahoo! and Bing. The three search engines released their top searches of the year Monday and Tuesday.The death of Jackson in June focused global attention on the pop superstar. The number of people searching "Michael Jackson" at the time even caused a brief Internet slowdown and led Google ( GOOG - news - people ) to believe that its service experienced a cyber attack. While other U.S. pop culture references like Twilight sequel New Moon and singer Lady Gaga made it to Google's top 10, almost half of the list is populated with foreign terms, prompting some to observe that the Internet was experiencing "massive growth" outside of North America. Spanish social-networking site Tuenti and Turkish virtual world Sanalika ranked No. 3 and No. 5, respectively.
Posted at: 09:09 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
WHY IS THE JAPANESE DOMESTIC MARKET FADING OFF
November 28, 2009
Japanese mobile phone makers pin hopes on Google.TOKYO -- Japan's mobile-phone makers are hurting. A strong yen is sapping their exports, the financial meltdown has impoverished their customers, and their phones--heavy in features, loaded with wizardry--are too expensive and clunky to sell outside Japan. But the biggest problem is their shrinking, aging domestic market.In comes a potential savior that, while it doesn't share the handset makers' problems, does have a common solution: Google ( GOOG - news - people ). The Internet behemoth's new open-source operating system for mobile phones, Android, is being hailed as perhaps the only thing that can rescue the ailing Japanese manufacturers by helping them sell phones outside Japan. "We think Android is good for the device manufacturers because it gives them a way out," says Tom Moss, the Japanese-speaking attorney who runs the business side of Android for Google. Google hopes Android will attract more mobile phone users onto the Internet, meaning more money for the search-and-advertising behemoth. It's easier and cheaper to make a phone run on Android compared to a proprietary operating system. There are other open-source operating systems, like Symbian, but Android has the heft of Google behind... [More]
Posted at: 11:06 AM | 1 Comment | Add Comment | Permalink
In July we announced that we were working on Google Chrome OS, an open source operating system for people who spend most of their time on the web. Today we are open-sourcing the project as Chromium OS. We are doing this early, a year before Google Chrome OS will be ready for users, because we are eager to engage with partners, the open source community and developers. As with the Google Chrome browser, development will be done in the open from this point on. This means the code is free, accessible to anyone and open for contributions. The Chromium OS project includes our current code base, user interface experiments and some initial designs for ongoing development. This is the initial sketch and we will color it in over the course of the next year.
We want to take this opportunity to explain why we're excited about the project and how it is a fundamentally different model of computing.
First, it's all about the web. All apps are web apps. The entire experience takes place within the browser and there are no conventional desktop applications. This means users do not have to...[More]
Posted at: 10:53 AM | Permalink
