IBM rolls out first Netezza data analytics hardware appliance

IBM will release its first Netezza data analytics device, which the company claims can sort through 10 petabytes of data in minutes, at a special event tomorrow.

The IBM Netezza High Capacity Appliance uses asymmetric massively parallel processing (AMPP) architecture to crunch through large amounts of data and extract patterns and other useful snippets. The Netezza system uses customised field programmable gate arrays, which are built into blade processing systems to filter data feeds, and performs most compute functions in-memory for greater speed.

The entire system is built around a modular design, so users can scale up from a system capable of handling a few hundred gigabytes, to tens of petabytes, of data. Data is backed-up on multiple RAID storage systems, all components are hot-swappable, and the network fabric architecture can scale up to a thousand nodes.

"Kelley Blue Book will evaluate the new appliance to unlock the value of archived data in search of new ways to grow our business," said Karen Simmons, senior director of data warehousing at automotive vehicle valuation company Kelley Blue Book and a trial user of the system.

"This appliance allows organisations like ours to take a fresh look at our historical information and use the insights we gain for competitive advantage."

The device will be a big part of IBM's Big Data strategy to take a market-leading position in the growing field of data analysis. IBM has already spent $11bn on buying companies and technology to further this goal and is investing heavily in research and development.

IBM bought Netezza last year and has major expansion plans for the company. Previously, the company concentrated on the US market, but IBM will be selling this latest appliance in over 100 countries and, since taking over, has doubled the company's sales and research teams.

However it faces stiff competition from the rest of the market. Yesterday HP released an update to its Vertica platform and confirmed that it will be bringing out a similar appliance very shortly.

Meanwhile, Oracle's Exadata platforms continue to gain speed and customer traction and Larry Ellison has committed himself to making the company's presence felt in the large-scale analytics market.

EMC, too, has used its acquisition of Greenplum to bolster its own position in the market, and is working hard to integrate its big data platforms with VMware's technology to build more powerful and flexible data processing engines.