Teradata Gives Business Analysts Direct Access to Big Data
Open source Apache Hadoop offers companies an inexpensive way to store the increasingly massive amounts of information they are capturing from data sources like Web logs, machine data and text. Yet standard business intelligence applications and tools do not offer users a simple means to access and analyze the data, meaning companies are challenged when trying to use Big Data to make business decisions.
Teradata today introduced Aster SQL-H software, which it says empowers business analysts to directly analyze Big Data stored in Hadoop without requiring MapReduce development skills or an understanding of how or where data is stored within HDFS.
Colin White, president of research and consulting company BI Research, called Teradata’s approach “a significant new development,” saying, “The benefit to customers is that they don’t have to retool their traditional BI department or staff-up a new, expensive programming team.”
Tasso Arygros, co-president, Teradata Aster, said Aster SQL-H is the first time in the industry that standard query language or SQL access can be transparently and seamlessly provided for Hadoop data.
Arygros said Teradata creates added business value by making many of the assets of its Aster MapReduce platform, including more than 50 pre-built MapReduce analytical applications and a patented SQL-MapReduce interface, available to analyze Hadoop data.
Aster SQL-H is a feature of Aster Database 5.0 software, which Teradata expects to be generally available in 2012’s third quarter.
Aster SQL-H leverages the open source Apache HCatalog project, which offers metadata to simplify access. Teradata partner Hortonworks is a contributor to the HCatalog project, and Aster SQL-H is a result of the Teradata-Hortonworks partnership which the two companies announced in February.
The Aster SQL-H capability is a new component of the broader Teradata Aster software portfolio, which also includes the Teradata Aster MapReduce Platform, Aster Database software, SQL-MapReduce, and the Aster MapReduce Analytics Portfolio. The software runs on the Aster MapReduce Appliance, which Teradata says is workload-specific to meet the demands of Big Data analytics.
Teradata is hosting a June 21 Webcast: Back to the Future – MapReduce, Hadoop & the Data Scientist.
Drew Robb is a writer who has been writing about IT, engineering, and other topics. Originating from Scotland, he currently resides in Florida. Highly skilled in rapid prototyping innovative and reliable systems. He has been an editor and professional writer full-time for more than 20 years. He works as a freelancer at Enterprise Apps Today, CIO Insight and other IT publications. He is also an editor-in chief of an international engineering journal. He enjoys solving data problems and learning abstractions that will allow for better infrastructure.
