To enable analytic queries across multiple systems, with the ability to integrate and consume JSON data, and write and run non-SQL languages in-database, Teradata has launched Teradata Database 15 as well as a new software product called Teradata QueryGrid that provides virtual compute capability within and beyond the Teradata Unified Data Architecture. Teradata also announced Teradata Active Enterprise Data Warehouse 6750 platform, which the company says, can support companies’ most demanding real-time workloads.
Teradata Database 15, with QueryGrid Capability
Teradata Database 15, with QueryGrid capability, offers bi-directional data movement and pushdown processing to open-source Hadoop, Teradata Aster, and other databases. Queries can be initiated from the Teradata Database to access, filter, and return subsets of data from Hadoop, Aster, and other database environments to the Teradata Database for additional processing. The analysis can incorporate data from the Teradata Database and Hadoop.
The software product represents a rebranding of existing capability as well as new capabilities that allows users to do analytics across multiple systems all at once, explained Imad Birouty, program marketing manager, Teradata, during a recent interview. “Users really don’t care where the data is stored or how you are processing it, whether it is in a data warehouse, a relational database or Hadoop. All they want to do is submit their queries and get their results back - they are just focused on their business answers. We want to make that a reality - hide the technology as much as possible and make it seamless for users to get to all their data.”
Recognizing that customers have other technologies that are not within the Teradata UDA (Unified Data Architecture), said Birouty, QueryGrid allows customers to “run the right analytics on the right platform, use the features of different technologies for what they are good at and for what they hold.”
This approach has a number of key advantages, said Birouty. It minimizes data movement which takes time, and processes data where it resides. It also reduces data duplication.
With integrated processing, within one SQL statement users can have multiple systems doing work and returning a single result set to the users, said Birouty. And, the process is all done through SQL so users retain their skills and the tools they are used to using.
“The point of initiation is from either the Teradata Database or the Aster Database,” said Birouty, noting that so far, there are some bidirectional integrations with more to come. Using Teradata Database or Aster Database as the as point of initiation now, there is Teradata to Hadoop bidirectional integration, Aster Database to Teradata Database, and Teradata to Oracle, with more on the roadmap
These new capabilities answer longstanding requests from customers who for example may be restricted in data movement because of data governance rules, said Birouty. “And, now with things like Hadoop and big data it is not feasible to move the data around. The ability to process data where it resides makes a lot of sense.”
Expanded Support for JSON Data, More Scripting Languages, and 3-D Geospatial Temporal Analytics
Teradata also enables customers to add Java Script Object Notation (JSON) data to their data warehouse, which is significant since JSON is the primary language underpinning the Internet of Things. The Teradata Database now provides simultaneous schema-on-read and schema-on-write capability and customers can apply Teradata Database’s features and functionality to the analysis of JSON data.
“Data is being interchanged in JSON format all the time now; it has really become a de facto standard from sensors and equipment,” observed Alan Greenspan, product marketing manager, Teradata. Teradata now provides the ability to integrate JSON data into the Teradata database and the ability to process and analyze data that is in a JSON format together with other data that is in the data warehouse.
And, importantly, Greenspan commented, the combination of schema-on-read and schema-on-write gives businesses the flexibility to use data as it comes in. As soon as there is data available, the business can use it without changing the data warehouse, and with no impact on other applications, said Greenspan.
In other improvements, developers can also now select from a variety of scripting languages, including Perl, Ruby, Python, and R. Both application developers and business intelligence SQL programmers can develop, embed, and run their applications in-database taking advantage of the Teradata Database performance benefits, without extracting data to a siloed server. Teradata has also extended the three-dimensional (3-D) geospatial and temporal analytics in-database capability, and 3-D logic is now built into geospatial analytical functions, allowing users to ask 3-D-related business questions.
Teradata Active Enterprise Data Warehouse 6750 Platform
And finally, in a third major product announcement, the company introduced Teradata Active Enterprise Data Warehouse 6750 platform (Teradata Active EDW). “The Teradata Active EDW is the platform where Teradata allows users to operationalize all those great results they are getting in the Unified Data Architecture with QueryGrid,” noted, Jim Dietz, director of enterprise product marketing. According to Teradata, the Active EDW enables virtually unlimited concurrent users to run queries against as much as 61 petabytes of data.
In key new developments, the Teradata Active EDW, a single Teradata Active EDW cabinet can now accommodate eight times more main memory than the previous generation of two years ago, thereby accelerating real-time questions. To support consistent query experience, Teradata has added three times more flash memory in SSD than previous generations. And, the Active EDW achieves a 40% increase in data warehouse processing performance, supporting higher business query rates.
Teradata Database 15 is now available, with Teradata QueryGrid capabilities to be available in the third quarter, 2014.