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Regarding column-oriented databases (CDBMS), Text Search analytics, and how shouting “first!” doesn’t get you the gold

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Regarding column-oriented databases (CDBMS), Text Search analytics, and how shouting “first!” doesn’t get you the gold

On May 26, 2010, Posted by , In Mike Pilcher, With No Comments

Whether it’s column-based analytics or the Olympics, if running across the finish line yelling, “I’m first! Look at me! Look at me!” three hours after the race finished got you the gold, athletes would spend a lot of time developing their diaphragms and vocal chords, and much less time putting in real work on the track.



SAND announced full text search of our column-oriented database (CDBMS) in January 2008:

>“Another important feature of the new release is support for complex searches within unstructured FreeText fields, including SOUNDS LIKE, SPELLED LIKE, proximity searches for words within or beyond a specified distance, “concept” searches for synonyms, and “stem” searches that locate all words sharing a common stem. This new functionality extends the powerful analytic capabilities of SAND… to encompass the large blocks of unstructured text (such as email messages or notes) that are an increasingly important component of the data records in analytic databases.”

If you can deal with the dust and cobwebs, you can read the full release and feature set from 2008. Sybase just announced Text Search for IQ in 2010. That would be around eighteen months *after* SAND CDBMS.

What’s next, will the Sybase team remind us how row-level locking is a good idea?

I have previously mentioned the lack of focus by Sybase – the mobile company – on IQ would be proven over time and would become worse post-acquisition by SAP. If that’s the kind of innovation we can expect from our friends in Dublin, Ca, I think SAP may want to take a another look at the recent valuation.

To be fair, in this case Sybase IQ at least came in second. I am certain we will see others follow suit with this type of marketing. The columnar database market is heating up and Mike Stonebreaker’s Vertica is doing a great job of positioning their product, as is to be expected with Ray Lane involved.

But I have to wonder what will we see next? Perhaps a redefinition of the term “pioneer” to mean someone who finally shows up to climb Everest just when the helicopter tours start taking off?

For the record, SAND’s been focused on columnar databases since before most companies ever heard the term and we’ve crossed many lines first, including Text Search in column-based analytics.

Mike Pilcher

Chief Operating Officer

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