Teradata and Oracle Partner for Enterprise Analytics

Partnership will result in improved integration between Teradata Warehouse and Oracle's BI assets. Ever since Teradata Corp. spun off from parent company NCR Corp. late last year, it's been a gregarious partner. In fact, post-NCR, Teradata seems to have become even more ambitious on the partnership front.

At last month's TDWI Winter World conference in Las Vegas, for example, Teradata and SAS Institute Inc. touted a new technology partnership and jointly hosted a prominent conference event (see http://www.tdwi.org/News/display.aspx?ID=8813).

Just last week, Teradata signed an agreement -- an "expanded worldwide relationship" -- with Oracle Corp. to promote enterprise-wide analytics. Both companies promise to improve integration and interoperability between Teradata's DW stack and Oracle's BI and operational stack to improve customer insight into a wealth of detail data.

Industry watchers say it makes for a compelling pitch. "Teradata's expanded partnership with Oracle … will facilitate the ability of users to integrate Oracle's business intelligence software and solutions with Teradata's data warehouse technology," says Mike Schiff, a principal with BI consultancy MAS Strategies and a contributing analyst for data management with Current Analysis.

First, some background: Teradata officially expanded its channel relationship to include Oracle's Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Plus and Business Intelligence Analytic Applications. This is in addition to Teradata's current channel support for Oracle Data Integrator and Oracle Essbase (nee Hyperion). The upshot (for joint or prospective customers) is that the two partners can now tout optimized versions of Oracle's BI products running on Teradata.

It used to be that when you asked Teradata about which vendors it competes with in the high-end data warehousing market, the company named Oracle and IBM Corp. -- and not data warehouse appliance specialists Netezza Inc. or DATAllegro Corp. -- as its foremost rivals. What's Teradata doing partnering with an arch-competitor?

Schiff, for his part, doesn't see a show-stopping contradiction. "While Oracle and Teradata compete with each other in the high-end data warehouse database market, Oracle's BI technology can certainly be of value in non-Oracle database environments including Teradata's installed base," he points out.

Instead, Schiff says, Teradata's accord with Oracle demonstrates a kind of limberness on the part of the high-end data warehousing powerhouse, which -- lest we forget -- was itself an independent company before NCR acquired it 17 years ago.
"Teradata … has faced increased competition from general purpose database vendors … [that are] suitable for both query-intensive data warehouse environments and transaction-oriented operational systems," he concedes, adding that Teradata also markets analytic applications (including CRM, supply chain management, and performance management) that nominally compete with Oracle, too.

"While Teradata is highlighting its expanded partnership with Oracle, it also competes with Oracle in database technology, analytic applications, and master data management."

What does Teradata get out of the deal, then? Schiff sees a number of positives.

"[D]espite the risk of providing Oracle with an entry point into its installed base, this is a good relationship," he argues. "Teradata, prior to being acquired by Oracle, partnered with the companies that provide much of Oracle's current BI portfolio [namely, Hyperion and Siebel]. [It] will be able to highlight the 'openness' of its data warehouse platform and Oracle will be able to demonstrate that its BI technology is not necessarily dependent on an underlying Oracle database," Schiff continues.

"While the competition between the two companies will certainly remain strong, the expanded partnership between them should provide immediate benefits to both."

Author: Stephen Swoyer @ www.esj.com

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New Report on Oracle Corporation Gives an Insight into the Company’s Recent Growth

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c85968) has announced the addition of Datamonitor's new report: Oracle Corporation Japan - SWOT Analysis to their offering.

Our Oracle Corporation Japan - SWOT Analysis Company Profile is the essential source for top-level company data and information. The report examines the company’s key business structure and operations, history and products, and provides summary analysis of its key revenue lines and strategy.

Oracle Corporation Japan is a software and technology company that specializes in internet servers, business software and support systems. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Oracle Corporation, and develops and distributes Oracle software products and services in the Far East region. It is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan and employs about 1,710 people. -The company recorded revenues of JPY100,767 million (approximately $828.9 million) during the fiscal year ended May 2007, an increase of 10.1% over 2006. The operating profit of the company was JPY36,781 million (approximately $302.6 million) during fiscal year 2007, an increase of 14.5% over 2006. The net profit was JPY22,134 million (approximately $182.1 million) in fiscal year 2007, an increase of 16.6% over 2006.

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For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c85968

Source: Datamonitor

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Oracle slammed for its 'poor' patching

Oracle’ processes for patching databases were heavily criticised in a presentation at the European Computer Audit Control and Security Conference in Stockholm this week.

Karel Miko from Czech consultancy DCIT, speaking at the event said Oracle was five eyars behind Microsoft in dealing with the issue.

"When Microsoft announced Trustworthy Computing a lot of people laughed, but now you see a real difference," Miko said.

Microsoft offers central patch management tools that allow customers to see what patches are missing and so on, whereas Oracle doesn't, he added.

Oracle also doesn't make life easier for companies who want to keep their databases secure, according to Miko, by making it complex to download and install patches.

He also questioned Oracle’s approach to new vulnerabilities. "An independent consultant announces a vulnerability to Oracle. Three months go by, and nothing happens, six months, a year and still nothing. Oracle puts it in a queue and will solve it sometime, maybe," said Miko.

If customers put pressure on Oracle it might be prompted to improve, but Miko isn't holding his breath.

"Customers are very dependent on Oracle – its database is number one. If you have an application based on an Oracle's database there is no way to change, in maybe 90 percent of all cases," he said.

Databases were one of the hottest topics at the conference; no other product category had more sessions devoted to it. This follows damning surveys have revealed that even though Oracle has been adding patches and new security features many customers are not deploying them.

Miko said, "In my experience even some small enterprises have better administrators than large banks, and do a better job."

Author: Mikael Ricknäs @ www.computerworlduk.com

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