Carnac, the Magnificent

Do you ever get that deja vu feeling before it happens? So today has gone. Early this AM, I checked my email, and a new discussion popped up from one of the LinkedIn groups I follow (Insurance, blah blah). The OP stated, among other things, that in the data warehouse world 1) the relational database was bad and 2) data storage was too much. This led me to comment, as one might expect.

Here is the text:

A- with multi-processor/core/thread/massive memory/SSD machines cheaper than a Starbucks' latte, stars and snowflakes need no longer be the crutch of DW. High normal form databases, in orders of magnitude fewer bytes than flatfiles (still the typical structure in Insurance, alas), stars or snowflakes, are just far more capable than folks who haven't accepted Codd as their saviour will admit. Get rid of the bloat, and the database just flies

B- IBM, vendor to the legacy stars, now has SPSS and Texas Memory in-house. SPSS is the SQL friendly stat pack (so is R, but that's another episode), and Texas Memory by far and away the most experienced and capable developer of SSD. PREDICTION: IBM/DB2 will now find Codd and promote high normal form databases, for the simple reason that they now can make mucho dinero with that meme.

That bit of wisdom was posted a couple of hours ago. So what shows up in my inbox a couple of minutes ago, but a posting on a Database Developers group:

Next DB2 Tech Talk: Get smart on Realtime Operational Warehousing

Join us September 11 to learn more about the benefits and advantages of realtime operational warehousing as compared to non-realtime warehouses and standard database apps. You will also learn about new features in DB2 10 and InfoSphere Warehouse 10, including query performance enhancements and Continuous Data Ingest that are designed with the realtime operational warehouse in mind.

Now, I have to concede that neither this flyer nor the announcement itself mentions SSD or Texas Memory or SPSS. But for a two hour return on predictive investment, and I'll certainly argue now that SSD and SPSS will soon enough be part of the discussion, that ain't bad.