Today, ParAccel presented to the BBBT. There were several main components to the discussion with Rick Glick, VP of Technology and Applications and Kim Stanick, VP Marketing:
- Enabling Technology
- Applications to Business Analytics
Enabling Technology
One of the key aspects to the ParAccel message is that traditional enterprise data warehouses (EDWs) have always had the ability to build analytical logical models. But it was moving those analytical models to the physical implementation that cause issues for traditional row-based DBMS applications.
Now with ParAccel’s “software appliance” architecture for columnar-based DBMSs, EDWs can grow from the theoretical into the actual because now those models are possible due to the power and speed of the ParAccel database.
The particular area that I enjoyed was the ability to provide PCI compliance for implementations in finance and in particular telecommunications. In the past, I have seen IT departments “encourage” (read demand) PCI compliant level encryption for entire data tables based on the need to have a single column encrypted. ParAccel offers that ability on a column by column basis which allows for EDW implementers to make better decisions on where they would like to allocate their DBMS resources both in terms of disk space and processing power.
NOTE – I would liked to have seen/heard more about specific size/speed metrics from customer implementations on the PCI compliant encryption, but the answers I received provided comfort that the answers weren’t simply theoretical.
Business Analytical Applications
One of the topics brought up both “in the room” and “in the twitter-sphere” was about how it was entirely possible that the Voltaire quote, often often attributed to the late Senator Ted Kennedy, had direct application to perceived success of traditional EDWs:
The perfect is the enemy of the good. 
This quote implies that many EDWs in striving to be “perfect” in terms of data model design and being able to understand everything from “the things we know we know” all the way to the “unknowns we don’t know” often missed the opportunity to provide a very specific analytical ‘services’ to the business stakeholders of the EDW.
ParAccel aims to correct that issue with EDWs by using their enabling technology to solve some of the analytical issues facing businesses today whether that be associated with the EDW or the operational platforms that hold the raw data.
Again, a telecommunications application caught my eye. LatiNode’s Communications used ParAccel technology to prove out an active analytical business model for optimization in telecom network routing selections.
NOTE – In the interest of full disclosure… Despite LatiNode’s compelling application of telecom route optimization analytics, it appears that at least some of their success at telecom network optimization came via unscrupulous routes ( …no pun intended… ) and is now longer operating.
The ParAccel featured customer page provides more information on other specific analytical applications.
In Summary
ParAccel, in my humble opinion, is approaching the data analytics market in the right way. They are cautious in their customer “selection” and their product development. They aren’t necessarily attacking the ‘big boys’ of the DBMS world, but rather providing a clear alternative in particular areas to build their reputation and qualifications.
I look forward to hearing more about the customer successes of ParAccel and the “impossible” tasks that ParAccel enables as many industries move from traditional EDW implementations to more targeted, and potentially operational system oriented, analytical applications.
