Netezza users and partners that attend Enzee Universe 2010 have the option to take one of three post-conference training courses, regularly valued at $1950.

• Netezza Data Warehouse Appliance Usage – for DBAs, system administrators, application developers and data warehouse architects that are new to Netezza
  
• Advanced Analytics Inside Netezza – a brand new, limited availability course that will show analytic developers and data miners how to write and use compute-intensive analytics within Netezza
  
• Mantra for Data Compliance – another newly available course to teach Netezza users how to leverage the Mantra product for data compliance

Space is limited, so register today to hold your spot.

Post-conference training will take place between 12 noon EST Wednesday, June 23 and 5pm EST Friday, June 25, 2010. Click here for more information about this year’s post-conference training courses.

Just when I was beginning to think Netezza's competitors were creeping in, those clever guys over at Netezza come out with a new data warehouse appliance named after a surfboard. Totally radical . I'm sure most people have asked at least one of these questions upon hearing the news:

1. Is TwinFin faster than NPS?
2. Is it cheaper?
3. What is different architecturally?
4. How much data can you cram into a TwinFin?
5. Where the heck did the "TwinFin" name come from?
6. Is this new appliance readily available to be shipped?
7. Is anyone using it yet?
   
8. When can I check it out for myself?
   

I decided to embark on a mission to answer these questions. And with the flurry of information that has gone out this week about the product, it actually wasn't very difficult to find the answers. So I figured I'd share...

1. Yes, TwinFin is faster than NPS. According to Curt Monash's blog, TwinFin delivers an immediate increase in price-performance, based on a 3X cut in price/terabyte and a 3-5X improvement in mixed workload performance.
2. Again, yes, TwinFin is cheaper. Several media outlets have reported that TwinFin offers a reduced price point of $20K per TB of user data, including:
3. • ZDNet article by Larry Dignan: Netezza launches new data warehouse appliance family
   • Xconomy Boston article by Wade Roush: Netezza Pursues Broader Customer Base with Cheaper Data Storage Technology
   • Intelligent Enterprise article by Curt Monash: Netezza Is Changing its Hardware Architecture, Slashing Prices
   • ComputerWorld article by Eric Lai: Netezza to launch faster, cheaper data-warehousing appliance
4. Rather than attempt to explain the architecture of TwinFin myself, you're better off going directly to the source: Phil Francisco (Netezza's VP of Product Management & Product Marketing)'s blog
5. While it sounds like there will be several different variations of Netezza's new appliances, the TwinFin will scale into the petabytes according to this morning's Netezza press release.
6. One of Phil Francisco's blogs hints at this, but I've also heard a rumor that Tim Young will soon divulge the full meaning of "TwinFin" in his next Enzee Frenzy article.
7. According to the press release, the TwinFin appliance is available immediately, and Netezza already has systems in production with customers.
8. Yep. See answer to #6. Plus, word on the street is that customers already using TwinFin will be at Enzee Universe to talk about their experiences.
9. The TwinFin appliance will be on site at every Enzee Universe destination. I'm really excited to check it out - and you should be too! (Register today if you haven't already - registration is free for existing and prospective Netezza users.)

There are two other resources you should check out for more info on Netezza's latest and greatest product - especially if you're too lazy to read! The first is a "hip" new video that is presently posted to Netezza's home page. The second is a podcast where Phil Francisco shares his insight into the new product.

Enjoy - and I hope to see you all at Universe!

- Brian

I met with the Netezza folks this week, and their nutty marketing team updated me on all the stuff they're excited about doing in the next few months. Here's the low-down:

Over the next couple of weeks, keep your eyes peeled for the next issue of the Enzee Frenzy magazine. I'm sure the whole thing is going to be great... especially my own signature Brian Teasers cartoon at the back!

And I got a sneak preview of one of the big announcements that will be coming out in Frenzy -- instead of the annual Enzee Universe conference, Netezza is doing an Enzee Universe World Tour this year so people don't have to travel to them. So don't worry about missing out on the fun this year because your travel budget has been cut - Netezza is bringing the whole Universe to your doorstep! From what I understand, the tour will kick off at Netezza's base camp in Boston MA and then they'll travel to other cities around the US, followed by Europe and then out to Japan. And it gets even better - I get to join them for the entire World Tour! I better make sure my passport hasn't expired...

The other cool thing Netezza is doing for enzees is they're hosting a Netezza Partner Webinar series where, each month, a Netezza partner will talk about the cool stuff they're doing with Netezza and how it can help optimize NPS system performance, optimize business practices, and more. Very cool. All of the webinars will posted on the Enzee Events page on the enzee site, so check back there at least once a month!

One last thing - did you check out the Groups that have been added to this community site? Looks like they could be good places for subsets of the larger enzee community to exchange ideas about things they can all relate to.

Just throwing it out there... looks like they're just getting started but I'm sure they won't go very far without enzee participation!

Welcome to my blog! In this "Soundbytes from Brian" blog, you'll get to hear my thoughts and reports on hot topics to enzees, happenings in the data warehousing and BI industries, and other fun stuff that I think enzees around the globe care about. Hopefully you'll find this blog both entertaining and informative - and please comment so we can get some good discussions going!

My first posting has to do with - what else - the economy. Stop yawning - hopefully this enzee-oriented twist contains information that you care about! As we all know, the worldwide economy is shaping up to be a bear market for the bulk of 2009. So I’d feel overly optimistic saying that the BI/data warehousing industry will be a raging bull market this year.

But then again, when you listen to the experts, it’s hard not to think that we enzees may very well be sitting in the middle of 2009’s silver lining!

Here are a few words of wisdom that may convince you to jump on the BI/data warehousing bull market bandwagon:

• Stephen Swoyer from Enterprise Systems says: With market watchers Gartner Inc., IDC, and Forrester revisiting and revising their IT spending forecasts downward for 2009 and beyond, spending on business intelligence (BI) and data warehousing (DW) appear, paradoxically, to be holding steady or poised for growth.
• Dan Vesset and Brian McKnight from IDC report to Enterprise Systems:"[Our] analysis suggests that we are at the beginning of a new wave of business analytics deployments that will materialize over the next decade and will be focused on addressing two primary demands [i.e., an ability to handle both more data and more users]."
• Brian McDonough from IDC says: "As information access, analysis, and management software markets continue to adapt to changes in demand, IDC believes that these technologies will be increasingly deployed in the context of specific business processes. Making information actionable, rather than just accessible, is paramount to successfully competing in these markets in 2009.
• Jeff Gleason from Aegon USA Investment Management explained to InfoWorld: “… it's always tough times like now when we wish our enterprise architecture practice were more mature, that we didn't have so much redundancy, that system changes were easier and faster…”<!--[endif]-->
• David Stodder from Ventana Research explained to Intelligent Enterprise: “In the recent Ventana Research ‘Optimizing BI and Data Warehouse Performance’ research study, more than half (58%) of participants said they are experiencing sometimes nightmarish performance problems when they have to scale to run more complex queries, and nearly half (48%) said they have the same problem when scaling to load more data. As a result, they are canceling important queries when they simply run too long. Thus, it's not surprising that the study found that organizations are evaluating appliances and column-oriented databases to remedy problems in these areas."
• Eric Lai from ComputerWorld says that, according to a recent Forrester study: “The survey also found BI becoming ubiquitous, with almost 60% of respondents saying they were deploying BI, data warehousing or data integration tools across their enterprises."
• IDC Research reported in their 2009 predictions webinars: Companies across all industries – including the financial services! – will look to cut costs overall, but they’ll continue to invest in innovative BI solutions in 2009.

So, to all you enzees out there, breathe easy! I’m not going to lie – every industry will be tough in 2009 – but best-of-breed solutions in data warehousing and business intelligence, and the people that implement and run them, should be OK. Knock on wood.

- Brian