RE: IBM to buy analytics firm Netezza

> From: JonnyTDI@Usenet-News.net > Subject: Re: IBM to buy analytics firm Netezza > Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2010 10:05:26 +0100 > To: informix-list@iiug.org > > AFAIK, most of Netezza's actual brains trust is ex-Informix. They may be > > smiling today as they cash their share options, but I think they're all > > crying inside. > > > > :o) > > > > :'( > > Sign above the M25 "You are all lemmings"!! To OTC... yeah, there's a bunch of ex-Informixers and then ex-IBMers in the mix. I doubt that they are too pleased about getting reabsorbed by the borg having escaped its grasp. For those who don't understand their hesitation ... in Sales, at the first eBU, we the IFMXers were treated to an outdoor lunch buffet with Charlie Ills as the guest speaker. His message... you had one quarter to make your target. If you failed, you were put on probation. If you failed to make your number on the second quarter, you were let go. His reasoning? He had too many warm bodies in his sales force due to acquisitions and there was a lot of overlap. So his method was to scare the shite out of you and may the 'best man win'. You don't forget that lesson and you learn that its ok to do anything to make the sale, regardless if the deal sticks. (Yeah, it was part of my job to clean up some of these messes... again experiences you don't forget.) [I've cc'd Mills and Keesee so that they may better understand my attitude towards IBM having been on the short end of the stick. ;-) ] With respect to Netezza... You have a database appliance. That is you are selling a combination of hardware and software designed to work together to achieve a specific goal. IBM tried to offer what they called BCE. (I'll let the IBMers in IM try to explain that concept) BCE was a bust because while you were recommending a specific hardware package for DB2 (IDS? What's that? ;-P ) if a customer favored a different brand of SAN, you were screwed. Could you create a Netezza type appliance? Sure, but its a niche market. You'd be better off writing blades for IDS or completing arrowhead for XPS to tie in to a map/reduce framework like Hadoop. In fact Olsen a former Illustra/Informix guy heads up Cloudera. You do the math. ;-) And no, that doesn't mean IBM is going to do this. They don't have a product/program manager in IM heading up their Hadoop offering. That's being driven out of Emerging Tech in Triangle Part and the SOWs flow through IM as green dollars. (Again if you're not an IBMer and in or matrixed to S&D you wouldn't understand that implication.) [Note to Mills and Jerry: Yeah I know too much about IBM's internals and how deals really get done. ] The reason IBM's acquisition of Netezza makes sense is that it allows them to compete against Oracle's Exadata solution which Oracle is more effective in marketing than IBM is in marketing their servers, and now software. The irony is that IBM in part helped to create its own downfall. But that's a different story... The bottom line... expect to see a minority of key people at Netezza getting gold plated handcuffs and the rest getting tossed in the jungle. As to making a hardware appliance for IDS or XPS? Didn't you get the memo? That patient is on life support because IBM is obligated to keep IDS and XPS on life support. IBM supports IMS. Yet how many net new customers do they have? But hey! What do I know? ;-P -G PS. Jerry, unless you're just riding things out till retirement, you really should take the time to visit some clients in Chicago. I mean the ones that are left. On a side note... There are 107 members in the local Hadoop User group that was created a couple of months ago. There's even a Hadoop User Group formed in Cleveland OH. What's happening with the IDS groups? Kind of tells a very important story... critical mass.