I just came across this information on the interwebz. The past's vision of the future always looks awkward from the POV of the actual current future. These are all applications I could pretty much build single-handedly on Full360's Data Platform in AWS.
The Winter Corporation, a consulting firm that specializes in large-scale databases, data warehousing, and strategic information management, conducts a yearly survey of large corporations and then announces winners in a number of VLDB categories. In 1997, the largest database was Knight Ridder's DIALOG, a text database, with 7 terabytes (seven thousand gigabytes) of storage. Replications of databases present in redundant array of independent disks (RAID) systems and mirror sites were discounted in the survey.
Our table summarizes their results for 1997:
| Category Winner | Application Type | Company | Type of System |
|---|---|---|---|
| Largest decision support system database: 7 terabytes |
Text search (DIALOG) | Knight Ridder Information | Proprietary system and Hitachi Data Systems hardware |
| Largest transaction database: 3.5 terabytes |
Package transit and delivery tracking | United Parcel Service | IBM DB2 database and IBM System/390 mainframe |
| Largest decision support UNIX database 2.4 terabytes |
Decision support | Wal-Mart Stores | NCR Teradata DBMS and NCR Worldmark |
| Largest transaction processing database on a UNIX system: 750 gigabytes |
Credit card, accounting and loan, and customer information services | Shin Han Bank | Informix XPS DBMS software and Hewlett-Packard 9000 hardware |
| Most rows in a database on a traditional platform: 100 billion rows |
Text search (DIALOG) | Knight Ridder Information | Proprietary system and Hitachi Data Systems hardware |
| Most rows in a transaction processing database on a traditional platform: 50 billion rows |
Customer billing system | Telstra | IBM DB2 database and IBM System/390 9021 processors |
| Most concurrent users in a traditional operating system: 2,500 users |
Decision support | K-Mart Corporation | NCR Teradata DBMS and a system 3600 |
| Most concurrent users in a UNIX database: 650 users |
Decision support | Wal-Mart Stores | NCR Teradata DBMS and NCR Worldmark |
| Largest federated database (databases that contain independently operated databases that own their own data): 822 gigabytes |
Audit trail for retail financial transactions | National Processing Company | Oracle on a Sun SPARC, HP 9000, and IBM RS/6000 servers |
I ran like hell away from raised floors and mainframe computers when I came out of college in the mid 80s, but they held dominance over UNIX systems for a dozen years after when it came to big data. I was always impressed with Britton Lee, which later became Teradata, but there was always a huge gap between the having of such data and the presentation of it to the minds that would make sense of it. Nothing is so foolish as Batman in his cave waiting for a printout from the Bat Computer, no matter how much the Boy Wonder assents. Caped data crusaders always get snagged in the real world when faced with Riddler and Jokers.
So I'm saying that it is the collaboration of minds with access to large data sets that make the big difference, not just data scientists sitting in their expensive hideouts plotting world domination. That's what's new and possible now that the cost of computing has come down and the ability to spread seven terabytes among hundreds or even thousands of analysts make for a new dynamic in decision making.
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