MPP Database Update

I noticed some folks reading through the Redshift category and noticed that I haven't written anything new for a while. So here's what's new:

1. We see that Redshift has improved its vacuum capabilities and added more functionality all around. It has improved its performance all around, but it hasn't changed its overall performance characteristics. Redshift is not fundamentally different after two years. It still behaves like Redshift when compared to Vertica, the other MPP columnar database we support at Full360.
2. We have been able to learn quite a bit more about tuning Redshift. Full360 will be offering this service soon. It's called Upshift and it is surely the most comprehensive performance evaluation available in the industry. 

I have to qualify all of this by saying that I personally work a lot more with Vertica than I do with Redshift. These two products may seem very similar but the details are often overwhelming. Fortunately we are developing a methodology that expresses the rules for optimization very well. So while the characterization I've made still holds true, there will be a growing number of exceptions and interesting circumstances. I call Vertica a magical sword. It is powerful, precise and it sharpens itself. I can cut intricate and delicate patterns, and chop hundreds of large heads. I call Redshift an ogre's club. It is massively powerful, brain dead simple to use and relatively inexpensive. So you basically have to look at your application and know whether or not it is a job for a club or a sword. Our methodology will tell you exactly which, but like I said, the devil is in the details and we are wrangling dozens of demons. 

The good news is that both products are improving at a good clip. Still, I confess I'm paying more attention to Vertica. I'm really impressed with the overview I got yesterday on Vertica 8. They've optimized some of their geospatial algorithms. They've incorporated several ML features directly into the core product. They've dramatically improved their integration with Hadoop, Spark and Kafka. They're claiming to perform 160% of Impala. So that's superb. Most importantly there is enthusiasm for the creation of the new company, which is less like Vertica getting sold to Microfocus and more like a rebirth of Microfocus itself who is, by the way, the owner of Suse Linux. The Vertica guys are thrilled that they'll be working for a software company. That means the upcoming integration with S3 is serious as is their priority on cloud implementations. All good.