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Name any enterprise application today, and it's a pretty safe bet that it's deployed on arelational database management system. Since the 1980s, RDBMS technology has been thego-to solution for storing and retrieving information about almost anything, from finances towidgets to people. Oracle (ORCL), IBM (IBM), and Microsoft (MSFT) are among the companiesleading the way; SAP and Teradata (TDC) are also competitors.
可以肯定的是，如今不管哪款企業(yè)級應(yīng)用，一定都會用到關(guān)系型數(shù)據(jù)庫管理系統(tǒng)（RDBMS）,。自從20世紀(jì)80年代以來,，無論信息類型是關(guān)于金融、小插件,，還是人員,，RDBMS就一直是存儲及恢復(fù)幾乎所有類型信息的首選方案,。甲骨文公司（Oracle）、IBM公司和微軟公司（Microsoft）無疑是業(yè)界翹楚,，SAP公司和天睿公司（Teradata）也是強(qiáng)勁的競爭者,。
Then big data came along. Newly exploding volumes of data made the limits of existingRDMBSes painfully clear. "Buyers now want, and expect, immediate answers to questions thatpreviously may have taken companies minutes, hours, days to answer," said Bruce Cleveland,a general partner with InterWest Partners.
隨后大數(shù)據(jù)橫空出世。爆炸式增長的海量新數(shù)據(jù)使目前RDBMS的局限一目了然,，也著實(shí)惱人,。風(fēng)投公司InterWest Partners普通合伙人布魯斯o克利夫蘭稱：“以前企業(yè)可能花上幾分鐘、幾小時(shí),、甚至好幾天來回答客戶的問題,，但今天,，客戶希望立即馬上就有答復(fù)。”
In a consumer-facing business, a buyer may want to know, "Is it in stock?" In a B2B business,the buyer may want to know, "What is your best price?" And they want to know immediately. "With data volumes increasing, companies have had two poor options: Either live withsub-optimal performance or 'scale up' their traditional databases using extremely expensivehardware," Cleveland added.
在面向消費(fèi)者的行業(yè)里,，客戶可能想了解“有現(xiàn)貨嗎,？”而在B2B行業(yè)里，客戶可能想知道“最優(yōu)惠的價(jià)格是多少,？”而且他們希望馬上就能獲得答案,。對此克利夫蘭補(bǔ)充稱：“隨著數(shù)據(jù)量的猛增，企業(yè)現(xiàn)在只有兩個(gè)次優(yōu)選擇：要么維持欠佳的業(yè)績,，要么用極其昂貴的硬件‘升級’傳統(tǒng)數(shù)據(jù)庫,。”
That's wher Splice Machine comes in. Much the way IBM recently announced a "scale out"storage offering that allows large companies to scale capabilities without massive investments,so Splice Machine aims to do the same thing for large databases.
Splice Machine正是抓住了這一契機(jī)。就像IBM公司最近宣布要“向外擴(kuò)展”存儲產(chǎn)品,，讓大公司無需巨額投資也能升級存儲能力一樣,，Splice Machine也瞄準(zhǔn)了大型數(shù)據(jù)庫提供類似服務(wù)。
'The best of both worlds'
兩全其美的方案
An alternative to today's RDBMSes, Splice Machine effectively combines traditional relationaldatabase technology with the scale-out capabilities of Hadoop, the de facto standard for bigdata architecture at Yahoo (YHOO), Facebook (FB), and most other major companies. wherasHadoop is best known for its power to perform batch analytics, Splice Machine focuses insteadon operational applications and real-time analytics.
作為目前RDBMS的替代方案,，Splice Machine有效地將傳統(tǒng)關(guān)系型數(shù)據(jù)技術(shù)與Hadoop向外擴(kuò)展的能力相結(jié)合,，而后者實(shí)際上正是雅虎公司（Yahoo）、Facebook公司及其他大企業(yè)大數(shù)據(jù)架構(gòu)的標(biāo)準(zhǔn),。盡管Hadoop以執(zhí)行批量分析而著稱,，但Splice Machine主攻的卻是業(yè)務(wù)應(yīng)用和實(shí)時(shí)分析。
"Splice Machine is aiming to turn the common wisdom on its head with a solution that combinesthe best of both worlds: The cost-effective, scale-out performance of Hadoop andcompatibility with common RDBMS/SQL processes -- such as data cleansing, customerroll-ups and ETL work -- and applications like Cognos, Unica, SAS and SPSS," Charles King, aprincipal analyst withPund-IT, said.
咨詢公司Pund-IT首席分析師查爾斯o金稱：“Splice Machine的目標(biāo)是顛覆傳統(tǒng)觀念,，提供一種充分結(jié)合兩大領(lǐng)域優(yōu)勢的解決方案,，也就是：Hadoop的經(jīng)濟(jì)實(shí)惠、向外擴(kuò)展的性能,，及其與通用RDBMS/SQL操作——如數(shù)據(jù)清理,、客戶上卷和提取轉(zhuǎn)換加載（ETL）——以及像Cognos, Unica, SAS和SPSS這類應(yīng)用的良好兼容性。”
Splice Machine's aim is to convince businesses to replace traditional databases such asMySQL and Oracle with their own, Cleveland said, with promises of high performance,accuracy, and reliability.
克利夫蘭表示,，Splice Machine的目標(biāo)是,，憑借高效能、精確性和可靠性等承諾,，說服企業(yè)客戶用他們的產(chǎn)品替換掉MySQL和Oracle這類傳統(tǒng)數(shù)據(jù)庫,。
"[Businesses] get high performance from scaling out onto clusters of inexpensive servers,"he said. "And because Splice Machine supports native SQL, companies can do this withouthaving to rewrite their applications."
他說：“（企業(yè)）可以通過將數(shù)據(jù)向外擴(kuò)展到相對廉價(jià)的服務(wù)器集群中獲得高效能。同時(shí),，由于SpliceMachine支持原生結(jié)構(gòu)化查詢語言（SQL）,，企業(yè)可以無須重寫應(yīng)用就能實(shí)現(xiàn)這一點(diǎn)。”
'Scalability nobody has been addressing'
“前所未有的可擴(kuò)展性”
Last week, Splice Machine -- which was founded two years ago and is backed by $19 million infunding from InterWest Partners and Mohr Davidow Ventures -- launched its Hadoop-baseddatabase into public beta. Fifteen companies already use the technology, including the SanAntonio, Texas-based marketing services company Harte Hanks. Splice Machine said HarteHanks observed improvement to the ratio of price to performance by more than 10xcompared with its existing Oracle RAC databases. (Splice Machine offers the standalone versionof its database on a freemium basis for testing; otherwise, it's $5,000 per node.)
Splice Machine創(chuàng)立于兩年前,，獲得了來自InterWest和Mohr Davidow Ventures兩家公司共計(jì)1900萬美元的投資,。上周，Splice Machine發(fā)布了基于Hadoop的公測版數(shù)據(jù)庫。已有15家公司采用了這項(xiàng)技術(shù),，包括德克薩斯州圣安東尼奧的營銷服務(wù)公司Harte Hanks,。Splice Machine稱，Harte Hanks發(fā)現(xiàn)與其現(xiàn)有的Oracle RAC數(shù)據(jù)庫相比,，系統(tǒng)的性價(jià)比提高了十倍多（Splice Machine提供的用于測試的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)版數(shù)據(jù)庫免費(fèi),；否則每個(gè)節(jié)點(diǎn)收費(fèi)5,000美元）。
"We think this will disrupt the $21 billion database market," Monte Zweben, Splice Machine'sco-founder and chief executive, told Fortune. (Gartner estimates the market to be worth $26billion and growing at nine percent annually.)
Splice Machine聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人兼首席執(zhí)行官蒙特o茲魏本告訴《財(cái)富》雜志（Fortune）：“我們認(rèn)為這款產(chǎn)品將顛覆價(jià)值210億美元的數(shù)據(jù)庫市場,。”【高德納公司（Gartner）則估計(jì)該市場價(jià)值為260億美元,，年增長率為9%】。
Previously, Zweben worked at the NASA Ames Research Center; he also founded Blue MartiniSoftware.
茲魏本早先效力于美國宇航局艾姆斯研究中心（NASA Ames Research Center）,，此前還創(chuàng)立過“藍(lán)色馬提尼軟件公司”（Blue Martini Software）,。
"The majority of competitors that are trying to apply this scale-out technology are focused onanalytical apps," Zweben said. "What we think may be more valuable is powering real-timeapps, wher a concurrent set of users are reading and writing to the database at the sametime. That's scalability nobody has been addressing, and that's what we do."
茲魏本稱：“大多數(shù)想要應(yīng)用這種向外擴(kuò)展技術(shù)的競爭對手都專注于分析應(yīng)用。而我們認(rèn)為更有價(jià)值的可能是支持實(shí)時(shí)應(yīng)用,，也就是同時(shí)在線的一組用戶在同一時(shí)間讀取,、寫入數(shù)據(jù)庫。這是無人曾涉足過的可擴(kuò)展性,，也正是我們現(xiàn)在的主攻方向,。”
'A category-disruptive company'
“一家顛覆業(yè)界的公司”
In many ways, Splice Machine democratizes what huge companies "with 50 Ph.Ds and countlessJava programmers" can do, said Bill Ericson, a general partner at Mohr Davidow, whichparticipated in the company's Series A and Series B financing rounds.
Mohr Davidow公司普通合伙人比爾o埃里克森稱，Splice Machine在很多方面讓那些“擁有50個(gè)博士和無數(shù)Java程序員”的大公司所能做的事普及化了,。這家公司參與了對Splice Machine的A輪及B輪投資,。
"One of the problems with these data-intensive technologies is, they work great if you havereally smart Ph.Ds but the average enterprise has limited resources," Ericson said. With SpliceMachine, "the costs are probably 10 to 25 percent of trying to do this with something likeOracle. Users don't have to buy all new software and all new tools, and not only do they saveon the fundamental infrastructure, but they don't have to throw out the window everythingthey built over the last 25 years."
他說：“現(xiàn)有這些數(shù)據(jù)密集型技術(shù)的一個(gè)問題是，如果企業(yè)擁有聰明絕頂?shù)牟┦?，這些技術(shù)就能大顯神通,，但一般企業(yè)的資源很有限，”而使用Splice Machine的產(chǎn)品后,，“成本只有用Oracle這類產(chǎn)品的10%到25%,。用戶沒必要購買所有的新軟件和新工具。他們不僅能省下大筆的基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施開銷,，而且不必拋棄過去25年來辛辛苦苦打造的一切,。”
Splice Machine's model "dramatically changes the economics of scaling databases," Clevelandsaid. "One of Splice Machine's customers had their queries speed up by three to seven timeswhile reducing costs by over 75% compared to their current database solution."
克利夫蘭稱,，Splice Machine的模式“極大地改變了數(shù)據(jù)庫擴(kuò)展的經(jīng)濟(jì)性,。Splice Machine的一位客戶反映，與其目前的數(shù)據(jù)庫解決方案相比,，他們現(xiàn)在的查詢速度提高了三到七倍,，同時(shí)成本卻降低了75%。”
For InterWest Partners -- which participated in Splice Machine's Series B -- the company is "anexample of investing in what we believe could be a category-disruptive company," he added. "Since Splice Machine supports standard SQL, it has the potential to replace -- disrupt -- thetraditional database suppliers by offering a low-cost, high-performance, scale-out databasesolution without companies having to rewrite their existing applications, which is what theNoSQL and NewSQL companies require in order to use their solutions. With Splice Machine, thesame programmers who wrote the existing SQL applications can easily and simply use SpliceMachine without any specialized skills or training."
他進(jìn)一步表示,，對InterWest Partners公司來說——它參與了Splice Machine的B輪投資——這家公司“正是我們深信將顛覆業(yè)界的典型企業(yè),。因?yàn)?span id="bryztqjovn" class="hcdict" word="Splice" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; ">Splice Machine支持標(biāo)準(zhǔn)SQL，它有潛力通過提供低成本、高效率,、向外擴(kuò)展的數(shù)據(jù)庫解決方案代替（或者說顛覆）傳統(tǒng)的數(shù)據(jù)庫供應(yīng)商,，而無需讓企業(yè)重寫現(xiàn)有應(yīng)用。相反,，要用NoSQL和NewSQL公司的解決方案,，就必須重寫現(xiàn)有應(yīng)用。依靠Splice Machine,，編寫現(xiàn)有SQL應(yīng)用的程序員可以無須具備任何專門技巧或培訓(xùn)就能輕松使用Splice Machine的解決方案,。”
A potential acquisition target
一個(gè)潛在的收購對象
It remains to be seen whether Splice Machine can deliver on its promises and whether RDBMSvendors have reason to worry, Pund-IT's King said.
Pund-IT公司的金表示，關(guān)于Splice Machine是否能兌現(xiàn)承諾,，以及RDBMS供應(yīng)商是否會因此憂心忡忡,，這兩點(diǎn)還有待觀察。
"The answer to the first is found in the accolades of the company's 15 pilot customers," hesaid. "Whether established vendors should be worried is harder to say. Any number ofalternative vendors have tried to shake up the RDBMS market without much success to showfor it."
他說：“從這家公司15家首先試用的客戶眾口一詞的贊揚(yáng)可以發(fā)現(xiàn),，它的確沒有說大話,。而傳統(tǒng)供應(yīng)商是不是該感到擔(dān)憂就不好說了。很多曾一度想撼動RDBMS市場的供應(yīng)商都鎩羽而歸,，乏善可陳,。”
Still, organizations are searching for ways to save money while supporting necessary businessapplications and processes, King said. Which means Splice Machine could be the subject ofmuch interest.
金表示，很多企業(yè)在支持必要的業(yè)務(wù)應(yīng)用和流程的同時(shí),，還在設(shè)法節(jié)約成本,。這就意味著Splice Machine將會成為很多公司青睞的對象。
"If it truly can deliver the goods, the company could do very well," King said. "[It could] evenbecome an acquisition target by a traditional RDBMS vendor that wishes to capture a bitmore big data magic while making life difficult for its competitors."
金說：“如果這家公司確實(shí)能交付好的產(chǎn)品,，它肯定會蒸蒸日上,。它甚至?xí)蔀閭鹘y(tǒng)RDBMS企業(yè)的收購目標(biāo)，因?yàn)檫@些企業(yè)既希望獲得更多大數(shù)據(jù)技術(shù)的魔力,，同時(shí)又讓自己對手的日子不好過,。”
