Aster Data Extends Massively Parallel Database

The upgrade more tightly integrates SQL and MapReduce, which is a programming model that Google created for analyzing massive amounts of data. The new release also comes with pre-configured analytic applications dubbed Analytic Foundation, an enhanced management console, support for solid-state disk drive and the ability to load data faster.

According to Jon Bock, director of product marketing for Aster Data, the new release brings average data loading speeds up to about 4TB per hour.

The new release also adds a visual desktop development environment, based on Eclipse, that allows developers to test Aster Data applications on a local workstation before loading them on to a server.

The nCluster database is one of several emerging approaches to creating a database platform that allows IT organizations to analyze hundreds of terabytes of data. As more IT organizations find themselves being asked to find patterns in ever increasing data sets, the need for new approaches to managing data on that scale has given rise to an emerging new class of databases.

As these databases evolve, some of them are now adding some of the development capabilities, packaged applications and management tools associated with traditional databases.