IBM, Microsoft Go Big with Big Data Technology Offerings

This week both Armonk and Redmond had something to say about database technologies, Big Data, and Hadoop integration. First, IBM (NYSE: IBM) released its DB2 10 and InfoSphere 10 software. According to IBM, the new offerings integrate with Big Data systems, provides “faster insights” from unstructured data, and incorporates results from Hadoop-based systems with “real-time analysis of structured data.”

IBM designed DB2 10 and InfoSphere 10 with three IT objectives in mind: integration with Big Data systems, compression of data to prevent “storage sprawl,” and extraction — or “slicing” — of data from past, present and future time frames to avoid costly application code.

“Today’s growing data volumes make it tougher for clients to access the right data when they need it to stay competitive,” said Arvind Krishna, general manager, IBM Information Management, in a prepared statement. “IBM has advanced database and data warehouse technology to the point where data management can be automated and insights shared more broadly than ever before, freeing up decision makers and IT staff to focus on business growth.”

IBM is hosting its SmartCloud Symposium in San Francisco April 16-19, 2012. On our radar: IBM Docs, a cloud-based security suite to rival Google Docs and Microsoft Office 365. Also in the Bay Area that week will be the OpenStack Design Summit. Our Talkin’ Cloud blogging team will be covering both events.

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), meanwhile, this week made its new SQL 2012 database generally available. According to the press release, SQL 2012 offers new capabilities for “mission-critical workloads, business intelligence and hybrid IT across traditional data centers and public and private clouds.” Microsoft also released the second preview of its Hadoop-based service for Windows Azure, which Microsoft considers part of its “end-to-end roadmap for Big Data.”