Sybase Inc wants us to believe that its so-called Data Mall initiative, which combines its massively-parallel shared-nothing technology with its IQ database query software running on IBM Corp RS/6000 SPs is actually something new. However, the company admitted it’s just IQ running on an RS/6000, but nevertheless, it’s a new concept. Sybase announced the availability of Sybase MPP on the SP system in July and Sybase IQ on AIX’s availability last week. For the uninitiated a Data Mall is a collection of Data Marts, which are usually well-defined subsets of data warehouses containing less than 50Gb of data that are implemented to address a specific problem. And just as most of us started to understand what they’re all about, Data Warehouses are old hat, or so Josh Bersin, Sybase’s group director of, you’ve guessed it, data warehousing systems would have us believe. They are yesterday’s solutions to the problems, he said. Sybase also announced general availability of its Quick-Start Data Mart for AIX, including tools from Carleton Corp, Brio Technology Inc, Cognos Software Inc, Business Objects SA and Informatica Corp (CI No 2,983). The last of those was announced last week. Informatica’s PowerMart client-server development tools are included in a bundle due out next quarter for $95,000. QuickStart DataMart for mainframes, which includes Carleton’s Passport data extraction software goes for $125,000. The bundle with just Brio, Cognos and Business Objects’ software is a vailable from Sybase. No prices were given. Sybase IQ on AIX costs $32,000.
