Little Boxes Made of Ticky Tacky

tyoung — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 02:47:05 GMT

Why does Oracle insist on dragging around an empty Exadata cabinet to all their tradeshows? How does this help people learn about Exadata? Perhaps it helps you size up the system to determine if it will fit in a data center or underscores the point that when Oracle say hardware they know what they are talking about? Or perhaps it sets a new benchmark for demo'ing vaporware? One can imagine the Oracle booth bunnies saying: "and it has a door which opens like this...and then closes like this!"

For the last few years, lil' old Netezza routinely bring real kit to tradeshows - stuff intended for grown ups looking to solve real problems. We know booth visitors don't want to load up terabytes of data or break performance barriers with complex SQL, but for Netezza this is a case of putting our money where our mouth is. We don't talk about simplicity: we just show it. If we can set up a full blown 50TB machine in a couple of hours in a hostile environment like a tradeshow then think how this very visible simplicity benefit translates to time to value and cost reduction at your site?

Conversely, what does it say about a great big huge enormous vendor with infinite resources like Oracle that cannot set up their own live machine? Or even take one to a customer’s site. Perhaps it says that Oracle is a software company who in truth, know nothing about hardware? Perhaps it says that without an army of trained specialists working behind the scenes, this stuff just doesn't work so well? Or maybe Oracle has lost their innovative edge to such an extent that they truly believe opening and closing a cabinet door really is on the cusp?

In reality, embracing hardware - as Oracle is doing with Exadata - is a huge departure for them and don't underestimate the extent for them to screw this up. I can tell you anecdotally that the notion of "HARDWARE VENDORS ARE SCUM" was so ingrained in me at Oracle, that this was my only objection to joining Netezza several years after I left Oracle. I'm sure if you look closely at the Exadata box on the Oracle booth, it displays a sign that says: now wash your hands!

Meanwhile the little sign on the side of the Netezza cabinet just says: ours is real.

Crossing the Line

Little Boxes Made of Ticky Tacky