database

EMC has announced it will acquire Greenplum, a data warehousing and business analytics software firm for an undisclosed sum. EMC will use this acquisition to form the basis of a new Data Computing Products Division led by Bill Cook, CEO of Greenplum, who will report to Pat Gelsinger, COO of EMC's Information Infrastructure Products. To put that statement into perspective, Backup and Recovery Solutions (where Data Domain and other related acquisitions now live) is also a separate EMC division reporting to Gelsinger. BRS is a big division with a lot of products. Therefore, I think one can safely bet … Read more

One of the hardest parts about large written projects--academic papers, reports, books, and the like--is keeping large amounts of information organized and accessible. TreePad X Enterprise 12 Gb Single-user combines both word processing and database functions to make it easy to organize--and reorganize--all sorts of written information.

The program's interface is cluttered at first glance, with three rows of buttons across the top. We weren't quite sure how to get started, but a visit to the program's online Quick Start Guide clued us in, and the program quickly started to make sense once we started working with … Read more

The massive amounts of data being created on the Web and the rise of cloud computing together make an ideal environment for alternative database technologies to thrive. And the Web is often proving to be just an entry point for bleeding-edge technology to be tested out before it starts heading into the enterprise.

NoSQL databases and associated operational-data technologies based on nonrelational approaches to data management and manipulation continue to be top of mind for big Web shops and are slowly starting to make their way into enterprise IT infrastructure.

I've spoken with a number of vendors roaming the NoSQL space over the last few months and there seems to be one common thread that they push: traditional relational databases are expensive, bulky, and simply not ideal for this new era of Web technology.

On Wednesday, a new NoSQL database joins the fray: Membase. Launched as an open-source project under the Apache 2.0 license and co-sponsored by NorthScale, Zynga, and NHN (Korea's top online gaming portal), Membase is optimized for storing the data behind interactive Web applications.

Membase says it is 100 percent compatible with Memcached, the de facto standard for distributed object caching behind Web applications. Basically, Membase is as easy to use as Memcached but also stores data.

According to James Phillips, NorthScale co-founder and senior vice president of products, the thousands of organizations that use Memcached (18 of the top 20 most visited Web sites including Twitter, Facebook, and Google) have a demand for a solution that looks like Memcached but acts like a distributed, highly available, high-performance, elastic database technology. … Read more

Mac users have several good choices available when it comes to bibliography-management applications. Bookends is among the best, and its trial version certainly merits a look from anyone who spends much time working with large numbers of academic and technical citations. This app makes it easy to search for, download, and organize reference materials, as well as quickly create tightly formatted bibliographies in a variety of word processors--including excellent integration with Mellel and Word 2008.

You can search across and save documents from any standard source, from PubMed, JSTOR, and the Library of Congress to Amazon, Google Scholar, and even … Read more

Oracle said Thursday that it has bought database firewall vendor Secerno in a move designed to help customers better secure their databases.

Geared for both Oracle and non-Oracle databases, Secerno's DataWall firewall product analyzes how databases are accessed to allow database administrators to set up policies to control that access. Using active monitoring, the firewall can detect and block any suspicious attempts to hit the database, according to Secerno. The company also offers auditing features to help businesses make sure they're in compliance with regulatory standards.

With its focus on firewall security, Secerno has competed in the marketplace … Read more

A new company called Riptano recently launched to provide support and services for the Apache Cassandra project, a nonrelational open-source database designed for high performance that has a strong presence in Web shops like Twitter, Digg, and Reddit. I recently had the chance to chat with Matt Pfeil, founder of Riptano, and he provided some insight into the project and the new world of NoSQL database approaches.

What exactly is Cassandra and who uses it? Cassandra is a highly scalable, distributed, open source database. It's a top-level Apache project with committers from Riptano, Rackspace, Digg, Facebook, and others.

Cassandra … Read more

Apple-owned FileMaker on Tuesday unveiled the next major version of its database product, FileMaker Pro 11.

In a recent study, the company found that 80 percent of the people who look at FileMaker already have a task in mind. With this type of feedback, FileMaker set out to make the new version faster and more productive for new users.

"It's very much a back to basics release for us," Ryan Rosenberg, vice president of marketing and services at FileMaker, told CNET. "We think ease of use is the core proposition in a database."

To help … Read more

ContactKeeper isn't the sleekest, most stylish contact manager we've seen, but as a basic, easy-to-use program for keeping contacts up to date and in one place, it certainly fills the bill.

ContactKeeper's interface is sparse, but in a functional way. Intuitive buttons run across the top of the window for adding, opening, editing, and removing new contacts. Adding a contact is as easy as clicking the Add button and entering the name, address, date of birth, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and important notes for each new contact. Each new entry's details display clearly on the right … Read more

When a program is named something like OrangeCD Player, you'd think that said program would at a bare minimum be capable of playing CDs. But you'd be wrong. To our astonishment, OrangeCD Player seems unable to do the one task that is promised by both its name and description.

What is OrangeCD Player, if not a CD player? It seems to be simply a way to catalog your digital audio files. We inserted a CD, had the program scan it, and it created a database entry for the CD containing the cover art, track listing, and other album … Read more