Exadata - Database Processing Moves into Storage

For the data warehouses having Terabytes of data, the key problem is moving the data from the large storage arrays into servers performing the processing - This is termed as the "Data Bandwidth Problem"

Oracle and HP came together and unveiled the new technology called Exadata - The key difference here is the query processing has moved nearer to the storage technology in the "programmable storage server"

This technology should eventually improve OLTP performance too....

Technology Transformation and Hiding

The latest trend seems to be "Hiding Technology" from business.
Various layers of virtualization, Service Oriented architecture and virtual appliances, automated transformation tools and testing tools are making this trend dominate the current technology market.

The custom business applications and ERP based applications turn more and more service oriented and reduce the dependency on the underlying technical infrastructure.

There will be more and more automation of testing and migration tools at the infrastructure layers let it be application server or the database technology. Does it mean are we going to have a virtual database and virtual application server?

The pay-as-you-go model of technology sourcing is already in. Along with the virtualization, renting model and fast transformation tools, each layer will hide the internal implementation and move towards a OPEN standard based model.

May be we are not very far from service providers providing, CPU capacity, MEMORY/Disk Storage, network bandwidth on a pay as you go model
also we should see further service providers putting these basic services together and providing technology like DB and application on the same model etc., as well as the top end business services like BI and analytics.

Let us wait and watch...