Netezza releases Skimmer, an entry-level data warehouse appliance

As an entry-level data warehouse appliance with a $125,000 price tag, Netezza enters the thick of the data warehousing market—ready to take on Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle. The rational for this entry seems to be that "We're seeing customers starting to graduate to the need for high-performance data warehousing and data analytics," says Phil Francisco, Netezza's vice president, product management and product marketing and while "They are looking at vendors like Oracle and Teradata, and they are not finding solutions that they can afford."

Skimmer deploys preconfigured hardware and software where the hardware is based on Netezza's TwinFin architecture—combining proprietary database accelerator cards with commodity blade servers and storage. Having a shared architecture and software between Skimer and Netezza’s larger TwinFin appliance ensures development efforts will scale if and when needed.

This is good news as Forrester analyst James Kobielus confirms that "The days of rolling your own warehouse are numbered," where, "In today's market, it comes down to deciding which appliance from which vendor is right for your needs."