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Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/27/mapreduce_holes/

Google's MapReduce suddenly not so backward

SQL tools plug gaps

By Phil Manchester

Posted in Developer, 27th August 2008 20:46 GMT

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What was seen as a major hole in Google's MapReduce [1] database technology has been plugged, not once but twice. In the same week.

Californian start-up Aster Data [2] and its more established rival Greenplum [3] have both launched SQL integration for MapReduce.

The lack of SQL tools was one of the main criticisms levelled [4] at MapReduce in January 2008 by database gurus Michael Stonebraker and David DeWitt. They hammered [5] MapReduce for its failure to offer SQL, describing - to the consternation of many - Google's offering as "a major step backwards" in database technology.

Aster Data, founded in 2005 by three ex-Stanford post-graduate students, brought its Aster nCluster massively parallel processing (MPP) database technology to market in May 2008. It counts MySpace and Aggregate Knowledge [6] as customers. Aster chief executive Mayank Bawa wrote in this blog [7] that nCluster brings the advantages of relational SQL to MapReduce's large-scale database.

Greenplum takes a slightly different tack, emphasising the "next-generation data warehouse" credentials of its database technology. Founded in 2003, its customers include Nasdaq, LinkedIn and Indian telco Reliance Communications. ®