Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/27/mapreduce_holes/
Google's MapReduce suddenly not so backward
SQL tools plug gaps
Posted in Developer, 27th August 2008 20:46 GMT
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What was seen as a major hole in Google's MapReduce (http://labs.google.com/papers/mapreduce.html) database technology has been plugged, not once but twice. In the same week.
Californian start-up Aster Data (http://www.asterdata.com/index.html) and its more established rival Greenplum (http://www.greenplum.com/) have both launched SQL integration for MapReduce.
The lack of SQL tools was one of the main criticisms levelled (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/24/stonebraker_dewitt_mapreduce/) at MapReduce in January 2008 by database gurus Michael Stonebraker and David DeWitt. They hammered (http://www.databasecolumn.com/2008/01/mapreduce-a-major-step-back.html) 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 (http://www.aggregateknowledge.com/) as customers. Aster chief executive Mayank Bawa wrote in this blog (http://www.asterdata.com/blog/index.php/2008/08/25/announcing-in-database-mapreduce/) 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. ®