REDMOND, Wash., Feb. 7, 2001 — Microsoft Corp., EMC Corp. Knosys Inc. and Unisys Corp. today announced a joint effort to deliver business intelligence solutions that meet the most complex analytic demands of large enterprises. Based on a real-world product sales analysis scenario, the companies have created the world’s largest multidimensional online analytical processing (OLAP) cube on their respective best-of-breed products. The OLAP cube offers performance and scalability equal to or exceeding mainframe and UNIX/RISC systems, signaling a new era in business intelligence technology. This end-to-end solution serves as a blueprint for businesses wanting to achieve high-performance data analysis solutions with unprecedented scalability, manageability and rapid return on investment.
This showcase solution, code-named
”
T 3 ,”
representing a terabyte of source data in a multidimensional cube, enables the integration, management and delivery of large amounts of dispersed data, demonstrating the unprecedented opportunity for extremely scalable data analysis solutions.
”
T 3 ” utilizes the Knosys ProClarity front-end tools, the Microsoft® SQL Server™
2000 data management and analysis solution, the processing power of a 32-way Unisys e-@ction Enterprise Server ES7000 and an information infrastructure based on an EMC Symmetrix 3830 Enterprise Storage System.
Hosted in the Microsoft Executive Briefing Center in Redmond,
”
T 3 ”
demonstrates unprecedented levels of real-world enterprise scalability with superior query response-time performance, manageability and total cost of ownership.
”
T 3 ”
models a real-world business scenario, storing 1.2 terabytes (from a 7.7 billion row data warehouse) of product sales source data into an OLAP cube. With more than 50 concurrent users issuing complex queries, the system delivers sub-second responses with a median of 0.02 seconds for warm cache queries and 0.08 seconds for cold cache queries.
”
T 3 ”
sets a new standard for ease of manageability. Unlike competing solutions, Microsoft SQL Server 2000 overcomes the common
“data explosion”
problem; instead the database efficiently compresses and stores the data, resulting in more-manageable OLAP cubes.
”
T 3 ”
demonstrates that the Microsoft, EMC, Knosys and Unisys solution can scale and perform to the needs of the largest enterprise customers and can be used to assist customers in developing their large, high-performance business intelligence solutions.
“It’s great to see several vendors collaborating to make this substantial investment that proves just how high MOLAP applications can scale — I wish other vendors making big claims would do the same,”
said Nigel Pendse, lead author of The OLAP Report ( http://www.olapreport.com ).
”
‘T 3 ‘ once and for all demolishes the longstanding myths that MOLAPs suffered from database explosion and could not scale to terabyte class, maintainable applications. Microsoft, EMC, Knosys and Unisys are to be congratulated on creating this record size, but still lightning fast, implementation.”
”
T 3 ”
was audited by very large database (VLDB) expert Richard Winter, president of Winter Corp. Results of the audit will be posted on the Microsoft Web site along with supporting documentation about the
”
T 3 ”
project at http://www.microsoft.com/sql/techinfo/terabytecube.htm .
”
The Microsoft ‘T 3 ‘ project has demonstrated a remarkable advance: excellent query performance for 50 concurrent users accessing a terabyte of data represented in full atomic detail in a multidimensional data store.”
Winter said.
”
The data is realistic; the queries are realistic, varied and include substantial analysis; and the test configuration has a robustness and completeness rarely seen in demonstration projects. ‘T 3 ‘ shows that Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services has significantly raised the bar for OLAP scalability and performance.”
The
”
T 3 ”
demo can be viewed by the public at The Data Warehousing Institute Show in Palm Springs, Calif., Feb. 27-28, and at the Intel Developer Forum in San Jose, Calif., Feb. 26-March 1.
About Unisys
Unisys is an e-business solutions company whose 37,000 employees help customers in 100 countries apply information technology to seize opportunities and overcome challenges of the Internet economy. Unisys people integrate and deliver the solutions, services, platforms and network infrastructure required by business and government to transform their organizations for success in this new era. The company offers a rich portfolio of Unisys e-@ction solutions for e-business based on its expertise in vertical industry solutions, network services, outsourcing, systems integration and multivendor support, coupled with enterprise-class server and related technologies. The primary vertical markets Unisys serves worldwide include financial services, transportation, communications, publishing and commercial sectors, as well as the public sector, including federal government customers. Unisys is headquartered in Blue Bell, Pa., in the greater Philadelphia area. For more information on the company, access the Unisys home page on the World Wide Web at http:www.unisys.com/. Investor information can be found at http://www.unisys.com/investor/ .
About Knosys
Founded in 1995, Knosys Inc. is a privately held company headquartered in Boise, Idaho, with European headquarters in the Netherlands. The ProClarity Analytical Platform provides a completely open, flexible and extensible front-end platform for the development of custom analytical applications around the Microsoft .NET platform, including SQL Server 2000. Clients include companies such as AT & T, Compaq, Ericsson, GE Capital, Hewlett Packard, L’Oreal, Nabisco, Nordstrom and Pfizer. Platform OEM customers include Best Software, Changepoint, Epicor, Great Plains, Infinium and Manugistics. For more information visit the Web site at http://www.knosysinc.com/ .
About EMC
EMC Corp. (NYSE
“EMC”
) is the world leader in information storage systems, software, networks and services, providing the information infrastructure for a connected world. Information about EMC’s products and services can be found at http://www.emc.com/ .
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.
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