Teradata targets AWS and Azure with new data analytics platform
Live from Teradata Partners Conference 2017 in Anaheim, California
US-based Teradata has got Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Azure in its sights with the launch of Teradata Analytics Platform, offering a choice of analytic engines to get round the issue of siloes.
Oliver Ratzesberger, EVP and chief product officer at Teradata, says: “Many different users have many different analytic needs and this dynamic causes a proliferation of tools and approaches that are both costly and siloed.”
With its new platform, it incorporates a choice of analytic functions and engines, and an individual’s preferred tools and languages across data types.
At a media briefing in Anaheim, California, part of Teradata Partners Conference 2017 (22-26 October), attended by Banking Technology; Ratzesberger took aim at AWS and Azure by saying their platforms could not offer these choices.
He adds that the main things Teradata is hearing from its customers are that cloud is a “big topic” but the number of options for data is leaving clients “confused”.
Teradata clearly feels it can grab more of the market share by being bolder. And also in the media briefing, Victor Lund, president and CEO at Teradata, said the firm is more “flexible” than it was in the past.
According to Teradata, analysis of disparate data can require a “wide variety of tools and techniques, demanding that the analyst bounce between languages, data formats, user interfaces and completely different systems”. Relevant data must also be integrated and moved across systems.
With Teradata Analytics Platform, it has a single workflow, so users can switch between the most common interfaces and tools, including commercial and open source.
First, the platform will integrate Teradata and Aster technology (it bought this firm and its software in 2011). At a later unspecified date, the firm plans to integrate with engines such as Spark, TensorFlow, Gluon and Theano to provide access to algorithms, including those for artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning.
We are Everywhere
The platform is part of “Teradata Everywhere”, the firm’s new strategy timed for trumpeting at the Anaheim event, with four key components: “Analyze Anything” – namely with the new platform; “Deploy Anywhere” – including the Teradata Cloud, public clouds, on-premises on Teradata hardware or commodity hardware; “Buy Any Way” – pricing bundles, subscription-based licences and as-a-service options; and “Move Anytime” – i.e. software licence portability.
The theme for its 2017 show is “The Edge of Next”. As Ratzesberger said “you can’t predict the future”. However, its new launches, deals and ambitions show that it wants to prepare and profit for whatever may come.
Also today (23 October), Copenhagen-based Danske Bank has gone public on its deal with Think Big Analytics, the consulting arm of Teradata, to create and launch an artificial intelligence (AI) driven fraud detection platform.
In addition, it unveiled two other initiatives – Analytics-as-a-Service and a new software portfolio.
