Oracle Beware — Google Tests Cloud-Based Database

narramissic writes "On Tuesday, the same day Google held a press event to launch its Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook, the company quietly announced in its research team blog a new online database called Fusion Tables. Under the hood of Fusion Tables is data-spaces technology, which would 'allow Google to add to the conventional two-dimensional database tables a third coordinate with elements like product reviews, blog posts, Twitter messages and the like, as well as a fourth dimension of real-time updates,' according to Stephen E. Arnold, a technology and financial analyst. 'So now we have an n-cube, a four-dimensional space, and in that space we can now do new kinds of queries which create new kinds of products and new market opportunities,' said Arnold, whose research about this topic includes a study done for IDC last August. 'If you're IBM, Microsoft and Oracle, your worst nightmare is now visible.'"

Comments

Um... what?

[Estanislao Mart�nez]

How's this three dimensional stuff not just plain old OLAP?

Re:Um... what?

[smallfries]

Because it packs more hype into an n-cube, and fills a 4-dimensional space with marketing.

Come on, that's impressive guys, right?

Re:Um... what?

[AKAImBatman]

Because it packs more hype into an n-cube, and fills a 4-dimensional space with marketing.

That's why it's called a hype[r]cube. They'd call it a tesseract, but the reviewers kept asking how it helped with eye problems. ;-)

Joking aside, a cube is a data-mining/reporting concept that pre-computes a number of reporting relationships between data elements. Adding a "fourth-dimension" is usually what's referred to as a "slowly changing dimension". It's usually handled by adding time stamps denoting an active period for a record, then computing based on a time range.

I don't know if Google means the same thing here (probably not), but it sounds like the real breakthrough is a large-scale data space. Having worked with a few data space DBs, the concept lends itself well to the more organic nature of the Web. IMHO, it has the potential to succeed and offer a strong competitive advantage over traditional RDBMSes.

Today's RDBMSes are great, but the cost of adding new features to the application is extremely high. Data spaces sidestep the issue by allowing you to add data in whatever format you need. There are some rather obvious pitfalls (I can hear the DBAs screaming about data integrity already), but it matches the web development environment well. :-)

Merged?

[againjj]

'If you're IBM, Microsoft and Oracle, your worst nightmare is now visible.'

I didn't realize they had merged.

Re:Merged?

[just_another_sean]

'If you're IBM, Microsoft and Oracle, your worst nightmare is now visible.'

I didn't realize they had merged.

You just described my worst nightmare!

Dimensional nonsense?

[sakdoctor]

I don't get it. Relational databases are deficient, because they need twitter posts and the FOURTH DIMENSION of being able to update and insert data?

Worst nightmare indeed

[Adrian Lopez]

Twitter coordinates, n-Cubes, and four-dimensional spaces... in a cloud?

Gee... I'm glad it's not possible to die from a hype overdose.

Proprietary data?

[FranTaylor]

What company in their right mind is going to upload the crown jewels into someone else's computer?

To be fair

[Estanislao Mart�nez]

Looking over the actual Google blog announcement, this looks more like a case of the F article getting it all wrong. The "dimensionality" stuff is clearly not intended to be the innovation or selling point of Google's service; much less a differentiator relative to database vendors, who've had OLAP for ages.

The real selling points seem to be an easy UI, a lot of predefined public data sets available to combine and correlate with your own data, and the collaboration features.

Somebody is a bit prone to hyperbole

[sirwired]

I have a funny feeling Oracle, DB2, and MS SQL executives aren't exactly quivering in abject terror at the idea of a database with "a third coordinate with elements like product reviews, blog posts, Twitter messages and the like."

"Real time updates" are a new feature (and a "fourth dimension")? That's news to me... I thought batch-only updates went out with punchcards.

I'm pretty sure this Google thing has some interesting features, but I am equally sure that it has nothing to do with the buzzword-stuff from that marketing drone/"IT Consultant."

SirWired

Security Issue

[gubers33]

Although clouds are the hot topic right now they are nothing new. The concept as been around since the 1960s with the timesharing model. Clouds are definitely the thing of the future, and cloud security is going along with that trend. It is not that clouds can't be secured like any other network, it is that they can't be tested as easily as every other network. I mean other companies are working on cloud storage as well, the big one being EMC with Atmos. It is an intriguing concept, but get the cloud secure enough to put confidential information in it will be the deal breaker.