Aster Data Systems is a data management

Data management

Data management comprises all the disciplines related to managing data as a valuable resource.- Overview :The official definition provided by DAMA International, the professional organization for those in the data management profession, is: "Data Resource Management is the development and execution...

 and analysis

Analytics

Analytics is the application of computer technology, operational research, and statistics to solve problems in business and industry. Analytics is carried out within an information system: while, in the past, statistics and mathematics could be studied without computers and software, analytics has...

 software company headquartered in San Carlos, California

San Carlos, California

San Carlos is a city in San Mateo County, California, USA on the San Francisco Peninsula, about halfway between San Francisco and San Jose. It is an affluent small residential suburb located between Belmont to the north and Redwood City to the south. San Carlos' ZIP code is 94070, and it is within...

. It was founded in 2005 and acquired in 2011.

Products

Aster Data's nCluster is a massive parallel processing analytic database management system

Database management system

A database management system is a software package with computer programs that control the creation, maintenance, and use of a database. It allows organizations to conveniently develop databases for various applications by database administrators and other specialists. A database is an integrated...

 that runs on a cluster of commodity servers. The architecture of Aster nCluster is optimized for data warehousing and analytic applications, also called Online analytical processing (OLAP) as opposed to Online Transaction Processing

Online transaction processing

Online transaction processing, or OLTP, refers to a class of systems that facilitate and manage transaction-oriented applications, typically for data entry and retrieval transaction processing...

 (OLTP).
Aster Data created a framework called SQL-MapReduce that allows the Structured Query Language

SQL

SQL is a programming language designed for managing data in relational database management systems ....

 (SQL) to be used with the MapReduce

MapReduce

MapReduce is a software framework introduced by Google in 2004 to support distributed computing on large data sets on clusters of computers. Parts of the framework are patented in some countries....

 technology from Google

Google

Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...

.

History

Aster Data was co-founded in 2005 by Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

 graduate students George Candea, Mayank Bawa and Tasso Argyros.
It received funding from First Round Capital

First Round Capital

First Round Capital is a venture capital firm that specializes in providing seed-stage funding to technology companies. Managed by Josh Kopelman, Chris Fralic, Rob Hayes and Howard L. Morgan, the Philadelphia-based company typically provides seed-stage investment that ranges from $250,000 to $500,000...

, Sequoia Capital

Sequoia Capital

Sequoia Capital is a Californian venture capital firm located on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California. The Wall Street Journal has called Sequoia Capital "one of the highest-caliber venture firms", and noted that it is "one of Silicon Valley's most influential venture-capital firms"...

, Institutional Venture Partners

Institutional Venture Partners

Institutional Venture Partners is a US based private equity investment firm focusing on later-stage venture capital and growth equity investments. IVP is one of the oldest venture capital firms on Sand Hill Road founded by Reid W...

, Cambrian Ventures, Jafco Ventures as well as angel investor

Angel investor

An angel investor or angel is an affluent individual who provides capital for a business start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity...

s including Rajeev Motwani

Rajeev Motwani

Rajeev Motwani was a professor of Computer Science at Stanford University whose research focused on theoretical computer science. He was an early advisor and supporter of companies including Google and PayPal, and a special advisor to Sequoia Capital. He was a winner of the Gödel Prize in...

, Ron Conway

Ron Conway

Ron Conway is an American angel investor, often described as one of the "super angels". Conway is recognized as a strong networker and is based in Silicon Valley.-Early career:...

 and David Cheriton

David Cheriton

David Ross Cheriton is a Canadian-born computer science professor at Stanford University who has investments in technology companies...

.
It received first round of funding of $5 million in 2005, then a second round of $17 million in February 2009, and third round of $30 million in September 2010.

Teradata

Teradata

Teradata Corporation is a vendor specializing in data warehousing and analytic applications. Its products are commonly used by companies to manage data warehouses for analytics and business intelligence purposes. Teradata was formerly a division of NCR Corporation, with the spinoff from NCR on...

 had acquired an 11 percent ownership interest in Aster Data Systems in September 2010.
On March 3, 2011, Teradata agreed to pay an additional $263 million for the remaining ownership interest, net of debt and other expenses.
The acquisition completed in April 2011.
In September 2011 an "appliance" version of the product was announced, with the software pre-configured bundled with the hardware.

Clients and partners

An early large customer of Aster Data Systems was MySpace

MySpace

Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....

, which used the product primarily for clickstream

Clickstream

A clickstream is the recording of the parts of the screen a computer user clicks on while web browsing or using another software application. As the user clicks anywhere in the webpage or application, the action is logged on a client or inside the web server, as well as possibly the web browser,...

 analysis by 2008.
Other clients include comScore

ComScore

comScore is a Internet marketing research company providing marketing data and services to many of the Internet's largest businesses. comScore tracks all internet data on its surveyed computers in order to study online behavior....

, LinkedIn

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a business-related social networking site. Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. , LinkedIn reports more than 120 million registered users in more than 200 countries and territories. The site is available in English, French,...

, Share This, Intuit, Akamai

Akamai Technologies

Akamai Technologies, Inc. is an Internet content delivery network headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US.The company was founded in 1998 by then-MIT graduate student Daniel M. Lewin, and MIT Applied Mathematics professor Tom Leighton...

, and Full Tilt Poker

Full Tilt Poker

Full Tilt Poker is an online poker card room that opened in June 2004 with the involvement of poker professionals Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, Andy Bloch, Mike Matusow, Jennifer Harman and Chris Ferguson...

.

Aster Data Systems relies on partnerships with solution providers and technology companies to complement its nCluster database. Featured technology partners include Dell

Dell

Dell, Inc. is an American multinational information technology corporation based in 1 Dell Way, Round Rock, Texas, United States, that develops, sells and supports computers and related products and services. Bearing the name of its founder, Michael Dell, the company is one of the largest...

 for its hardware platform, MicroStrategy

MicroStrategy

MicroStrategy, Inc. , is a business intelligence software vendor. MicroStrategy's software enables leading organizations worldwide to analyze the vast amounts of data stored across their enterprises to make more strategic business decisions...

 to integrate MapReduce and business intelligence

Business intelligence

Business intelligence mainly refers to computer-based techniques used in identifying, extracting, and analyzing business data, such as sales revenue by products and/or departments, or by associated costs and incomes....

 software, and Informatica

Informatica

Informatica Corporation is a NASDAQ listed company with ticker INFA. Founded in 1993, its headquarters is in Redwood City, California. Founded by Diaz Nesamoney and Gaurav Dhillon...

's data integration software.

Recognition

Aster Data hosts the "Data Analytics Summit" (also known as the "Big Data Summit"), made up of regional events in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, Dallas, Burlingame, California

Burlingame, California

Burlingame is a city in San Mateo County, California. It is located on the San Francisco Peninsula and has a significant shoreline on San Francisco Bay. The city is named after diplomat Anson Burlingame. It is renowned for its many surviving examples of Victorian architecture, its affluence, and...

, and New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

.

Aster Data chief technical officer Tasso Argyros was named a "2011 Technology Pioneer" by the World Economic Forum

World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum is a Swiss non-profit foundation, based in Cologny, Geneva, best known for its annual meeting in Davos, a mountain resort in Graubünden, in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland....

 in the category of Information Technologies and New Media, and was positioned as a "Company to Watch" in 2010 by Intelligent Enterprise

Intelligent Enterprise (magazine)

Intelligent Enterprise was the title of a magazine for business and IT executives who develop and manage their companies' strategic enterprise systems. This magazine expanded on earlier intelligent enterprise concepts, focusing on analytical software tools and underlying technologies for...

's Editor's Choice.
It was ranked seventh on the 2011 "top 50 venture-funded companies" by the Wall Street Journal.

External links

• MicroStrategy World 2010 - Aster Data sponsoring and co-presenting with ShareThis