Sybase IQ
Encyclopedia
Sybase IQ is a relational database
software system used for business intelligence
and data warehousing
, produced by Sybase
.
, Sybase IQ stores data tables as sections of columns of data rather than as rows of data. This has a number of advantages; if a search is being done for items matching a particular value in a column of data, only the storage objects corresponding to that data column within the table need to be accessed. A traditional row-based database would have to read the whole table top to bottom.
Additionally, the column-based storage enables IQ to compress data efficiently on the fly; as each column is made up of a number of records of the same data type and size, compression can be very efficient and rapid.
In July 2007, at Sun Microsystems
' request, InfoSizing verified the population and performance of the world's largest data warehouse
implemented in history; consisting of over one petabyte
(1,000 terabytes) of structured and unstructured data, designed and implemented by BMMSoft using Solaris 10 OS
and Sybase IQ. Sun Microsystems
and Sybase
claim that the system architecture used in this benchmark is highly efficient, yielding a reduction in equipment and processing needed and thus a reduction in energy consumption
.
Since databases with limited domain
s (e.g., one that contains state names like VA, MD, WV, NJ, etc.) and high row counts are incidentally compressed
by storage in column form (as only one example of each value in the domain is stored), those types of databases can be stored using less space than those employing more traditional row storage. Sybase claimed that in the case of the BMMSoft data warehouse, their one petabyte
of raw transactional data (or 500 terabyte
s of transactional and 72 terabytes of multimedia
) was represented using only 260 terabytes of storage.
Sybase also has implementations for business intelligence
through a package offering of the Sybase IQ analytics server. In 2009, Sybase announced their package offering of Sybase IQ with MicroStrategy
's business intelligence (BI) software. The IDC
has noted that Sybase's close partnership with MicroStrategy allows Sybase to expand its BI services and support. Dan Vesset, vice president of business analytics at the IDC, has stated, "business intelligence and data warehousing offerings are expected to take on an increasing value in the present economic environment." Sybase CMO
Dr. Raj Nathan has expressed that this continued collaboration between the two companies will drive down deployment costs of report
ing and analytics
solutions for their enterprise software
customers.
Prior to version 15, Sybase IQ didn’t have automatic queues for requests of changing its objects, like other RDBMSes (SQL Server, Oracle, ASE, ASA, MYSQL, DB2, etc) do. Therefore, a DDL
/DML
statement may return an error if the target object is in use. Sybase IQ provides explicit lock table statement support that will allow behavior similar to traditional RDBMS, although the locking scheme is less granular. Since version 15, this behavior is configurable. A DDL/DML operation can wait until other active operations on the same object are complete.
Relational database
A relational database is a database that conforms to relational model theory. The software used in a relational database is called a relational database management system . Colloquial use of the term "relational database" may refer to the RDBMS software, or the relational database itself...
software system used for 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....
and data warehousing
Data warehouse
In computing, a data warehouse is a database used for reporting and analysis. The data stored in the warehouse is uploaded from the operational systems. The data may pass through an operational data store for additional operations before it is used in the DW for reporting.A data warehouse...
, produced by Sybase
Sybase
Sybase, an SAP company, is an enterprise software and services company offering software to manage, analyze, and mobilize information, using relational databases, analytics and data warehousing solutions and mobile applications development platforms....
.
Features
As a column-oriented DBMSColumn-oriented DBMS
A column-oriented DBMS is a database management system that stores its content by column rather than by row. This has advantages for data warehouses and library catalogues where aggregates are computed over large numbers of similar data items....
, Sybase IQ stores data tables as sections of columns of data rather than as rows of data. This has a number of advantages; if a search is being done for items matching a particular value in a column of data, only the storage objects corresponding to that data column within the table need to be accessed. A traditional row-based database would have to read the whole table top to bottom.
Additionally, the column-based storage enables IQ to compress data efficiently on the fly; as each column is made up of a number of records of the same data type and size, compression can be very efficient and rapid.
In July 2007, at Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
' request, InfoSizing verified the population and performance of the world's largest data warehouse
Data warehouse
In computing, a data warehouse is a database used for reporting and analysis. The data stored in the warehouse is uploaded from the operational systems. The data may pass through an operational data store for additional operations before it is used in the DW for reporting.A data warehouse...
implemented in history; consisting of over one petabyte
Petabyte
A petabyte is a unit of information equal to one quadrillion bytes, or 1000 terabytes. The unit symbol for the petabyte is PB...
(1,000 terabytes) of structured and unstructured data, designed and implemented by BMMSoft using Solaris 10 OS
Solaris Operating System
Solaris is a Unix operating system originally developed by Sun Microsystems. It superseded their earlier SunOS in 1993. Oracle Solaris, as it is now known, has been owned by Oracle Corporation since Oracle's acquisition of Sun in January 2010....
and Sybase IQ. Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
and Sybase
Sybase
Sybase, an SAP company, is an enterprise software and services company offering software to manage, analyze, and mobilize information, using relational databases, analytics and data warehousing solutions and mobile applications development platforms....
claim that the system architecture used in this benchmark is highly efficient, yielding a reduction in equipment and processing needed and thus a reduction in energy consumption
Energy consumption
Energy consumption is the consumption of energy or power. It is covered in the following articles and categories:* World energy consumption* Domestic energy consumption* Fuel efficiency in transportation* Electric energy consumption* Electricity generation...
.
Since databases with limited domain
Data domain
In data management and database analysis, a data domain refers to all the unique values which a data element may contain. The rule for determining the domain boundary may be as simple as a data type with an enumerated list of values....
s (e.g., one that contains state names like VA, MD, WV, NJ, etc.) and high row counts are incidentally compressed
Data compression
In computer science and information theory, data compression, source coding or bit-rate reduction is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation would use....
by storage in column form (as only one example of each value in the domain is stored), those types of databases can be stored using less space than those employing more traditional row storage. Sybase claimed that in the case of the BMMSoft data warehouse, their one petabyte
Petabyte
A petabyte is a unit of information equal to one quadrillion bytes, or 1000 terabytes. The unit symbol for the petabyte is PB...
of raw transactional data (or 500 terabyte
Terabyte
The terabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The prefix tera means 1012 in the International System of Units , and therefore 1 terabyte is , or 1 trillion bytes, or 1000 gigabytes. 1 terabyte in binary prefixes is 0.9095 tebibytes, or 931.32 gibibytes...
s of transactional and 72 terabytes of multimedia
Multimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
) was represented using only 260 terabytes of storage.
Sybase also has implementations for 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....
through a package offering of the Sybase IQ analytics server. In 2009, Sybase announced their package offering of Sybase IQ with 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...
's business intelligence (BI) software. The IDC
International Data Corporation
International Data Corporation is a market research and analysis firm specializing in information technology, telecommunications and consumer technology. IDC is a subsidiary of International Data Group...
has noted that Sybase's close partnership with MicroStrategy allows Sybase to expand its BI services and support. Dan Vesset, vice president of business analytics at the IDC, has stated, "business intelligence and data warehousing offerings are expected to take on an increasing value in the present economic environment." Sybase CMO
Chief marketing officer
Chief Marketing Officer is a corporate title referring to an executive responsible for various marketing activities in an organization...
Dr. Raj Nathan has expressed that this continued collaboration between the two companies will drive down deployment costs of report
Report
A report is a textual work made with the specific intention of relaying information or recounting certain events in a widely presentable form....
ing and analytics
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...
solutions for their enterprise software
Enterprise software
Enterprise software, also known as enterprise application software , is software used in organizations, such as in a business or government, contrary to software chosen by individuals...
customers.
Operating System compatibility
Sybase IQ has been certified on:- Sun Solaris 64 bit
- Red Hat LinuxRed Hat LinuxRed Hat Linux, assembled by the company Red Hat, was a popular Linux based operating system until its discontinuation in 2004.Red Hat Linux 1.0 was released on November 3, 1994...
64/32 bit - SuSE LinuxSUSE Linux distributionsSUSE Linux is a computer operating system. It is built on top of the open source Linux kernel and is distributed with system and application software from other open source projects. SUSE Linux is of German origin and mainly developed in Europe. The first version appeared in early 1994, making...
64/32 bit - HP-UXHP-UXHP-UX is Hewlett-Packard's proprietary implementation of the Unix operating system, based on UNIX System V and first released in 1984...
64 bit - HP-UX Itanium 64 bit
- IBM-AIX 64 bit
- WindowsMicrosoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
64/32 bit
Customers
Sybase IQ currently has over 1,700 customers and more than 3,100 installations worldwide. Sybase IQ is supporting thousands of users concurrently in analytics and data warehousing environments.Criticisms
Sybase IQ is optimized for data warehouse type applications, where data is added to databases but typically not modified much if at all, and the typical access is to search through the data. The column based storage which enables good performance for reading through data somewhat slows down writing data (instead of just the last data object requiring updating with a row object, one data object per table column must be updated). Large volume data imports can still be reasonably efficient.Prior to version 15, Sybase IQ didn’t have automatic queues for requests of changing its objects, like other RDBMSes (SQL Server, Oracle, ASE, ASA, MYSQL, DB2, etc) do. Therefore, a DDL
Data Definition Language
A data definition language or data description language is a syntax similar to a computer programming language for defining data structures, especially database schemas.-History:...
/DML
Data Manipulation Language
A data manipulation language is a family of syntax elements similar to a computer programming language used for inserting, deleting and updating data in a database...
statement may return an error if the target object is in use. Sybase IQ provides explicit lock table statement support that will allow behavior similar to traditional RDBMS, although the locking scheme is less granular. Since version 15, this behavior is configurable. A DDL/DML operation can wait until other active operations on the same object are complete.