The Giga Group, a US-based team of analysts, has given the recently released Red Brick 5.1 data warehouse database the thumbs up. Coming in for particular praise were the increased performance to be enjoyed in the new version. "This is great news for customers," says Aubrey van Aswegen, Data Futures GM at local Red Brick agent Software Futures. "It is yet another endorsement for the Red Brick approach to data warehousing, and very encouraging for us." In February Current Analysis, another team of analysts, also returned a healthy reportcard for Red Brick. Under the title "Red Brick Seeks Continued Momentum with Release 5.1", Giga posed the question: Will Red Brick`s new product release have a major impact?" The answer is a resounding "Yes", says the group. "With Version 5.1, Red Brick takes aim at multidimensional databases by implementing Vista, a new, extra-cost option for server-based computation and management of aggregates (summary tables used for better performance), a feature Microsoft has also targeted, although less aggressively, with its OLAP server. A focus on rapid innovation has served the firm well in the past, and this new release continues the tradition. Red Brick Vista includes an Aggregate Advisor which, like the wizard in Microsoft`s product, advises on which aggregates to create for best performance, based on usage history and statistics. "Red Brick`s optimiser, like those in most of today`s RDBMS products, has aggressive query rewrite capabilities. But Vista`s aggregate awareness redirects queries to aggregate tables when they exist, dramatically enhancing performance. A layer of metadata stores definitions of the aggregates for the optimiser`s use. TARGETjoin, a new join algorithm, has been added to accelerate complex queries with parallel bitmap join technology. "A new Windows-based Warehouse Administrator echoes the current trend toward enhanced management tools, with an emphasis on warehouse-related tasks and data partitioning, with wizards and what-if design support. Newly bundled copy management and reporting modules create a more complete package, and Red Brick has forged a partnership with BMC, resulting in the creation of a Red Brick-specific version of SQL-Back Track, a leading backup and recovery solution that brings it to parity with some of its bigger cousins. "Red Brick has crafted a clever strategy to generate additional revenue from existing as well as new accounts - customers who have built aggregate tables will find these new features result in significantly enhanced performance [,8 probability], and should investigate the purchase of this option. Both existing and new customers will find that the new utilities will help reduce the economic impact of maintenance and management. The firm needs to execute flawlessly to continue its recovery, but the management team has performed well so far, with several strong new hires in marketing and finance, and the sales force is motivated and well trained. These developments will help Red Brick bridge the gap while awaiting the release of new products for more complete data warehouse coverage later this year."
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