Highlighting the growing reliance on data warehousing as a critical element in business information solutions, NCR Corporation announced that it has more than tripled the number of customers with terabyte-sized data warehouses built with NCR`s Teradata database during the past year and a half.
In just 18 months, the group of NCR customers with at least one terabyte (one trillion bytes or 1,000 gigabytes) of total data warehousing disk capacity in their Teradata-based data warehouse has grown dramatically, jumping more than 360 percent from 14 to more than 50. These `Terabyte Hall of Fame` customers represent a wide array of industries with heavy concentrations in retail, financial, telecommunications, transportation and government and are truly global in scope, covering the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia/Pacific.
"This development not only speaks well for data warehousing in general, but underscores the strength of NCR`s large-scale data warehouse solutions," said Wade Gomes of data warehouse solutions for National Data Systems. "Data warehousing and decision support solutions have become absolutely crucial to how a company manages information as a competitive weapon, and therefore their ability to serve their customers."
`Terabyte Hall of Fame` Crosses All Industries
By harnessing huge amounts of corporate data, these Teradata customers have realized significant data warehousing benefits, including improved efficiency in operations and an improved focus on target customers and markets a combination that has resulted in an advantage in the marketplace.
Not surprisingly, retailers as a group lead the way in NCR`s `Terabyte Hall of Fame.` Wal*Mart, the nation`s largest retailer, with more than 2,700 stores, 600,000 associates and $104.8 billion in sales in fiscal 1997, currently has a massive 96-node, 16-terabyte system and a total warehouse capacity of 24-terabytes in place. Next in line is Sears, Roebuck and Co., Hoffman Estates, Ill., which had annual revenue in fiscal 1997 of $41.3 billion and currently has a 14-terabyte capacity data warehouse. Other members of the Terabyte `Hall of Fame` are retailers Kmart, with an 8-terabyte capacity data warehouse, and JCPenney, with 2.2-terabytes in its warehouse.
Rounding out the top 10 in the `Terabyte Hall of Fame` are: Reuters UK, Sagawa Express Mail Japan, U.S. Internal Revenue Service, Belgacom/Belgium, AT&T CMD, AT&T Business Markets Division, and France Telecom.
Some of the other NCR customers, who are leaders in their respective industries, with 1+ terabyte data warehouses include: American Airlines, Anthem Blue Cross, Army Airforce Exchange Services, Austrian PTA, Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway Co., Continental Airlines, CTIRCEAL/France, Delta Airlines/Transquest, ISETAN/Japan, Joshin Denki Co./Japan, LucentWINS, Lloyd`s TSB/UK, Merck Medco, Norfolk Southern RR, Siebu Stores/Tokyo, State of Michigan, Sumitomo/Japan, Tokai Bank/Japan, Union Pacific Railroad, and Qantas Airlines/Australia.
Driven by the scalable Teradata database and running on the WorldMark server platform family, NCR`s solutions allow customers to effectively and easily grow the data warehouse as their needs increase. But not all customers have the massive data needs of those in the `Terabyte Hall of Fame,` and NCR has addressed their needs on the other end of the scale with programs such as RightSTART.
Banco de Credito in Peru is an excellent example of a customer that is taking advantage of NCR`s scalable data warehouse solution. The Peruvian bank has started with a close to50 gigabyte Teradata data warehouse for its credit and marketing activities, and is positioned to easily expand the size of its warehouse as its needs grow.
"Scalability, which is the capability of a data warehouse to grow as a company grows, has always been the hallmark of NCR`s data warehouse systems," Harrington said. "We believe it shows NCR`s commitment to our customers` futures, not just their immediate needs."
To address the needs of customers on the smaller end of the scale, NCR has developed a program called RightSTART. This `starter` data warehouse program allows customers that want to quickly turn information into business insights and results for a small initial investment to implement a data warehousing solution that delivers quick Return on Investment (ROI), and yet is fully scalable as the demand for data and applications inevitably grows. In fact, many of NCR`s Right START customers have small data warehouse sites, as low as 20 gigabytes.
"Many of our RightSTART customers will certainly become members of the `Terabyte Hall of Fame` someday," Harrington said. "And when they do, we will be there to grow right with them."
Editors note
About NCR`s Teradata
The Data Warehouse Engine
Helping businesses gain new insights, NCR`s Teradata is the only database with the power and performance to answer any question, on any data, at any time.
Teradata provides industry-leading performance, unlimited scalability from 10 gigabytes to more than 100 terabytes, seamless connectivity and the lowest administration requirements of any database on the market. It employs a patented shared-nothing MPP (massively parallel processing) architecture that can be deployed on both SMP (symmetric multi-processing) and MPP hardware platforms. Teradata runs on UNIX, and will be available on Windows NT and Sun Solaris.
Teradata is also being enhanced to support complex data types and user-defined objects. Recent awards include Teradata being named to the prestigious 1998 `Database Dozen` listing prepared by the editors of Database Programming & Design, which honors companies that define the direction of the database industry; and Teradata won the `Most Valuable Product` Award in DBMS Magazine`s Readers` Choice Poll in November 1997.
Visit the NCR Teradata web site at: http://www.ncr.com/teradata
About NCR`s Scalable Data Warehouse Solutions
For more than 14 years, major companies around the world have been dramatically changing the way they transact business by using NCR`s industry-leading data warehouse solutions based on NCR`s Teradata database engine. Today, companies worldwide are using NCR-built data marts and data warehouses to help them do strategic planning, analyze customer trends, streamline operations, and stay ahead of their competitors.
As the market-share leader in data warehousing, NCR offers a competitively priced portfolio of data warehousing, data mart and data mining solutions to customers in all industries, including industry-specific solutions for retail, financial and communications customers. Based on an open systems framework, NCR`s data warehouse solutions consist of the scalable Teradata database, which was designed to analyze detail data; NCR WorldMark servers; and comprehensive data warehouse consulting services and support offerings, as well as best-in-class partner software and tools.
About NCR Corporation
NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR) is a recognized world leader in scalable data warehousing, self-service and store automation solutions for the retail, financial and communications industries and other select markets. NCR`s solutions are built on the foundation of the company`s long-established industry knowledge and consulting expertise, value-adding software, world-leading hardware technology, global customer support services and a complete line of consumable and media products. More information on NCR and its products can be found on the World Wide Web at: http://www.ncr.com.
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