Netezza is the Urdu word for "results,"
and this Framingham, MA-based company is trying to deliver
just that by creating and marketing what it calls the first
"tera-scale" data server.
The purpose of the Netezza appliances, all part of the
Netezza Performance Server 8000 series, is to store massive
amounts of data and increase the volume of transactions. There
is increasingly a strain as companies tie together their
enterprise applications and platforms to create a real-time
enterprise and begin to perform increasingly more complex data
analysis.
According to Netezza, the pain in storing data lies in
these enterprises applying aging data storage techniques to
handle what has become terabytes of data. The company refers
to the act of applying these old techniques and applying quick
fixes as "patch working."
Netezza co-founder and CEO Jit Saxena says Netezza's
solution is solving a problem all large networks are faced
with: Besides building a real-time enterprise, part of the
issue is that companies are completing wireless additions to
their networks, and as the data grows the infrastructure
cannot keep up.
He says that current, general-purpose data center and
network appliances are not designed to deal with tera-scale
data problems. "The amount of money and time required to keep
up with data and analyses is too time-consuming and
expensive," says Saxena.
With what Saxena calls "tera-scale performance," users can
effectively and inexpensively collect data and analyze it in
real-time fashion.
Unlike competing storage products, Netezza is using
data-centric and task-specific appliances, whereas other
companies have to modify their appliances depending on their
intended use.
Implementation of Netezza appliances is easy, and
essentially "plug-and-play," Saxena says. Its appliances start
pricing at $650,000 and can cost up to a few million dollars.
Netezza customers lie in industries such as telecom,
wireless, financial services, government, and data analysis -
or really any large network that is providing a significant
amount of data in real-time.
Saxena looks to the federal government as an early client -
they are now increasingly "tracking things," and also to
financial services which need to "understand their customers
better."
He says telecom companies will see an ROI in six months,
and will also operate more efficiently.
Saxena says his companies' customer acquisitions over the
past year are a signifier of the company's success and
stability. "[The sector] is growing by leaps and bounds every
day."
Netezza had its last funding round in January 2002, when
the company raised a $20 million Series B round from Matrix
Partners and Charles River Ventures. Netezza funding totals
$28 million. Saxena says its next funding round would not
occur in the immediate future.
"This data problem is going to get worse," Says Saxena.
"Our appliance is the wave of the future; we are the first
with this tera-scale appliance."
Saxena previously founded and served as chairman and CEO of
Applix and was a senior director at Data General.
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