VentureBeat

Database software company Greenplum says there’s a simple selling point that sets it apart from the competition: Greenplum databases are the biggest.

That’s particularly true with the recently unveiled Greenplum 3, said Luke Lonergan, a Greenplum co-founder and its chief technology officer. G3 can load more than 3.5 terabytes per hour, meaning it can handle data on a petabyte scale, well above anything that competitors like Teradata can offer, Lonergan said.

“With this release, we’re really hanging out our shingle and saying we can handle that Internet-scale data,” he said.

Storing and analyzing large amounts of data is crucial for many businesses, but it’s a real challenge online, Lonergan said, where Web sites can generate massive amounts of information. Some Web businesses have been leery of traditional databases because “they don’t scale,” Lonergan said, but several online companies are signing on to make use of Greenplum’s new technology. VideoEgg, for example, plans to use G3 to analyze user data and take that information to deliver targeted ads. Skype will use G3 to locate users who abuse the company’s Internet phone system.

Greenplum tried to develop a database of this scale for four years before getting it right, Lonergan said. For one thing, Greenplum is leveraging its relationship with Sun, and using Sun’s Thumper hardware to store data at a much greater density. Storing 400 terabytes takes 38 racks to accomplish using traditional technology, but with Sun’s hardware, Greenplum can store it in seven racks. Greenplum has also developed a set of algorithms that shuffle the data during processing and minimize waste.

Lonergan added that G3 — which is open source — is more flexible than most databases. For example, G3 software can be installed on various hardware systems, rather than being tied to a specific solution. And because G3 was developed using the PostgresSQL engine, Lonergan said it was easy for Greenplum to incorporate languages beyond SQL, making the database usable by a wider audience.

The announcement of G3’s availability follows a last month’s news that the San Mateo-based company raised $27 million in a third round of funding. (Read our coverage.)

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Tags: co:Greenplum