New IBM Platform Rivals Oracle's Exadata

Wednesday IBM challenged Oracle's Exadata platform with the announcement of a new range of integrated systems for large-scale data analysis. According to the company, it is offering two solutions: the IBM pureScale Application System with POWER7 technology,and the Smart Analytics System for x86 and mainframe environments, both of which can analyze enormous amounts of data while also handling data intensive transactions--in real-time--at the same time.

"With IBM's new analytics systems, clients can now more effectively manage analytics and transactional workloads and extract data insight up to twenty times faster compared to competitive piece parts, for improved business outcomes," the company said. "These systems can also reduce storage space for structured and unstructured data by up to 80% percent with deep compression capabilities that shrink the data on disk, translating into significant energy-related cost savings for clients."

IBM said that its pureScale Application System merges POWER7-based servers with DB2 pureScale and WebSphere Application Server software. This combination is geared towards handling heavy transaction workloads such as smart utility grids. As for the Smart Analytics Systems, IBM will offer two variants: the 9600 model with System z, and the 5600 model with System x. Both analytics workload optimized systems include pre-tuned components "to speed deployment of powerful business analytics solutions in days," the company said.

The IBM Smart Analytics System 5600 (with System x) is now available for purchase. The 9600 model (with System z) and the IBM pureScale Application System won't be readily available until later this quarter (Q2).

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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.