Kickfire: Crunching Data Quickly
April 15, 2009
Reuters published “Kickfire Launches First Analytic Appliance for the Data Warehousing Mass Market” here. On the surface, Kickfire seems to be another player in the data management enabling business. Digging into the company’s Web site here reveals another angle–Kickfire is consumerizing high-end methods. The Reuters’ article said:
Kickfire’s revolutionary appliance delivers the industry`s highest performance per dollar spent. Starting at just $32,000, it makes the high-end capabilities of commercial database systems available to every organization. Combining the industry`s first SQL chip… and an advanced column-store engine with full ACID compliance, it achieves the industry`s best price/performance based on rigorous benchmark tests and ensures complete data integrity.
In my opinion, the Kickfire approach blends several innovations. First, the company uses proprietary silicon packaged in an appliance. Cloud based consumer business analytics are slowly gaining traction. The Kickfire appliance is a here-and-now solution. Second, the appliance eliminates some (not all) of the headaches associated with scaling for industry standard number crunching methods. The performance of the Kickfire appliance becomes available without choking other enterprise systems. Finally, Kickfire implements some data structure methods that breathes life into traditional Codd tables.
Kickfire, a privately-held firm, is backed by blue-chip venture capital firms: Accel Partners, Greylock Partners, The Mayfield Fund and Pinnacle Ventures.
Stephen Arnold, April 15, 2009
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