Teradata Ships Powerful Server for “Green” Data Warehousing

Uses less energy, coexists with multiple generations of servers to protect IT investment

DAYTON, Ohio – Teradata, a division of NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR), announced the availability of its Teradata 5500 Server, which uses approximately 75 percent less energy and coexists with multiple generations of Teradata servers thereby protecting the technology investment of customers. The Teradata 5500 Server supports Teradata® Warehouse 8.2, a suite of software, hardware and professional consulting services that helps businesses make smarter, more competitive decisions.

“The efficiency of the Teradata 5500 Server will provide Teradata customers with up to a 75 percent reduction in electricity usage for the same capability data warehouse as compared to Teradata servers of three to five years ago. That’s enough kilowatt-hours saved by one typical system to power 40 U.S. homes for one year. In addition, the 5500 Server reduces the floor space requirement by approximately 66 percent,” stated Scott Gnau, Teradata senior vice president and chief development officer. “Teradata constantly strives to improve the performance per watt of our servers. These improvements have been driven by Teradata’s commitment to operating our business in an environmentally sound manner worldwide.”

By dramatically reducing energy usage for the same system performance, Teradata has also reduced associated data center cooling and power delivery infrastructure costs by a similar ratio. In addition to lower energy-related cooling costs, the Teradata patented cabinet door design provides a 30 percent improvement in cabinet cooling efficiency over conventional
cabinet door designs. Cooling expenses are a major portion of data center costs because cooling computer equipment can consume the same amount of energy as powering the equipment.

The Teradata 5500 Server extends the capability to coexist with multiple generations of Teradata servers even further, which protects the technology investment made by Teradata customers. Coexistence is the ability to allow multiple generations of servers, each with a different level of processing power, to be connected into the same Teradata system with each generation processing a balanced, proportionate level of system workload. According to Gnau, “With Teradata, coexistence is not a myth. The ability of Teradata to coexist with multiple generations of servers outshines the other data warehouse vendors.”

According to Donald Feinberg of Gartner Group, “When IT executives are upgrading to new data warehouse servers, they shouldn’t have to swap out all of their older servers to introduce the new technology. The ability of older servers to successfully integrate with new servers would be at the top of my list to consider before selecting a data warehousing vendor.”

As a customer’s business grows, the Teradata 5500 Server can grow easily from a small powerhouse of hundreds of gigabytes up to a massive 4 petabyte-sized warehouse. Additionally, Teradata server platforms are highly available, providing continuous performance and reliable response times that enable the use of a Teradata solution in the most demanding of active data warehouse business-critical environments.

The Teradata 5500 Server maximizes system performance, especially that required for active data warehouses, by leveraging the Dual-Core Intel® Xeon® Processor 5100 technology with Extended Memory 64 Technology (EM64T).

“The Dual-Core Intel Xeon chip set is much more efficient at data warehouse workloads, as compared to the scientific workload oriented Intel Itanium chip touted by some nascent data warehouse vendors,” said Gnau.

The Teradata 5500 Server also leverages the EM64T functionality of the Intel Xeon processor to support both 32-bit and 64-bit based data warehouse solutions. Customers may select the 64-bit Linux or Windows Server 2003 and the 32-bit UNIX operating systems for the best fit in their enterprise.

The Teradata 5500 Server significantly improves customers’ capability to handle vastly expanded data volumes, heavier decision-support demands and complex mixed workloads. These mixed workloads include deep analytics for strategic intelligence as well as the real-time data load and immediate information access required to support companies’ business operations.