As Enterprises Struggle with Data Growth and Complexity, SGI Unveils New Data Warehouse Solution for Oracle Users

Scalable Platform Optimized for Complex Decision Support Environments

SUNNYVALE, Calif., (June 2008) — Today’s enterprises face a constellation of challenges brought by soaring data volumes, increasingly complex analyses, multiple workflows, and ever larger populations of users. Those trends are bearing down on the data warehouses that organizations rely on to turn raw data into actionable insights.

Now, a new SGI® solution optimized for Oracle® data warehouses addresses the needs of this emerging class of enterprise customer. Built specifically for Complex Decision Support environments, the new data warehouse solution was launched today by SGI (NASDAQ: SGIC).

The new SGI® Adaptive Data Warehouse solution uses SGI technology first developed to deliver the performance, scalability and reliability needed for such data-intensive fields as battlefield intelligence, energy exploration, and weather modeling and forecasting.

With its ability to support bandwidth intensive applications, that same architecture shortens time to insight and boosts productivity for any customer analyzing data to solve highly complex, large-scale problems. Increasingly, those customers include online merchants who handle high-volume transactions, organizations running sophisticated pattern recognition software to catch identity thieves, and manufacturers whose complex decision support needs range from sales analysis to supply chain management.

The solution, launched as part of the Oracle Optimized Warehouse Initiative, combines industry-leading Oracle Database software with SGI® Altix® servers and SGI® InfiniteStorage systems in a platform that scales to meet the needs of customers whose requirements extend beyond the capabilities of traditional enterprise computers.

Capable of supporting data warehouses ranging from 4 Terabytes (TB) to more than 300TB, the SGI Adaptive Data Warehouse Solution allows organizations to conduct highly complex, ad-hoc queries up to five times faster¹ than competing platforms. By achieving insights sooner, enterprises can more readily adapt to changing business conditions and the demands of advanced business intelligence (BI) applications.

Furthermore, the SGI solution allows Oracle data warehouse customers to scale their I/O bandwidth without having to add unnecessary components. By leveraging the SGI Altix server architecture’s unique ability to independently scale I/O, CPUs and memory, customers can create a data warehouse that expands efficiently and economically as their requirements demand.

“Data volumes are exploding, workloads are increasingly varied and user communities are multiplying — and all of these trends are putting unprecedented pressure on data warehouses,” said Jean S. Bozman, research vice president, Enterprise Servers, IDC. “As data warehouses grow, and as more types of enterprise users need the data stored within them to make business-critical decisions, these large databases must cost-effectively scale to meet emerging needs. SGI has seen this mix of IT requirements evolving over time, spending decades developing systems that are optimized for large-scale decision support environments. SGI’s Adaptive Data Warehouse Solution draws on that history in a way that speaks to the needs of enterprises maintaining complex, data-intensive Oracle warehouses, while giving them the headroom to scale up as their needs change.”

By aggregating and organizing data from multiple sources, data warehouses help managers achieve an integrated view of critical business information. But, this in turn, creates increasingly large data repositories that can overwhelm the rigid architectures of competing data warehouses whose scalability limits lead to degraded performance that hinder timely decision-making.

“Enterprises are steadily increasing the workloads and content of their data warehouses, and this results in large increases in complexity,” said Richard Winter, president of WinterCorp, a leading independent consulting firm specializing in large scale data management. “The SGI Adaptive Data Warehouse Solution has the bandwidth to excel in these intense environments. This is a solution that thrives in the chaos of today’s data center.”

Other platforms often require expensive “forklift” upgrades, but the SGI Adaptive Data Warehouse Solution makes it easy and affordable to scale a data warehouse.

Integrating SGI Altix, InfiniteStorage and Oracle Real Application Clusters
The SGI Adaptive Data Warehouse Solution combines acclaimed SGI® Altix® servers and SGI® InfiniteStorage hardware and software with Oracle® Real Application Clusters. Energy-efficient SGI Altix servers, powered by Intel® processors, deliver uncompromised performance and the flexibility to execute thousands of commercial off-the-shelf applications. By using industry-standard components, SGI helps protect technology investments, reduce costs and simplify integration.

“The ability to make informed decisions quickly can literally determine the success or failure of a company, but that ability is often hindered by the growth and complexity faced by many of today’s enterprises,” said Ken Won, director of enterprise data management, SGI. “That’s why SGI collaborated with Oracle on a solution that addresses the escalating needs of customers with complex decision support environments -- a solution that helps keep those enterprises agile and successful.”

The SGI Adaptive Data Warehouse Solution is available in multiple entry points and growth paths to accommodate a wide range of expansion and architecture strategies.

Mid-Range Data Warehouse: This option utilizes SGI® Altix® XE250 servers, SGI® InfiniteStorage 220 systems, and an InfiniBand node interconnect switch to support scalability to 20TB of user data.
Large Data Warehouse: SGI® Altix® 450 servers and SGI InfiniteStorage 220 systems scale to support as much as 100TB of user data.
Ultra Large Data Warehouse: For data repositories beyond 100TB, this option is based on SGI® Altix® 4700 servers and SGI® InfiniteStorage 4600 systems.
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This news release contains forward-looking statements regarding SGI technologies and third-party technologies that are subject to risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in such statements. The reader is cautioned not to rely unduly on these forward-looking statements, which are not a guarantee of future or current performance. Such risks and uncertainties include long-term program commitments, the performance of third parties, the sustained performance of current and future products, financing risks, the ability to integrate and support a complex technology solution involving multiple providers and users, and other risks detailed from time to time in the company’s most recent SEC reports, including its reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q.