Big data startups weigh in on competing with Oracle

Yesterday, I reported that Oracle does indeed have a big data strategy in place, complete with plans for Hadoop, NoSQL and even an integration of the R statistical analysis software. Today, some of the startups affected by Oracles impending moves weighed in with their takes on the situation. Maybe theyre just keeping brave faces, but the consensus is that Oracles forays into their respective spaces just validate the work theyve been doing, and they welcome the competition.

Mike Olson, CEO, Cloudera

Via e-mail:

We are pleased that Oracle has decided to validate the importance of Hadoop as a key component of enterprise data management and analysis. We are encouraged and excited that a company with Oracles influence and reputation will be making investments in this space and we look forward to working with them in companies with the most demanding data environments. We are looking forward to their support on moving the work in the Apache Software Foundation forward with the community. We will continue to work with companies like Oracle to offer increasingly better products and services to data driven companies across many vertical markets.

John Schroeder, Founder and CEO, MapR

Via e-mail:

Oracles Big Data Appliance announcement is great news to organizations using and planning to use Hadoop. Oracle joins a growing list of commercial vendors providing Hadoop-relatedproducts and services. Offering organizations the most broad and deep set of products and services only fuels Hadoop growth and makes Hadoop an even safer! big dat a platform choice.

Max Schireson, President, 10gen

From his blog:

How do I feel about Oracle introducing a NoSQL database? I think it makes all the sense in the world. Competition is already thriving in the sector and I dont think one more competitor, even one as large as Oracle, will alter the dynamics dramatically. But many customers will take Oracles arrival in the space as a sign that this trend is significant and it is a space they should look at. If Oracles offering is strong, we may lose some market share to them, but their presence will make it a bigger market. In my time at Oracle, I found Larry Ellison to have a great sense of what markets were important and to be a fierce competitor.

Norman Nie, CEO, Revolution Analytics

Via e-mail:

Oracles announcement to embed R in the Exadata engine demonstrates validation for the leading statistics language and offers further evidence that R is a key weapon in advanced analytics today. As The Enterprise R company, Revolution Analytics has seen an enormous demand for R solutions, so its no surprise that Oracle and other companies are looking to further evangelize and distribute R among the enterprise.

Image courtesy of Flickr user Chika.

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