A couple of news items this week (plus helpful prodding from our friend Curt Monash) got us thinking about trends in the data warehouse market and what we see as shifts in the way enterprises are adopting technology. During their earnings call, Netezza recently reported that they only added 14 new customers in their most recent quarter, down from 22. It was interesting to see a report from 451 Group analyst Matt Aslett with his observations on Teradata including the fact that they added 12 customers for their new appliance in their recent quarter. With Oracle now in the market with their Database Machine, there seems to be increased pressure on Netezza as larger industry players enter the DWA market.

At the same time, the demand for Greenplum's software-based solution is strong. For example, we've sold Greenplum Database to 65 customers to date and we are on track to close at least 10 new customers this quarter. We are doing this with a fraction of the sales team that Netezza has in the field (from what we hear, we have about 25% the size of the sales team compared to NZ), and we know Teradata has many times the size of Netezza's sales team. What's the difference? We see these statistics as validation that Greenplum's software-based, open systems approach to Data Warehousing is resonating with customers and prospects worldwide.

The customers we've signed are some of the world's best known brands, global enterprises that are moving extraordinary data volumes into Greenplum Database. Recent customer announcements include NASDAQ, eBay, Zions Bancorporation and Hitwise. We realize that this is a big shift -- being able to deploy Greenplum Database with these companies is a validation of both our company and our product. Newer entrants in the data warehouse market are primarily selling to early-stage internet and web companies - something we understand, having started out ourselves similarly. However, over the past three years we have been selling to increasingly larger and more sophisticated enterprises. One of the advantages to this is the experience we have gained while solving some of the most challenging technology problems in the data center. We have first-hand insight into the real needs of these organizations and are developing technology to deliver on their needs now and in the future - solutions that support big data and high performance analytics. It will be interesting to see if the newer entrants can also make this shift.

Tune in next week for more details on Greenplum's plans for the future of data warehousing.