It was just announced that Netezza, one of the leaders in data warehouse appliances, is going to be acquired by IBM, which continues to accelerate consolidation in the industry as I noted in my July 26 blog. I continue to see more consolidation coming as things accelerate. Netezza, considered the leader in the appliance market, fits in very nicely with IBM's strategy to continue to be one of the dominant players in business intelligence, analytics and data warehousing.

In today's press release about this acquisition, Steve Mills, senior vice president and group executive, IBM Software and Systems, says:

"IBM is bringing analytics to the masses. We continue to evolve our capabilities for systems integration, bringing together optimized hardware and software, in response to increasing demand for technology that delivers true business value.Netezza is a perfect example of this approach. Netezza strongly complements our business analytics capabilities and client base. Together, we have the opportunity to quickly leverage the technology and accelerate the offering."

That leaves Vertica as the largest pure-play appliance vendor in the market and makes me wonder if HP or Dell will make a play for them or if one of those two will consider the purchase of Teradata.

Bill Hewitt, Kalido's president and CEO, has this comment about today's news:

"IBM's acquisition of Netezza gives it a significant edge over the other megavendors. Businesses need information management solutions that enable them to quickly deliver business value, and Netezza's ability to handle complex analytic queries goes a long way to meeting that need. Netezza running Kalido further enhances this solution giving customers unmatched flexibility coupled with Netezza's unmatched performance."

SAS made a big announcement today about how they're making it possible for business users to develop -- on their own -- predictive models. Here's another example of how the power of data is being made available to more than an elite few in an organization. The end result is going to be a more effective organization that makes better decisions -- and isn't that what we all want to see? Take a look at the YouTube demo from SAS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txdzPoVO0ps. It's easy to see the value of SAS Rapid Predictive Modeler. If you're like me, you are already imagining all the scenarios you'd like to investigate using this tool.