Aster Data Systems made a play for Microsoft . NET developers June 9 by enabling them to write applications using MapReduce.
In Version 3.0.2 of Aster nCluster and nCluster Enterprise Edition, developers can now write MapReduce functions in C# (PDF) and have them execute in the database. The move affects a large number of the company’s customers who use the Microsoft . NET platform to develop applications and Microsoft C# for development or maintenance.
MapReduce comes to the enterprise; click here for the podcast.
“That is a large percentage of developers who can now leverage Aster nCluster In-Database MapReduce for its scalability and rich analytical prowess on ‘Big Data’ without any painful learning process,” said Tasso Argyros, CTO at Aster, in a statement. “This is a valuable advantage for enterprises to develop powerful, data-driven business applications.”
MapReduce was introduced by Google to support distributed computing on large data sets on clusters of computers. Data warehousing vendor Greenplum has made a lot of noise regarding its support of MapReduce as well.
In the product pitch, Aster officials said, “SQL/MapReduce (SQL-MR) functions within the Aster nCluster In-Database MapReduce framework are simple to write in C# … The SQL/MR functions can procedurally manipulate … input data and provide outputs that can be further consumed by SQL queries or be written into tables within the database-providing rich analytical functions which can be ‘developed once, used everywhere’ by applications …”
The functionality also allows for a separation of duties between developers and business analysts “who want to iterate analytical models through standard SQL, without [forcing] developers to rewrite functions each time something changes,” company officials said in a news release.
“Aster is committed to bringing deeper insights on larger data volumes to organizations,” Argyros said. “Developers now have the freedom of choice-to develop as they prefer-and do more with their Big Data assets with Aster nCluster.”
Correction: In an earlier version of this story, the name of Aster’s nCluster product was misspelled.