Analysis & Commentary:

DAVE POOLE OF HP/COMPAQ SPEAKS W/DSstar AT TDWI SAN DIEGO
by Tim Staub, managing editor

DSstar: Why is there a surge of interest in real-time capabilities?

POOLE: It's a function of both demand and the progress of technology. Globalization, the increased use of the Web, and a decreasing ability to differentiate products are on-going trends that increasingly force businesses to use time to their advantage. At the same time, improvements in system price/performance and database software have started to make real-time systems more realistic across a variety of applications.

DSstar: Can you give us some examples?

POOLE: Retailers that we've spoken to want to increase individual purchase profitability through faster identification of possible up-sell or cross-sell offers, based on rapid recognition of the customer, up-to-the-minute transaction history, analysis of propensity to purchase, and credit-worthiness information. Telcos have told us that the ability to more quickly analyze card usage can dramatically reduce losses from fraudulent use of credit cards.

DSstar: The examples are compelling, but across the industry we're seeing slowdowns in spending for new enterprise applications. Why is this bucking the trend?

POOLE: We're finding that many companies that can afford to invest now want a leg up on the competition as the economy continues to recover. Another factor is the increasing perception of risk and its costs since September 11th, and how fast business and government can quickly collect, analyze, and respond to minimize it.

DSstar: Can you tell me about Compaq's real time initiatives?

POOLE: Compaq staked out a leadership position real-time capabilities several years ago when we announced our Zero Latency Enterprise initiative, based on the Tandem Himalaya platform. The substantial success of ZLE has enabled us to develop expertise in the unique problems associated with developing and implementing real-time solutions. As we spoke with customers we found they wanted to bring real-time capabilities to their Oracle-based systems. Some of the ISVs that we were working with also told us they wanted a capability to embed the solution in their products.

DSstar: What are the components of Compaq's real-time solution?

POOLE: We have a base architecture that enables solution developers to build a real-time, mixed-use operational data store using a clustered Oracle database. The cornerstone is the ODS Manager, which we developed to manage database insertions and queries simultaneously under high workloads. All access to the ODS is through the resource manager, which can be called by widely available CORBA and J2EE-compliant application servers. We've also partnered with multiple ISVs to ensure support from a wide range of EAI and business intelligence products to support integration and data analysis.

DSstar: What's the significance of a mixed workload?

POOLE: What makes the ODS real-time is the ability to enable simultaneous insertions and queries. This allows rules and applications to immediately respond to an event -- in other words, the organization can act without delay. While most databases can support this at low levels of performance, the trick is to support queries against that database while maintaining a level of insertion performance that matches the frequency of incoming events.

DSstar: What kind of problems needed to be solved?

POOLE: The first problem was developing the advanced database techniques to support a mixed-use ODS at a modest level of performance. However, when we ramped utilization upwards, response times became unpredictable. Ensuring predictability at high volume became the second problem and led to the development of the ODS manager.

DSstar: How much has Compaq invested in the development of this capability?

POOLE: We've invested millions of dollars in developing this solution over the last couple of years. The work has proceeded in three phases. The first was an investigation to determine feasibility. During phase two we developed the basic tools and capabilities to make a mixed workload less taxing on a system. We're currently wrapping up phase three, during which we're finalizing configuration rules and developing the initial set of solutions. Right now we're working with several customers, system integrators, and ISVs to deliver solutions in Financial Services, CRM, real-time business intelligence, and risk analysis.

DSstar: Are there other approaches to solving the problems and building a real-time solution?

POOLE: Some customers who could afford to dedicate substantial in-house capabilities could, in conjunction with ISVs, develop point, application-specific solutions. What sets the Compaq offering apart is that we've built a solution that enables a real-time infrastructure that can support a wide range of application environments, business requirements, and system platforms.

DSstar: Are you saying that you will introduce this solution on other platforms?

POOLE: There are underlying unique capabilities in the Tru64 operating system that provide some customer benefits and initially helped us to develop this for Oracle databases. However, there are no dependencies on Tru64. We built this capability to be transportable across operating systems and platforms. Now that we're part of the new HP we will certainly support our mainstream operating system.

DSstar: How would I know if my company is a candidate for a real-time solution?

POOLE: Ask yourself if you can reduce cost or risk, or provide substantial added value or satisfaction to customers, by reducing or eliminating the time between an event and your response to it. Does your business experience loss due to risk? How much can you gain by reducing the time it takes to pinpoint fraud? Are your customers satisfied with response times? Are you sure? Do you have an up-to-the minute, holistic view of your customers? Do you know what they really want? Can you delight them by providing immediate gratification?

DSstar: What's the cost of a pilot project?

POOLE: To a large extent the costs are determined by the initial business problem that is being solved. In general, the resources required for a proof of concept are comparable to that of other important projects. While this is not a small investment, we've seen a pattern emerge. Often after rollout, other business problems that can be addressed begin to emerge. One of the unique aspects of real-time solutions is that although they are truly additive to the infrastructure, ultimately it's revolutionary. Implementers become real-time enterprises, and business problems are approached from a real time perspective.

Contact Dave Poole, Director of CRM/BI solutions for the AlphaSystems Division at Compaq Computer Corporation, dave.poole@hp.com, 508-467-4420.

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