ACADEMIA
Nectar Selects Kognitio WX2 Virtual Data Warehouse Appliance
LMG deploys WX2 in massive 8TB implementation; faster insights in fraction of time, targeting customer buying patterns: Kognitio, a leading global provider of business intelligence (BI) and data warehousing solutions, today announced that Britain's Loyalty Management Group (LMG) has chosen Kognitio's WX2 analytical Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) to underpin its recently launched insight and communication division. Responsible for customer loyalty programs such as the Nectar card in the UK and Air Miles in the Middle East, LMG's data analytics operations team selected WX2 after proving its capability in a benchmark comparison against other industry-leading solutions. LMG has deployed WX2 across eight terabytes (TB) of data on industry-standard HP hardware to deliver new standards in customer data analytics and insight. By using Kognitio's WX2, LMG will gain a deeper understanding of customers' purchasing patterns, including cross-purchasing, in less time than previously thought possible. In addition, LMG will be able to offer its largest client, Sainsbury's, a series of analytical dashboards giving Sainsbury's FMCG suppliers the ability to analyze a broad range of data to help them better understand what customers buy. Armed with that knowledge, they can develop detailed promotions intended to target specific groups of customers and drive sales. "We undertake extremely complex analytics on behalf of our customers and it was crucial to LMG that we partner with a company that could deliver the data warehouse system to meet our demands. Kognitio's WX2 exceeded our expectations," said Fiachra Woodman, IT Director at LMG. Woodman noted that LMG selected WX2 based on its flexibility, scalability, power and, ultimately, its ability to deliver accurate analytical performance. Taking advantage of WX2's unique multiple deployment options, LMG has installed WX2 as a virtual data warehouse appliance, dispensing with the need for costly, proprietary hardware as well as ongoing maintenance expenses traditionally associated with supporting such specialized infrastructures. WX2's flexibility has allowed LMG to roll out several distributed virtual appliances, using 5TB for analytics, 2TB for testing, even using 1TB for business continuity/disaster recovery of mission-critical data. Thanks to its unique design, Kognitio WX2 delivers an extremely high level of performance that allows deep, detailed analyses on vast amounts of data in a fraction of the time required by other solutions. At the same time, WX2 also offers firms a low total cost of ownership (TCO) in terms of development, management and system expansion. "We are very proud to serve the needs of such a well respected company as LMG. This was a straight competition between Kognitio WX2 and other data warehouse appliance technologies and it was based upon a combination of scientific comparisons," commented Roger Llewellyn, CEO at Kognitio. "LMG chose to adopt WX2 on the basis of performance and flexibility and on their belief that Kognitio has the correct resources, knowledge, and approach that will enable them to achieve new, more demanding objectives."