Here is another example of why commoditization is not killing innovation. In fact, it can and has given a number of companies a leg up in terms of developing and deploying new products in record time and at low costs. Using so-called commodity software and hardware actually does not kill innovation but speeds it up.
For example, Metapa, one of my portfolio companies, has begun shipping a software product (Metapa clustered database) that enables customers to deploy terabyte scale data warehouses on clusters of commodity computers running open source software. To that end, the company just announced a joint customer win and partnership with Sun.
In the press release, Jeff Mayzurk, VP of technology for E! Networks, says:
“Deploying a unified data warehouse has always been a strategic goal of E!, but with the total cost of ownership associated with traditional solutions, it hasn’t been practical. Metapa and Sun provided a truly unique solution allowing us to implement an enterprise class data warehouse with the price/performance level that makes our initiative possible.”
Dave Powell, CEO of Metapa, goes on to say:
Metapa and Sun are excited to announce E! Networks as a joint customer and a flagship example of how companies can capitalize on the performance advantages and operational returns of open source and commodity computing for data warehousing,” said Dave Powell, president and CEO of Metapa. “CDB leverages commodity computing, open source database technologies and breakthrough parallel processing algorithms to deliver unprecedented price/performance when compared to traditional, proprietary database solutions.”
To reiterate, commodity computing and open source software can enable breakthrough solutions such as what Metapa is delivering with Sun X-86 hardware. My hats off to the team at Metapa for making this happen. In addition, I love having an early customer win that is referenceable and with a partner that can help replicate this win in a big way.
