Netezza just announced an OEM deal with EMC whereby they will ship an EMC AX4 storage unit with their appliances. Some analysts are talking about this in similar terms to our relationship with EMC. However, as Curt Monash points out, the arrangement is completely different.
On the technical front, the EMC storage is just used as a staging area for loads, backups and exports. This is the same as our backup and landing zone nodes, so Netezza is really just playing catch-up. In the Netezza architecture , data is still stored on disks that are embedded in each SPU. As a result, they are not taking advantage of EMC's greater reliability and fault tolerance - unlike in DATAllegro’s architecture. In addition, Netezza remains a highly proprietary platform.
Commercially, we understand the relationship is also very different to ours. In our case, EMC reps get commission and quota credit for any EMC storage that we sell (as long as they 'tag' the account appropriately in EMC's CRM system). We don't believe that's the case with Netezza, so there's really no incentive for EMC reps to help them in accounts - especially given the much lower comparative value of the EMC storage in a Netezza appliance.
