Debenhams has gone live with an integrated datawarehouse
appliance that is to replace its existing database. The department
store group said it expected the system to reduce IT costs and
return data queries more swiftly.
The Netezza Performance Server (NPS) integrates database, server
and storage functions in a single server appliance. It is able to
deliver replies to data queries faster than traditional systems
because information is stored, filtered and processed in one place,
said Netezza.
Debenhams will use the NPS system to analyse terabytes of
trading data generated by its 120 stores in the UK and Ireland and
transaction data from its website.
The retailer had been using an IBM DB2 database running on a
central iSeries platform and Microsoft SQL Server as an e-commerce
database. It also used DataMirror's Transformation Server to
integrate and replenish transactional data in real-time between its
website, call centre and stores.
Debenhams intends to replace its existing IBM-based
datawarehouse with the NPS system. It said it expects to achieve
better performance and lower total cost of ownership from the
system.
IBM said it would not comment on the Debenhams deployment.
Steve Kircher, IT director at Debenhams, said, "Using the
Netezza datawarehouse appliance, we can shrink query times. Until
now, we have traditionally started loading trading data from the
previous week into the data mart every Sunday. This could take the
entire day to complete and sometimes into Monday morning. The NPS
system is capable of executing this task in a fraction of the
time."
In addition to Debenhams, the Netezza system has been adopted by
the Carphone Warehouse, Orange and Amazon.