Author Archives: Alex Woodie

Alex Woodie

Alex Woodie has written about IT as a technology journalist for more than a decade. He brings extensive experience from the IBM midrange marketplace, including topics such as servers, ERP applications, programming, databases, security, high availability, storage, business intelligence, cloud, and mobile enablement. He resides in the San Diego area.

Challengers Arise to S3 Storage Dominance

September 21st, 2017 (0)

When it comes to storing data, Amazon’s Simple Storage Service (S3) is a runaway success. With trillions of files under management spanning many exabytes worth of data, S3 is the largest digital storage system in the known universe. But ...

TigerGraph Emerges with Native Parallel Graph Database

September 20th, 2017 (0)

A startup named TigerGraph emerged from stealth today with a new native parallel graph database that its founder thinks can shake up the analytics market. With $31 million in venture funding and several high-profile customers, he might just be ...

Drones and GPUs Provide AI Boost for Inspection Firm

September 7th, 2017 (0)

A company backed by GE’s venture capital arm is using NVidia GPUs, deep learning frameworks, and drones to automate the inspection of physical assets in the oil and gas, electrical distribution, and transportation industries. Avitas Systems, owned by GE ...

IBM Enables Quantum Computing Experimentation

September 5th, 2017 (0)

IBM Research is pairing its Jupyter-based Data Science Experience notebook environment with its cloud-based quantum computer, IBM Q, in hopes of encouraging a new class of entrepreneurial user to solve intractable problems that even exceed the capabilities of the ...

AI Makes Inroads into Enterprise Software

July 13th, 2017 (0)

Enterprise software is often maligned as a legacy holdover from a previous age, a low-growth market dominated by stodgy software companies out to milk maintenance streams from hapless victims. But two giants of enterprise software, OpenText and Infor, today ...

MapR Rebrands Around Converged Data Fabric

June 6th, 2017 (0)

MapR Technologies today announced a major rebranding and repositioning of the data storage layer of its converged data platform. MapR-XD, as the data store is now known, provides the mechanism for customers to build a unified data fabric that ...

How Uber Uses Big Data to Optimize Customer Experience

October 6th, 2015 (0)

If you’ve ever used Uber, you’re aware of how ridiculously simple the process is. You press a button, a car shows up, you go for a ride, and you press another button to pay the driver. But there’s a ...

Unravelling Hadoop Performance Mysteries

November 20th, 2014 (0)

Despite the fact that it runs on plain vanilla X86 servers and 64-bit operating systems, Hadoop is a complex beast that's prone to bottlenecks and performance issues. Getting Hadoop to run well isn't easy and typically requires a lot ...

How Shutterstock Keeps Its Hyperscale Infrastructure In Check

September 9th, 2014 (0)

Since it was founded 11 years ago, Shutterstock has grown to become one of the largest image sharing marketplaces on the Internet. Managing that growth has not always been easy for the company, which runs its own IT infrastructure. ...

The Hyperscale Lessons Of Healthcare.gov

April 4th, 2014 (0)

The last six months have been a hair-graying experience for everybody involved in the Healthcare.gov rollout. While it ultimately managed to meet its goals and enroll 7.1 million people, the disastrous start and near implosion of the website behind ...