In an effort to shake up a fast-growing market, Kognitio, one of the original providers of in-memory massively parallel processing (MPP) technology, recently announced a free version of its software that runs on Hadoop with no data limitations.

Kognitio on Hadoop delivers ultra-fast, high concurrency SQL on Hadoop and can run on both Hadoop and non-Hadoop platforms with equivalent performance. The new software is ideal for companies that have installed Hadoop but are struggling to maintain fast query performance as they add users.

Kognitio designed the software for one of the world’s largest financial services corporations. It runs the new software on a ten-node cluster that supports 500 concurrent users and 2,000 Tableau queries per second against a 12 billion-row dataset, according to Roger Gaskell, Chief Technology Officer at Kognitio.

Gaskell believes that if customers try the technology they’ll use it. “[The new pricing] is a way to get the message out there that our solution is fully functional, enterprise ready, supports high levels of concurrency, and is very fast,” says Gaskell.

Customers can download and use the software at no cost. If they want, they can subscribe for support services priced per terabyte of memory used by the software. Gaskell says the top tier of support costs roughly the same amount as other native Hadoop software, or roughly $2,000 to $4,000 per node. Kognitio will continue to sell perpetual licenses for its on-premises software, which costs $120,000 per terabyte, as well as its cloud-based software.

Gaskell estimates that between .5% to 2% of users who download the free software will purchase support services, depending on the level of service.

Ahead of the Market

In 2004, Kognitio became one of the first companies to sell a MPP database that runs entirely in-memory. Although ahead of the market, Kognitio’s software never gained much traction aside from a few large companies.

Today, Kognitio competes with Spark, SAP HANA, and other vendors that have educated the market about the value of in-memory MPP technology. In many ways, Kognitio’s announcement is an attempt to re-introduce itself to the market and demonstrate that its in-memory MPP technology is far superior to newer entrants.

 “It’s a clever play by a niche vendor to get much deserved attention for its mature technology,” says Wayne Eckerson, founder and principal consultant at Eckerson Group. “Kognitio is hoping to capitalize on companies that have installed Hadoop but are struggling to get adequate performance and high user concurrency”

Kognitio’s new offering reflects a paradigm shift in the industry, as BI veterans are changing their business models to adapt to cloud, open source, and freemium licensing models. For example, Informatica recently announced hourly pricing for its cloud software on the Amazon Web Services Marketplace. (See “Data Integration by the Hour”)

To download Kognitio on Hadoop go to www.kognitio.com/on-hadoop.