A Smart Interview With Peter Boncz on Vector Processing

Known as the Father of Vector Database Processing, Peter Boncz is the Senior Research Scientist at Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI), Professor at VU University Amsterdam, and Chief Technical Advisor to Actian Corporation, the first company to assemble an end-to-end big data analytics platform that runs natively on Hadoop. He architected two breakthrough database systems, MonetDB and X100 (aka VectorWise or Vector), now available as the world’s highest-performing native SQL-in-Hadoop offering executing in YARN.

In the linked Q&A interview (and in an in-depth podcast), Boncz covers the origins of analytical data processing, its progress through iterations, and the eventual acquisition of Vectorwise by Actian. The conversation continues through use cases and the adaptability of Vector to other distributed computing solutions such as Hadoop.

Introduced in 2010, the columnar, vectorized analytical database continues to dominate in its field. The Actian platform brings industrial-grade SQL to vector technology—Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) performance instrumentation, adaptable scale-out, and resource optimization via YARN.

While others claim to offer native SQL in Hadoop support, most have immature, low-quality SQL support and require you to move your data out of Hadoop. Faster than both Hive and Impala, only Actian Vector combines the most modern, scalable, high-performing database technology with the power of Hadoop, thereby enabling users to directly query data stored in the HDFS.

Read Peter Boncz’s very interesting outlook on big data analytics, solution capabilities, and the future of vector technology when associated with Hadoop. Or listen to the podcast. Either way, you will learn how vector processing is a key innovation to accelerating big data analytics.

The interview can be found at: https://www.techtarget.com/

About Actian Corporation

Actian makes data easy. Our data platform simplifies how people connect, manage, and analyze data across cloud, hybrid, and on-premises environments. With decades of experience in data management and analytics, Actian delivers high-performance solutions that empower businesses to make data-driven decisions. Actian is recognized by leading analysts and has received industry awards for performance and innovation. Our teams share proven use cases at conferences (e.g., Strata Data) and contribute to open-source projects. On the Actian blog, we cover topics ranging from real-time data ingestion, data analytics, data governance, data management, data quality, data intelligence to AI-driven analytics.