News

Applix pushes 64-bit BI

• By Stephen Swoyer
• March 8, 2006

Microsoft's commodity 64-bit operating environments could be the catalyst for the 64-bit-i-zation of the enterprise. Just one thing's missing: 64-bit versions of application software designed to run on Redmond's Windows Server 2003 x64 operating environment.

They're in the pipeline, however. This week, for example, OLAP powerhouse Applix unveiled a Windows x64-ready version of its TM1 OLAP engine. Applix--with its in-memory OLAP expertise--is the kind of vendor that can benefit from the much larger (1 TB versus an effective 3 GB) 64-bit address space. Company officials say customers--many of which already have 64-bit commodity hardware idling in their data centers--are eagerly anticipating the release.

Also this week, Applix announced enhanced integration with SAP AG's ERP stack. Gone is Applix's less-than-ideal ODBO connectivity into SAP; TM1 now sports RFC-standard ABAP connectivity.

Business intelligence industry watchers cite a few reasons why 64-bitedness will be a boon to BI. "For BI, 64-bit is a godsend for many BI tools that leverage memory to perform calculations online. In fact, the introduction of 64-bit technology is already fueling a new set of in-memory based analytical tools that I've been looking at as part of my dashboards research," says Wayne Eckerson, director of research and services for TDWI. "It also is a godsend for BI tools that require heavy amounts of caching to deliver adequate performance or require memory to perform client- or browser-based manipulations [such as Flash and AJAX web front-ends or client OLAP tools]."