IBM High-Power Analyzer Helps Carrier Detect Glitches

IBM's Netezza unit introduced a high-powered analytics accelerator intended to help wireless carriers solve crucial network management glitches.

The powerful Netezza Network Analytic Accelerator is already being tested by XO Communications and is expected to be ordered by others. Prices exceed $1 million.

But the Netezza product is intended to streamline problems. For example, a wireless carrier was able to determine that slow service and dropped calls was directly related to an Android app that permitted chess players to play on their smartphones.

Trouble was, IBM Netezza's Chris Smith told IBTimes in an interview, the time between one player's making a move and the remote rival's response was so long that it gummed up the entire network.

With the software and data analysis tools in the appliance, the carrier pinpointed the glitch, advised the Google Android app store and got the game app fixed, said Smith, VP and General Manager for Telecommunications for the IBM data warehouse unit.

IBM acquired Netezza, based in Marlborough, Mass., a year ago for $1.78 billion.

Now coupled with other IBM products, including business intelligence software from Cognos and statistical analysis software from SPSS --- both also acquired by Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM, the company is trying to appliantize high-end network analysis.

As well, it will compete against rival high-end products from Oracle, Hewlett-Packard and Teradata, among others, pushing IBM further into the so-called field of big data, where network operators must analyze petabytes, or quadrillions of bytes of data.

Increased use of PCs, servers and now smartphones is amplifying the problem, Smith told IBTimes. IBM decided to plug all the parts together with internally developed systems as well as software from private Ventraq, a Mount Laurel, N.J. specialist in communications software services..

With other software, Smith said IBM could roll out the analytics accelerator to other industries that rely upon expanding data networks.

Hundreds of core data are coming into the network, Smith explained, even dwarfing VDR data. The analyzer looks at the correlations of patterns and anomalies.

Unsaid: government agencies such as the Pentagon, National Security Agency and Central Intelligence Agency, already IBM customers, may be interested in the Netezza product in their data analysis of voice and data traffic worldwide.

Oddly, Smith said the U.S. government has not imposed any restrictions on offshore sales of the new product line, despite their power. We're actively prioritizing selling it overseas, he told IBTimes.

In the past, Washington has either barred or imposed stringent controls on various technology exports, from semiconductor manufacturing equipment to supercomputers.

IBM shares closed Wednesday at $181.97, up $1.61. The company's market capitalization is $254.1 billion.