GPU Database Developer SQream Makes First Foray Into U.S. Channel With Datatrend Deal

GPU database developer SQream has struck a partnership with Datatrend Technologies, a Minnetonka, Minn.-based solutions provider and systems integrator, under which the two companies will jointly develop next-generation data warehouse systems for analyzing massive volumes of data.

The Datatrend relationship is SQream's first real move into the channel in North America and company executives say other partnerships are likely to follow.

For Datatrend, SQream's advanced technology is the key attraction. "There's nothing that does what SQream does, particularly with large datasets. People are definitely interested in this GPU acceleration," said Steve Worthington, cloud evangelist with the solution provider, in an interview with CRN.

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SQream, founded in 2010, is part of the wave of next-generation database systems being developed to overcome the limitations of traditional relational database technology, including their inability to scale to handle petabytes of data. The company's SQream DB database has been on the market since 2015 and is in use by a number of customers in telecommunications, finance and other industries.

Headquartered in New York, with research and development operations in Tel Aviv, SQream raised $26.4 million in Series B funding in May.

While other next-generation databases have focused on in-memory architectures or working with the Hadoop big data platform, SQream developed its database to work with powerful GPU (graphical processing units) microprocessors to process and analyze huge volumes of data, said Arnon Shimoni, SQream product marketing manager and GPU solution architect, in an interview with CRN.

GPU technology, once largely utilized for gaming, cryptocurrency mining and machine learning applications, has been finding its way into more mainstream computing applications such as business analytics.

SQream is targeting data warehouse analytical applications with the database's ability to scale up to 10 petabytes of data. One customer has already developed a data warehouse with one petabyte of data. SQream's strategy is to target aging data warehouse systems from Teradata, Netezza, Greenplum and Oracle Exadata that are running up against their scalability limitations, Shimoni said.

"Our system can handle more volumes of data and more varieties of data," said Joel Sehr, vice president of sales, Americas, for SQream, in the interview with CRN. "And it's got to be cost-efficient."

Datatrend works with many of the major IT vendors, including IBM, Dell EMC and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and provides a range of data center infrastructure solutions and services with an increasing emphasis on hyperconverged, software-defined and cloud technologies. The company was Dell EMC's partner of the year for converged platforms in 2016.

More recently, the solution provider has been providing higher-level services in such areas as Internet of Things and analytics. "We see this as another addition to that environment," Worthington said of the SQream partnership. Datatrend will work with the SQream database to design and build custom data warehouse and analytical systems for its customers.

SQream caught Datatrend's eye because the solution provider is seeing more interest in GPU technology among customers to power compute-intensive tasks like high-volume data analytics, according to Worthington.

While SQream has been working with solution providers for international sales, the company has largely sold direct within North America. Sehr said Datatrend is the company's first real channel partner in the U.S. and the relationship will provide a model as the database company looks to recruit additional partners.