Taking a 'throw it at the wall and see what sticks' approach to procurement?

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Let's start with a definition. Very simply, a DW appliance is a packaged solution of hardware and software that is pre-configured to perform DW workloads consistently well, out-of-the-box. It is acquired as a single unit rather than as a collection of separate technology components to be assembled. The hardware includes server and disk subsystems, as well as a high-speed communication interconnect (DW appliances are typically parallel systems). The software includes operating system, DBMS, and some custom "glue" to make the integration of all these components invisible. The appliance expects to communicate via open standards such as ODBC and SQL92.

The various components are then engineered into an integrated environment for optimal performance on typical DW workloads (and can be extended for atypical situations). An appliance is, by nature, proprietary because each vendor's representation and market opportunity centers on a different design that is patented or patent-pending. Hence, they each have strengths and weaknesses and may behave differently on a given query. Your mileage may vary depending on your DW workload, so due diligence is suggested before buying (benchmarks, workload characterization, proofs of concept, future needs, support requirements, references, etc.). It is important to remember that your usual DW application prep work-business discovery, scoping, modeling, design, etc.-doesn't change.

The concept isn't new, so why are DW appliances getting attention now? It's the confluence of market factors that has made it possible for emerging vendors to ease the performance integration burden of DW shops. Being that they are finely-tuned by the vendor, appliances are being touted for what I call "pre-integrated high performance" .

And this is exactly their appeal. Most IT shops do not have the luxury to devote a senior technical team to engineering leading DW performance from optimal components and managing it like a product, over time, while keeping abreast of and getting early access to technology advancements for feature/function enhancements. So, the ability to offload that burden onto a willing vendor is very attractive, if the price is right. True, some companies have done this for themselves in the past, but at significant cost. They did so because the needed platform capability did not yet exist in a commoditized, pre-integrated form that was easy to incorporate into the existing environment.

The market premise is based upon there being enough volume. With data warehousing hitting its stride and becoming an irrefutable must-have in business, vendors are betting that the ongoing burden of managing and optimizing the DW platform components across a broad range of query types is something most companies would rather not do if they don't have to.

As you can see, the basic "what" and "why" of DW appliances is fairly simple. They are a natural evolution of a thriving market-much like the automobile. You can build your own car, but most people don't because they are readily available, affordable and get the basic job done.