Specific Media Chooses Aster Data Warehousing Solution

SAN CARLOS, CA, Apr 07 (MARKET WIRE) --
Aster Data Systems, a proven leader in high-performance database systems
for data warehousing and analytics, today announced that Specific Media,
the advertising industry's largest independent online advertising
network, has selected the Aster Data Systems nCluster database to support
its vast collection of analytics data. Specific Media attracts 143
million unique visitors a month in the U.S., and enables advertisers to
target consumers throughout North America and Western Europe based on
demographics, behaviors, geographic locations and/or the contextual
relevance of websites.

"Aster Data provided a flexible solution with a high level of distributed
analytic processing power on commodity hardware, which was attractive to
us since we did not want to commit to a data warehouse technology that
could be outdated in a few months," said Brian Burdick, senior vice
president of technology for Specific Media. "During the evaluation
process, we found that Aster Data was extremely responsive to our
requests. The company's strong customer service was another reason we
ultimately selected them as our partner."

Aster's world-class technical services organization is comprised of
experts from Oracle, Teradata, Microsoft, and Business Objects. The team
has delivered and deployed some of the industry's largest data warehouses,
including multiple 100+ TB production systems.

About Aster Data Systems

Aster Data Systems is a proven leader in high-performance database systems
for data warehousing and analytics -- the first DBMS to tightly integrate
SQL with MapReduce -- providing deep insights on data analyzed on
clusters of low-cost commodity hardware. The Aster nCluster database
cost-effectively powers frontline analytic applications for companies
such as MySpace, aCerno (an Akamai company), and ShareThis. Running on
low-cost off-the-shelf hardware, and providing 'hands-free'
administration, Aster enables enterprises to meet their data warehousing
needs within their budget. Aster is headquartered in San Carlos,
California and is backed by Sequoia Capital, JAFCO Ventures, IVP,
Cambrian Ventures, and First-Round Capital, as well as industry
visionaries including David Cheriton, Rajeev Motwani and Ron Conway. For
more information please visit http://www.asterdata.com, or call
650-232-4400.

The Power of MapReduce with the Rich Functionality of an RDBMS

Aster nCluster provides a first in the database world: In-Database
MapReduce. MapReduce is a programming model that was popularized at Google
in 2003 to process large unstructured data sets distributed across
thousands of nodes. In-Database MapReduce enables enterprises to harness
the power of MapReduce while managing their data in Aster nCluster, a
highly scalable relational database system for frontline data warehousing.
Just like its massively parallel execution environment for standard SQL
queries, Aster nCluster now adds the ability to implement flexible
MapReduce functions for parallel data analysis and transformation inside
the database. Aster nCluster In-Database MapReduce functions are simple to
write and are seamlessly integrated within SQL statements. They rely on
SQL queries to manipulate the underlying data and provide input. The
functions can procedurally manipulate such input data and provide outputs
that can be further consumed by SQL queries or be written into tables
within the database.

nPath

Aster's nPath is a groundbreaking SQL-MapReduce (SQL/MR) function, which
extends standard ANSI SQL with a procedural data flow for massively
parallelized in-database analysis. nPath enables complex pattern analysis
via sequential matching of granular datasets through a single pass of the
database -- discovering relationships between rows of data -- resulting in
much faster analysis than with traditional SQL or other methods for
time-series analysis. Example applications include behavioral analysis,
fraud detection, risk assessment in financial services, and communications
network optimization. For more technical details on nPath or In-Database
MapReduce, please read the Aster Data blog.

Aster Data Systems, Aster nCluster and the Aster logo are registered
trademarks of Aster Data Systems. All other brands and trademarks
referenced herein are acknowledged to be trademarks or registered
trademarks of their respective holders. Statements herein are based on
normal operating conditions and are not intended to create any implied
warranty of merchantability for fitness for a particular purpose. Aster
Data Systems reserves the right to modify at any time without notice these
statements, our services, products, and their warranty and performance
specifications.

Press Contact:
Zenobia Godschalk
ZAG Communications for Aster Data Systems
678.799.8279
zenobia@zagcommunications.com

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