August 11, 2010 - Making Things

This is the inaugural post on my new NZLABS blog. I could begin with some grandiose plan for this blog and the things I plan to do with it. However, I would prefer to just start as if this was post #325, just another entry. Also I will just pretend the original welcome to the NZLABS website below was just the first entry and will leave it inline below.

Today, I have been thinking about the benefits of actually building things. I saw the new Jeep Grand Cherokee commercial this last weekend.

As the former CTO of the FBI I am passionate about what this country should be doing from an engineering excellence stand point. So kudos to Jeep for bringing it with some engineering attitude and hopefully the excellence associated with it.

This commercial played into my recent thinking about how in the lab we believe that an idea should be demonstrated with actual capability. It is great to carve out ideas in the pure thought space of white boards and discussions but something happens when we actually build it, use it and do it again. Kelly Johnson the legendary founder of Lockheed's Skunkworks believed that if his designers did not actually see their designs all the way to flight and actually feel them in flight they would loose their ability to create innovative designs.

I am an MIT guy and the motto there is Mens et Menus or Minds and Hand. The idea is it is the interplay of theory and practice that produce innovation. I believe there is no greater feeling then seeing the pure thought stuff beat out in the lab to become reality. Actually feeling a design in flight!

At NZLABS we are committed to delivering this same interactive cycle of transformational design through access to actual systems so developers, partners, and customers can actually create in short time frames working demonstrations of the ideas that today may only exist in thought space. To allow everyone to access our capabilities we have recently released our nzSimulator, which you can download as a member of the Netezza Developer Network here. The simulator allows you to run your own complete version of a Netezza system as virtual machines on your own desktop. In 2007, we released spuboxes to support developers desire to have their own sandbox for creating UDXs now the evolution of the developer environment moves to the simulator.

So hopefully, it is on Netezza but wherever build something this week. It will make you happier. On a flight to visit my extremely talented colleagues from Poland recently, I read Shop Class as Soulcraft, by Matthew Crawford. It's a good read. He makes the cases for the value of work in the useful arts. He is a PhD turned mechanic.

So reaching the limit of what I feel is reasonable for a blog.. I hope the simulator will allow you to make things and get a piece of my world. Imagine it, I work in a place where we get to design, construct, develop, and deliver the world's fastest massively parallel appliances for advanced analytics. Good times.

June 1, 2010 - Welcome to NZLABS

I would like to welcome you to NZLABS. We launched this site to show the world the kinds of things we think about and how we think about them. More specifically, we have launched this site for two primary purposes: first, to showcase the many innovations that we have created and are currently working on, and second, to explain some of the ideas we think about as we push the Netezza platform forward.

In February of this year, Netezza announced the TwinFin i-Class appliance. NZLABS played a significant role in the development and launch of this new offering. At our annual User’s Conference this week, held at the Westin Hotel in downtown Boston, you can visit the NZLABS area, you will see the second wave of our TwinFin appliance, leveraging i-Class technology, in action and be able to interact with many NZLABS members.

As you browse this site, you will no doubt find many articles relating to the TwinFin appliance and our i-Class technology. However, you will also read or watch videos about many other topics. That is because, we believe, innovation has no bounds. Yes, we will continue to push the Netezza analytics platform. But as we push this platform, we often find ourselves looking for fresh and new approaches to our challenges. So, it may not come as a surprise as we tell you about these other areas, including the many different tools and resources we found and use along the way.

NZLABS consists of skilled and competent individuals that reside in many different locations throughout the world. Most of our lab members hold advanced degrees from well-respected academic institutions and have acquired a good deal success and experience along the way. Feel free to visit their bio pages to get to know them better.

As you continue to visit this site, I hope you will enjoy what you find. But mostly, I hope it will cause you to think differently about your work.

Thank you and welcome to NZLABS!

Justin Lindsey, CTO
and Director of NZLABS