Try before you buy
To give DBAs and developers hands-on experience pairing the capabilities of Elasticsearch with their databases and data platforms, ObjectRocket is offering a free service for 30 days for a two data node, 256MB RAM and 2GB Disk instance.
"Most businesses utilse multiple types of databases to meet the specific needs of modern applications, but this diversity can bring complexity," said Nik Rouda, senior analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group.
"Standardising on a bullet-proof, cloud-based infrastructure can simplify delivery without compromising quality. Rackspace has built a versatile yet tailored 'polyglot' platform to satisfy the most demanding requirements."
Rackspace is telling us that with the addition of Elasticsearch, the firm continues to expand the breadth and capability of its portfolio of managed databases, including Elasticsearch, Hadoop, Spark, MongoDB, Redis, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, Percona, and MariaDB.
Customers have the flexibility to deploy across private, public, bare metal and hybrid clouds with options to automate and reduce the time and money needed to scale, manage and help ensure the availability of production database applications.
ThinkPad users got excited about Lenovo's idea to produce a new "ThinkPad Classic" that would provide all the best features of this long-running premium brand. But with the results of the second survey, and the launch of the third survey, it looks like going wrong. Perhaps we need not one "Retro ThinkPad" but two: a lightweight X version for road warriors, and a T version for power users.
When I wrote about the project last month, I suggested that the highly-mobile X220 would be the best place to start, and in the survey, I voted for a 12.5 inch screen. However, it turns out that I'm in a minority of only 14.3 percent (graph above). More than half of the 6,555 respondents want a 14.1 inch or 15.6 inch screen, which might well eliminate me as a potential buyer.
In today's "Retro ThinkPad" blog post, Lenovo's David Hill says: "Related to that, we've been really good at being able to fit a 14.1 inch display in the footprint of a 13.3 inch ThinkPad."
That could tempt me, but I'd rather have a 13.3 inch screen in an 11.6 inch form factor - which is pretty much what you get with the Dell XPS 13 (2015).
The third survey may show a similar split between people who want a fast quad-core processor (even if it has a high TDP) and a low voltage battery-saving dual-core processor. Again, we're talking different use-cases. The power users want a workstation processor, while the road warriors want a thinner ThinkPad with a longer battery life.
It's hard to predict how this one is going to come out. Will Dave Hill be able to find a compromise that suits both camps, or will a compromise spec disappoint both camps, potentially leading to financial disaster?
Personally, I'd like to see the project result in two different Retro ThinkPads, each version optimized for its specific market. If not, then I'd recommend Lenovo go for the workstation market and ignore people like me. There are, after all, dozens of lightweight laptops and Ultrabooks already on the market.
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