<s>
In	O
computer	B-General_Concept
science	I-General_Concept
,	O
in-memory	B-General_Concept
processing	I-General_Concept
is	O
an	O
emerging	O
technology	O
for	O
processing	B-General_Concept
of	I-General_Concept
data	I-General_Concept
stored	O
in	O
an	O
in-memory	B-General_Concept
database	I-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
In-memory	B-General_Concept
processing	I-General_Concept
is	O
one	O
method	O
of	O
addressing	O
the	O
performance	O
and	O
power	O
bottlenecks	O
caused	O
by	O
the	O
movement	O
of	O
data	O
between	O
the	O
processor	O
and	O
the	O
main	O
memory	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Older	O
systems	O
have	O
been	O
based	O
on	O
disk	B-Device
storage	I-Device
and	O
relational	B-Application
databases	I-Application
using	O
SQL	B-Language
query	B-Language
language	O
,	O
but	O
these	O
are	O
increasingly	O
regarded	O
as	O
inadequate	O
to	O
meet	O
business	B-General_Concept
intelligence	I-General_Concept
(	O
BI	O
)	O
needs	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Because	O
stored	O
data	O
is	O
accessed	O
much	O
more	O
quickly	O
when	O
it	O
is	O
placed	O
in	O
random-access	B-Architecture
memory	I-Architecture
(	O
RAM	B-Architecture
)	O
or	O
flash	B-Device
memory	I-Device
,	O
in-memory	B-General_Concept
processing	I-General_Concept
allows	O
data	O
to	O
be	O
analysed	O
in	O
real	B-General_Concept
time	I-General_Concept
,	O
enabling	O
faster	O
reporting	O
and	O
decision-making	O
in	O
business	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
With	O
disk-based	O
technology	O
,	O
data	O
is	O
loaded	O
on	O
to	O
the	O
computer	O
's	O
hard	B-Device
disk	I-Device
in	O
the	O
form	O
of	O
multiple	O
tables	O
and	O
multi-dimensional	O
structures	O
against	O
which	O
queries	B-Language
are	O
run	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Disk-based	O
technologies	O
are	O
relational	B-Application
database	I-Application
management	I-Application
systems	I-Application
(	O
RDBMS	O
)	O
,	O
often	O
based	O
on	O
the	O
structured	B-Language
query	I-Language
language	I-Language
(	O
SQL	B-Language
)	O
,	O
such	O
as	O
SQL	B-Application
Server	I-Application
,	O
MySQL	B-Application
,	O
Oracle	B-General_Concept
and	O
many	O
others	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
RDBMS	O
are	O
designed	O
for	O
the	O
requirements	O
of	O
transactional	B-Operating_System
processing	I-Operating_System
.	O
</s>
<s>
Another	O
drawback	O
is	O
that	O
SQL	B-Language
is	O
designed	O
to	O
efficiently	O
fetch	O
rows	O
of	O
data	O
,	O
while	O
BI	O
queries	B-Language
usually	O
involve	O
fetching	O
of	O
partial	O
rows	O
of	O
data	O
involving	O
heavy	O
calculations	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
To	O
improve	O
query	B-Language
performance	O
,	O
multidimensional	O
databases	O
or	O
OLAP	O
cubes	O
-	O
also	O
called	O
multidimensional	O
online	O
analytical	O
processing	O
(	O
MOLAP	O
)	O
-	O
are	O
constructed	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Cubes	O
are	O
pre-populated	O
with	O
data	O
to	O
answer	O
specific	O
queries	B-Language
and	O
although	O
they	O
increase	O
performance	O
,	O
they	O
are	O
still	O
not	O
suitable	O
for	O
answering	O
ad-hoc	O
queries	B-Language
.	O
</s>
<s>
Information	O
technology	O
(	O
IT	O
)	O
staff	O
spend	O
substantial	O
development	O
time	O
on	O
optimizing	O
databases	O
,	O
constructing	O
indexes	O
and	O
aggregates	O
,	O
designing	O
cubes	O
and	O
star	B-Application
schemas	I-Application
,	O
data	B-Application
modeling	I-Application
,	O
and	O
query	B-Language
analysis	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Reading	O
data	O
from	O
the	O
hard	B-Device
disk	I-Device
is	O
much	O
slower	O
(	O
possibly	O
hundreds	O
of	O
times	O
)	O
when	O
compared	O
to	O
reading	O
the	O
same	O
data	O
from	O
RAM	B-Architecture
.	O
</s>
<s>
Though	O
SQL	B-Language
is	O
a	O
very	O
powerful	O
tool	O
,	O
complex	O
queries	B-Language
take	O
a	O
relatively	O
long	O
time	O
to	O
execute	O
and	O
often	O
result	O
in	O
bringing	O
down	O
the	O
performance	O
of	O
transactional	B-Operating_System
processing	I-Operating_System
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
order	O
to	O
obtain	O
results	O
within	O
an	O
acceptable	O
response	O
time	O
,	O
many	O
data	O
warehouses	O
have	O
been	O
designed	O
to	O
pre-calculate	O
summaries	O
and	O
answer	O
specific	O
queries	B-Language
only	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Memory	O
processing	O
can	O
be	O
accomplished	O
via	O
traditional	O
databases	O
such	O
as	O
Oracle	B-General_Concept
,	O
IBM	B-Application
Db2	I-Application
or	O
Microsoft	B-Application
SQL	I-Application
Server	I-Application
or	O
via	O
NoSQL	B-General_Concept
offerings	O
such	O
as	O
in-memory	B-General_Concept
data	B-General_Concept
grid	I-General_Concept
like	O
Hazelcast	B-Application
,	O
Infinispan	B-Language
,	O
Oracle	B-Application
Coherence	I-Application
or	O
ScaleOut	O
Software	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
With	O
both	O
in-memory	B-General_Concept
database	I-General_Concept
and	O
data	B-General_Concept
grid	I-General_Concept
,	O
all	O
information	O
is	O
initially	O
loaded	O
into	O
memory	O
RAM	B-Architecture
or	O
flash	B-Device
memory	I-Device
instead	O
of	O
hard	B-Device
disks	I-Device
.	O
</s>
<s>
With	O
a	O
data	B-General_Concept
grid	I-General_Concept
processing	O
occurs	O
at	O
three	O
order	B-Device
of	I-Device
magnitude	I-Device
faster	O
than	O
relational	B-Application
databases	I-Application
which	O
have	O
advanced	O
functionality	O
such	O
as	O
ACID	O
which	O
degrade	O
performance	O
in	O
compensation	O
for	O
the	O
additional	O
functionality	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
arrival	O
of	O
column	B-General_Concept
centric	I-General_Concept
databases	I-General_Concept
,	O
which	O
store	O
similar	O
information	O
together	O
,	O
allow	O
data	O
to	O
be	O
stored	O
more	O
efficiently	O
and	O
with	O
greater	O
compression	B-General_Concept
ratios	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
allows	O
huge	O
amounts	O
of	O
data	O
to	O
be	O
stored	O
in	O
the	O
same	O
physical	O
space	O
,	O
reducing	O
the	O
amount	O
of	O
memory	O
needed	O
to	O
perform	O
a	O
query	B-Language
and	O
increasing	O
processing	O
speed	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Many	O
users	O
and	O
software	O
vendors	O
have	O
integrated	O
flash	B-Device
memory	I-Device
into	O
their	O
systems	O
to	O
allow	O
systems	O
to	O
scale	O
to	O
larger	O
data	O
sets	O
more	O
economically	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Oracle	B-General_Concept
has	O
been	O
integrating	O
flash	B-Device
memory	I-Device
into	O
the	O
Oracle	B-Device
Exadata	I-Device
products	O
for	O
increased	O
performance	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Microsoft	B-Application
SQL	I-Application
Server	I-Application
2012	O
BI/Data	O
Warehousing	O
software	O
has	O
been	O
coupled	O
with	O
Violin	O
Memory	O
flash	B-Device
memory	I-Device
arrays	O
to	O
enable	O
in-memory	B-General_Concept
processing	I-General_Concept
of	O
data	O
sets	O
greater	O
than	O
20TB	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Users	O
query	B-Language
the	O
data	O
loaded	O
into	O
the	O
system	O
’s	O
memory	O
,	O
thereby	O
avoiding	O
slower	O
database	O
access	O
and	O
performance	O
bottlenecks	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
differs	O
from	O
caching	B-General_Concept
,	O
a	O
very	O
widely	O
used	O
method	O
to	O
speed	O
up	O
query	B-Language
performance	O
,	O
in	O
that	O
caches	B-General_Concept
are	O
subsets	O
of	O
very	O
specific	O
pre-defined	O
organized	O
data	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
With	O
in-memory	B-General_Concept
tools	O
,	O
data	O
available	O
for	O
analysis	O
can	O
be	O
as	O
large	O
as	O
a	O
data	B-General_Concept
mart	I-General_Concept
or	O
small	O
data	O
warehouse	O
which	O
is	O
entirely	O
in	O
memory	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
can	O
be	O
accessed	O
quickly	O
by	O
multiple	O
concurrent	B-Operating_System
users	O
or	O
applications	O
at	O
a	O
detailed	O
level	O
and	O
offers	O
the	O
potential	O
for	O
enhanced	O
analytics	O
and	O
for	O
scaling	O
and	O
increasing	O
the	O
speed	O
of	O
an	O
application	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Theoretically	O
,	O
the	O
improvement	O
in	O
data	O
access	O
speed	O
is	O
10,000	O
to	O
1,000,000	O
times	O
compared	O
to	O
the	O
disk	B-Device
.	O
</s>
<s>
Certain	O
developments	O
in	O
computer	O
technology	O
and	O
business	O
needs	O
have	O
tended	O
to	O
increase	O
the	O
relative	O
advantages	O
of	O
in-memory	B-General_Concept
technology	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
CPU	O
processing	O
,	O
memory	O
and	O
disk	B-Device
storage	I-Device
are	O
all	O
subject	O
to	O
some	O
variation	O
of	O
this	O
law	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Also	O
hardware	O
innovations	O
such	O
as	O
multi-core	B-Architecture
architecture	I-Architecture
,	O
NAND	O
flash	B-Device
memory	I-Device
,	O
parallel	B-Operating_System
servers	I-Operating_System
,	O
and	O
increased	O
memory	O
processing	O
capability	O
,	O
in	O
addition	O
to	O
software	O
innovations	O
such	O
as	O
column	B-General_Concept
centric	I-General_Concept
databases	I-General_Concept
,	O
compression	B-General_Concept
techniques	I-General_Concept
and	O
handling	O
aggregate	O
tables	O
,	O
have	O
all	O
contributed	O
to	O
demand	O
for	O
in-memory	B-General_Concept
products	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
advent	O
of	O
64-bit	O
operating	O
systems	O
,	O
which	O
allow	O
access	O
to	O
far	O
more	O
RAM	B-Architecture
(	O
up	O
to	O
100GB	O
or	O
more	O
)	O
than	O
the	O
2	O
or	O
4	O
GB	O
accessible	O
on	O
32-bit	O
systems	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
By	O
providing	O
Terabytes	O
(	O
1	O
TB	O
=	O
1,024	O
GB	O
)	O
of	O
space	O
for	O
storage	O
and	O
analysis	O
,	O
64-bit	O
operating	O
systems	O
make	O
in-memory	B-General_Concept
processing	I-General_Concept
scalable	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
use	O
of	O
flash	B-Device
memory	I-Device
enables	O
systems	O
to	O
scale	O
to	O
many	O
Terabytes	O
more	O
economically	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In-memory	B-General_Concept
processing	I-General_Concept
enables	O
instant	O
access	O
to	O
terabytes	O
of	O
data	O
for	O
real	B-General_Concept
time	I-General_Concept
reporting	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In-memory	B-General_Concept
processing	I-General_Concept
is	O
available	O
at	O
a	O
lower	O
cost	O
compared	O
to	O
traditional	O
BI	O
tools	O
,	O
and	O
can	O
be	O
more	O
easily	O
deployed	O
and	O
maintained	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Many	O
data	O
warehouse	O
vendors	O
are	O
choosing	O
in-memory	B-General_Concept
technology	O
over	O
traditional	O
BI	O
to	O
speed	O
up	O
implementation	O
times	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Decreases	O
in	O
power	O
consumption	O
and	O
increases	O
in	O
throughput	O
due	O
to	O
a	O
lower	O
access	O
latency	O
,	O
and	O
greater	O
memory	O
bandwidth	O
and	O
hardware	O
parallelism	B-Operating_System
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
range	O
of	O
in-memory	B-General_Concept
products	O
provide	O
ability	O
to	O
connect	O
to	O
existing	O
data	O
sources	O
and	O
access	O
to	O
visually	O
rich	O
interactive	O
dashboards	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
allows	O
business	O
analysts	O
and	O
end	O
users	O
to	O
create	O
custom	O
reports	O
and	O
queries	B-Language
without	O
much	O
training	O
or	O
expertise	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Easy	O
navigation	O
and	O
ability	O
to	O
modify	O
queries	B-Language
on	O
the	O
fly	O
is	O
of	O
benefit	O
to	O
many	O
users	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Since	O
these	O
dashboards	O
can	O
be	O
populated	O
with	O
fresh	O
data	O
,	O
users	O
have	O
access	O
to	O
real	B-General_Concept
time	I-General_Concept
data	O
and	O
can	O
create	O
reports	O
within	O
minutes	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In-memory	B-General_Concept
processing	I-General_Concept
may	O
be	O
of	O
particular	O
benefit	O
in	O
call	O
centers	O
and	O
warehouse	O
management	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
With	O
in-memory	B-General_Concept
processing	I-General_Concept
,	O
the	O
source	O
database	O
is	O
queried	O
only	O
once	O
instead	O
of	O
accessing	O
the	O
database	O
every	O
time	O
a	O
query	B-Language
is	O
run	O
,	O
thereby	O
eliminating	O
repetitive	O
processing	O
and	O
reducing	O
the	O
burden	O
on	O
database	O
servers	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
By	O
scheduling	O
to	O
populate	O
the	O
in-memory	B-General_Concept
database	I-General_Concept
overnight	O
,	O
the	O
database	O
servers	O
can	O
be	O
used	O
for	O
operational	O
purposes	O
during	O
peak	O
hours	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
With	O
a	O
large	O
number	O
of	O
users	O
,	O
a	O
large	O
amount	O
of	O
RAM	B-Architecture
is	O
needed	O
for	O
an	O
in-memory	B-General_Concept
configuration	O
,	O
which	O
in	O
turn	O
affects	O
the	O
hardware	O
costs	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
investment	O
is	O
more	O
likely	O
to	O
be	O
suitable	O
in	O
situations	O
where	O
speed	O
of	O
query	B-Language
response	O
is	O
a	O
high	O
priority	O
,	O
and	O
where	O
there	O
is	O
significant	O
growth	O
in	O
data	O
volume	O
and	O
increase	O
in	O
demand	O
for	O
reporting	O
facilities	O
;	O
it	O
may	O
still	O
not	O
be	O
cost-effective	O
where	O
information	O
is	O
not	O
subject	O
to	O
rapid	O
change	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Security	O
is	O
another	O
consideration	O
,	O
as	O
in-memory	B-General_Concept
tools	O
expose	O
huge	O
amounts	O
of	O
data	O
to	O
end	O
users	O
.	O
</s>
