Vertica Systems recently announced version 2.0 of its lightning-quick analytic database management system that is optimised for storing and querying large databases. Vertica joins a growing band of vendors offering column-based analytic databases which they claim to be better suited for business intelligence (BI) queries than traditional row-oriented relational databases pioneered by Oracle. Columns mean better performance, less disk space (because they’re easier to compress) and less administration. Version 2.0 of Vertica’s product builds on this foundation with further improvements in performance, scalability, systems management and integration with a broader range of BI and data warehousing tools. Backed by a strong management and advisory team and genuine customer momentum, Vertica is well positioned to take column-based databases from the periphery and into the analytic mainstream.