from DSSResources.comTeradata donates technology to University of Arkansas enterprise computing curriculumFAYETTEVILLE, Ark., September 17, 2005 – The Sam M. Walton College of Business announced that Teradata, a division of NCR Corporation, has donated a new Teradata® Data Warehouse valued at $1.1 million for the information systems, computer science and computer engineering students at the University of Arkansas (UA). In 2000, NCR partnered with the Walton College, College of Engineering and UA Computing Services to provide a Teradata system valued at more than $7 million dollars. The first system had 1.7 gigabytes of storage. This new gift is an update of the Teradata technology with a 5251 system and 5.4 terabytes of disk storage. The new 5251 system represents a 400% improvement in performance over the previous gift, which also includes on-site maintenance, training and consultation. “Teradata is the world's most proven and powerful database for enterprise data warehousing,” said Fred Davis, chair of the Information Systems Department and David D. Glass Chair in Information Systems. “We are very grateful to the NCR division for giving our students and faculty access to some of the more leading-edge technology in the world. This technology plays a key role in our Enterprise Computing Curriculum.” Joe Rarey, director of the Teradata Wal-Mart global support team, said, “The system provides invaluable educational opportunities for computer and information systems graduates as well as business students.” David Douglas, professor of information systems, said, “We cannot thank Teradata enough for this gift. This initiative will provide our students with opportunities for analyzing data that would not otherwise be possible. In addition to the gift of hardware and software, Teradata is providing the human resources necessary to install, configure and test the system to ensure the system becomes operational as quickly as possible. Finally, Teradata has also agreed to include hardware maintenance and support as part of their generous gift. NCR and its Teradata Division are considered valued partners to the University of Arkansas.” Data warehousing is a critical concept in business and other organizations. It uses enormous databases to allow knowledge workers to answer complex questions and perform sophisticated analyses of the database to extract information to use in managing the enterprise. Many students in the Walton College and the College of Engineering will greatly benefit from the Terradata technology. A number of very large databases containing actual data have been donated by several large businesses and will be housed on the system. Paul Cronan, M. D. Matthews chair and director of Enterprise Computing, said, “The goal of enterprise computing at the University of Arkansas is to help students better understand how data warehousing, e-business and other large-scale systems work together to support management decision-making. This fabulous gift from Teradata helps transform the University into a ‘world class’ information technology center. With this hardware and software gift, students can utilize multiple large-scale computing platforms as a routine part of their studies.” The Walton College also houses major technology gifts from other companies. “The University of Arkansas is one of the few schools that can offer its students this ‘industrial strength’ combination of real-world technology,” said Davis. “We are preparing students to be highly productive as they enter the workforce in information technology organizations of businesses.” David Douglas, Professor of Information Systems Sam M. Walton College of Business (479) 575-6114, ddouglas@uark.edu Dixie Kline, Director of Communications Sam M. Walton College of Business, (479) 575-2539, dkline@walton.uark.edu |