The analytics space has seen a flurry of startup updates in the past week, beginning with the Monday release of Splice Machine’s Hadoop database into public beta. Unlike structured query engines such as Impala, which merely provide the ability to manipulate information stored in HDFS using SQL syntax, the firm’s platform offers a full-blown relational environment for processing latency-sensitive transactional workloads.

Splice Machine, which secured a $12 million funding round in February, boasts that its solution moves Hadoop beyond a purely batch-oriented technology to an end-to-end enterprise framework capable of meeting the requirements of mission-critical applications historically supported by proprietary databases. The company further claims that its software offers ten times greater price-performance than Oracle RAC implementations.

Two days after Splice Machine marked the latest milestone in its development roadmap, Platfora, another startup working to accelerate Hadoop, updated its flagship business intelligence to allow for increased data mobility.  Users can now make information stored in their Platfora “lenses”, in-memory data marts that can be visually explored with sub-second response times and updated as needed, accessible for other processes.
Besides opening up the platform, the update also introduces a reworked user interface that brings with it new contextual menus, interactive charts and cross-tabs that the startup says aim to help business analysts become more productive.

Last but not least, LiveRamp has been acquired by information broker Acxiom in a deal valued at $310 million. Founded in April 2011 and based in San Francisco, LiveRamp develops so-called “data onboarding” technology that allows advertisers to measure the impact of online campaigns on in-store purchases and customize displays accordingly. Scott Howe, the CEO of Acxiom, stated the the acquisition extends his company’s portfolio across the entire spectrum of marketing channels “to create the industry’s most comprehensive network of connections.”

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