In 2008, some 18 years since I moved into the BI sector of the industry, you would think that this space would be exhausted. Yet here we seeing more announcements from relatively 'new generation' vendors agressively going after this market. I refer of course to the announcement yesterday between LogiXML and Vertica on integration between LogiXML’s Web-based BI platform with the Vertica Analytic Database. It seems clear that columnar data warehouse appliance vendors are climbing the popularity charts with Vertica, ParAccel and SybaseIQ all gaining ground. LogiXML is clearly also on a growth path with its web based BI platform. With consoilidation still happening in the BI market, it would be no surprise to me if these kinds of partnerships ultimately go further in future but for now, companies should not assume that just because the software giants (IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP) have made their moves into the BI market that the game is over. This kind of announcement really offers an attractive and competitive alternative