ThoughtSpot Eliminates the Need for BI Tools, Introduces Relational Search for Enterprise-Scale Data Analysis

• ThoughtSpot Relational Search Appliance available starting Oct 21, 2014 

• Enables “human-scale” user experience by combining first-of-its kind relational search engine with large-scale in-memory computing

Palo Alto, California - October 21, 2014 – ThoughtSpot today announces that it has brought to market ThoughtSpot Relational Search Appliance – a first-of-its-kind self-service data analysis solution built for enterprise scale.  The appliance combines the custom-built ThoughtSpot Relational Search Engine with ThoughtSpot In-Memory Relational Data Cache to create a solution that eliminates the current trade-off between end-user simplicity and IT departments’ needs for scale, security and manageability.

In 2012, the ThoughtSpot founding team identified a fundamental gap between the way consumers access vast volumes of data in their personal lives – via Facebook, Google, Yelp, Kayak and Amazon - and the way these same people access their sales, marketing and financial data in the workplace. While one was enabled by search-related innovations in these consumer companies, where most of the ThoughtSpot founders previously worked, the other was stuck in a decades-old Business Intelligence (BI) technology stack. As a consequence, despite more than $100 billion spent by companies on BI software licenses and even more on IT services, less than 25% of enterprise users have access to the data they need.

“We built this company with a consumer-grade user experience as our central mission,” said Ajeet Singh, co-founder and CEO, ThoughtSpot. “While BI served the enterprises well over the past three decades, the needs of users have changed tremendously. The future belongs to search and ThoughtSpot is excited to bring a solution to market that answers this challenge.”

Introducing ThoughtSpot Relational Search Appliance

The ThoughtSpot appliance is an enterprise-grade solution that combines data from on-premise and cloud data sources and enables enterprise users to access them in a simple-to-use yet secure manner. This is made possible by the following technologies that were custom-built by ThoughtSpot:

• Browser-based Consumer-class Interface – intuitive, search-based interface that can be used by enterprise workers without the assistance of IT or data analysts.

• ThoughtSpot Relational Search Engine – a first-of-its-kind search engine that understands relationships across disparate enterprise data sources and returns instant results from billions of rows of data.

• ThoughtSpot In-Memory Relational Data Cache – custom-built relational engine that can cache data from data warehouses, cloud applications, spreadsheets and Hadoop clusters and run in-memory computations on large data volumes. The data cache follows a distributed computing model and can grow incrementally as data volumes grow.

• ThoughtSpot Cluster Management – custom-built cluster management framework that provides enterprise-class fault tolerance, manageability and monitoring capabilities to the ThoughtSpot appliance.

Leading analysts and customers see a critical need in the market

“Data discovery capabilities are dominating new purchasing requirements, even for larger deployments, as alternatives to traditional BI tools,” said Rita Sallam, research VP, Joao Tapadinhas, research director, Josh Parenteau, research director, Gartner, et al. in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms, Feb 2014.  “But 'governed data discovery' — the ability to meet the dual demands of enterprise IT and business users — remains a challenge unmet by any one vendor.” ThoughtSpot Relational Search Appliance fills this gap as a first-of-its kind product that enables easy access to data to every business user while meeting the scale and security requirements of IT.

“When I saw ThoughtSpot for the first time, I knew I was seeing something different,” said Taylor Culver, AVP product management and data, SterlingBackCheck.  “We researched several business intelligence products and each came with its own strengths and limitations. ThoughtSpot allowed us the opportunity to empower all users with easy access to data while limiting dependency on an IT organization that comes with a traditional BI architecture. Being able to glean meaningful insights from our data in real time empowers users to share insights across the company as well as be trusted advisors to our clients.”

Relevant Links
Product:           https://www.thoughtspot.com/product
Press:                https://thoughtspot.com/news

About ThoughtSpot
ThoughtSpot aims to eliminate the need for complex business intelligence tools for enterprise data analysis. ThoughtSpot Relational Search Appliance combines data from on-premise, cloud and desktop data sources and enables enterprise users to access them through a simple search interface while providing enterprise-class scalability, security and manageability for IT.  ThoughtSpot founders have a track record of starting Nutanix, a $2B enterprise technology company that’s on its way to an IPO, and building market-defining search and analytics technologies at companies such as Google, Amazon, Oracle, and Microsoft. Based in Palo Alto, CA, ThoughtSpot has raised $40.7 million from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures and top-tier angel investors. For more information visit https://www.thoughtspot.com.  Follow us on Twitter at @thoughtspot.

Media contact
Anand Raghavan, ThoughtSpot
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +1-415-710-3083