Hi Phil,

You ask "The early signs are that we can now run a SQL-based relational database with distributed execution plans over commodity hardware, leaving just the task of splicing together of the result to the engine itself, then why can’t Microsoft or Oracle do it?".

Microsoft already does this via the appliance called APS (Analytics Platform System), which was formally called Parallel Data Warehouse (PDW). More info is at http://www.jamesserra.com/archive/2014/03/parallel-data-warehouse-pdw-benefits-made-simple/[/url]