U.S. Postal Service Goes Live With New Teradata Capabilities

WASHINGTON, Feb. 22, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Teradata Corporation (NYSE: TDC), the world's largest company solely focused on data warehousing and enterprise analytics today announced that the United States Postal Service (USPS) has added a new high-availability capability to its Teradata Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) infrastructure. The 'Dual Active' system provides USPS analysts with the ability to access detailed operational information, without disruption, for monitoring, analysis, reporting and decision-making purposes. USPS' new Dual Active infrastructure serves as an award-winning example of an integrated, centralized enterprise data warehouse with significant, tangible economic benefits.

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The latest upgrade of the USPS Teradata environment involved deployment of a Dual Active/High Availability infrastructure.  This refers to the installation of a second system where data load activity is duplicated resulting in full data synchronization between the primary and secondary sites for disaster recovery and high service availability.  With the additional facility, USPS can provide consistent and assured delivery of queries and reporting services required by the users of USPS data warehouse services, as well as enabling a load balancing of user demand between the two sites.

The EDW system now supports the execution of over 1.6 million reports a month for over 40,000 users. USPS has described its data warehouse-based information ecosystem as a mission critical environment which supports 37,000 finance units. For example, having the financial data in the EDW allows USPS to close its books in days, when previously it had taken weeks. This kind of accelerated and highly available platform benefits the USPS in many ways.

"The Teradata data warehouse at USPS is of particular importance, since it validates our successful and long-advocated approach of a consolidated, integrated database platform – and is certainly one of the largest data warehouses in the world," said Jerry Myers, president of Teradata Government Solutions group. "As more government agencies look for ways to consolidate multiple data sources and integrate data for economic efficiencies and better decision support, we believe they will increasingly turn to Teradata, where our track record of consolidating data marts and centralizing huge volumes of data is impeccable."

This recent USPS initiative was the basis of a recent award in the Computerworld Enterprise Intelligence program for innovative use of information technology.

The USPS first engaged Teradata in 2000 to develop its Retail Data Mart, which included the consolidation of all point-of-service data into a single data repository.  Since then, USPS has grown its Teradata system into a corporate EDW including a number of other business areas, such as financial management, operational decision support and marketing.  USPS has also grown its usage of Teradata to support complex analyses as well as reporting to support their decision making processes.

In addition to being the acknowledged leader in data warehousing for commercial purposes, Teradata data warehouses are used at a growing number of government agencies including the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare. In the midst of a historic fiscal crisis for state governments, several states, led by the State of Texas, have used Teradata databases to collectively recover more than one billion dollars in under-reported and unreported tax revenue.

More government organizations are turning to Teradata's powerful data warehousing computer systems, which integrate data, deliver dramatic efficiencies and drive economic benefits using the most advanced database platforms and software.

Relevant news links

• Look! Teradata information feed to MicroStrategy dashboard at USPS
• Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service recognized for innovative achievements in using Teradata database to drive reporting dashboard – for powerful analysis
• Teradata and MicroStrategy® share more than 250 mutual customers worldwide.
• Teradata Chief Technology Officer interview on how to leverage database-driven advanced analytics – in a time when access and transparency are priorities
• Independent Analyst Firm Declares Teradata 'the Most Scalable, Flexible, Cloud-Capable Enterprise Data Warehouse in Today's Market' - 2/10/2011
• Wow! Teradata placed in Leaders Quadrant for data warehousing technology Feb 1
• Teradata data warehouse adopted at Italy's Social Security Agency

About the U.S. Postal Service

A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 150 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $67 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world's mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 29th in the 2010 Fortune 500. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency six consecutive years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.

About Teradata

Teradata Corporation (NYSE: TDC) is the world's largest company focused on raising intelligence through data warehousing, data warehouse appliances, consulting services, applications, and enterprise analytics.  Teradata is in more than 60 countries and on the Web at www.teradata.com.

Teradata and the Teradata logo are registered trademarks of Teradata Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries.

SOURCE Teradata Corporation