Greenplum has released a new version of its open-source-based database for business intelligence.

New features in Greenplum 3, which is based on the PostgreSQL open source database, includes parallel loading in excess of 3.5 terabytes per hour. In addition, the upgrade introduced native support for parallel analytic functions that enables faster execution of complex operations.

G3 also offers support for external data streams that enables companies to augment their databases with thousands of terabytes of external data, such as real-time stock market data, RSS feeds and internal data stores, the vendor said. Finally the upgrade offers more efficient management of workloads than previous versions and faster CPU-optimized scans.

G3 is certified to operate with business intelligence software from Business Objects, Cognos, MicroStrategy, Pentaho and SAS; and data integration technology from IBM and Informatica.

Scalability was a major focus of the latest release according to Greenplum. "With G3, we’ve taken software that was already a price/performance leader and made it even faster, more scalable and more versatile," Scott Yara, president and co-founder of Greenplum, said in a recent statement. "G3 is truly the world’s first Internet-scale database -- one that can the handle massive volumes of data being generated in today's information-driven society."

In building its BI-focused database, Greenplum engineers PostgreSQL into a massively parallel system that it calls Bizgres MPP and offers as the commercially supported database. Bizgres is available as open-source code at Bizgres.org.

Among Greenplum's investors is computer and storage vendor Sun Microsystems, which recently bought rival open source database company MySQL AB for $1 billion. The Greenplum database and Sun's large-scale Thumper storage system have been combined to form the Sun/Greenplum Data Warehouse Appliance.

Thumper combines server hardware and up to 24 TB of disk space assembled in four slots of a rack-mount unit that's about seven inches high. Thumper is also known as the Sun Fire X4500.

Among the Internet companies using the Greenplum database are Skype, which is owned by eBay; iCrossing, Didit, VideoEgg and Comcast Entertainment Group.