Aster Data Systems
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Data management, analytics software |
| Founded | 2005 |
| Founder | George Candea, Mayank Bawa, Tasso Argyros |
| Defunct | 2011 |
| Fate | Acquired by Teradata |
| Headquarters | San Carlos, California , United States |
Key people | Tasso Argyros (CTO) |
| Products | Aster database software, analytics appliances |
| Owner | Teradata |
| Parent | Teradata |
Aster Data Systems was a company specializing in data management and analytics software, with its headquarters located in San Carlos, California. Established in 2005 by Stanford alumni George Candea, Mayank Bawa, and Tasso Argyros, the firm attracted investments from entities such as First Round Capital, Sequoia Capital, and angel investors including Rajeev Motwani. Its financing milestones comprised $5 million raised in 2005, followed by $17 million in 2009, and an additional $30 million in 2010.
Acknowledged as a prominent player in the big data analytics sector, Aster Data was positioned seventh among venture-backed firms according to The Wall Street Journal in 2011. That same year, CTO Tasso Argyros earned recognition as a technology pioneer by the World Economic Forum.
In 2010, Teradata acquired an initial minority interest of 11% in Aster Data and finalized the complete acquisition in April 2011 for $263 million. Following this transaction, Teradata incorporated Aster’s sophisticated analytics technology into its offerings and introduced a pre-integrated analytic appliance combining both software and hardware components in September 2011.
Aster Data organized annual "Data Analytics Summit" conferences up until 2012 to foster engagement among industry experts. In October 2012, the company launched a second-generation appliance that supported both the Aster database and Hortonworks’ Apache Hadoop distribution, thereby broadening its big data functionality.
The release of version 6 of the Aster database software in October 2013 brought enhancements such as graph database capabilities and compatibility with Hadoop file systems, strengthening its analytics platform. Following co-founder Mayank Bawa’s exit in 2014, he was honored as a young achiever by the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.
Teradata pursued further innovation by integrating the R programming language into its products announced in June 2014 and unveiling an "AppCenter" powered by Aster technology in February 2015. Later that year, Teradata rolled out analytics solutions for Apache Hadoop designed to process Internet of Things data.
Between 2016 and 2017, Aster Analytics expanded its international footprint by becoming available on both Amazon AWS Marketplace and Microsoft Azure Marketplace, addressing the needs of self-service clients seeking scalable big data platforms.