Appliance vendors don't have a monopoly on tortured benchmark statistics or marketing hyperbole. All vendors in competitive markets engage in it to some extent, though newer entrants tend to be the worst offenders. But database performance for data warehousing is a very complicated issue because data warehouses have to operate in so many different modes, often simultaneously.

This paper was developed to help companies critically evaluate these messages and be aware of common tactics to tilt the scales in favor of the vendor. It is important to be able to see through the claims.