Into the data abyss. Image: My Melting Brain/Flickr

Oracle has escalated the “Big Data” arms race, acquiring Cambridge, Massachusetts-based analytics outfit Endeca.

Endeca’s software will be integrated into the company’s hardware systems as a way of providing “more comprehensive” management of unstructured data — the buzz term du jour in the enterprise IT market — according to Oracle vp Thomas Kurian.

According to Endeca, its MDEX analytics engine is written around a vertical record store, instead of classic tables. The marketing materials go so far as to espouse MDEX’s value over classic r...