Vertica released the latest version of its analytic database platform earlier this week and the spotlight was clearly trained on data access.

Vertica 6.0 significantly expands the platform’s ability to federate data from outside sources for analysis, including Hadoop and HP’s own Autonomy IDOL platform, through its FlexStore architecture, according to the company. Vertica users can now query data stored in other data sources, for example, using new external tables features. The end result, according to company executives,  is that Vertica can now serve as a data analytics “hub” for the enterprise.

Vertica 6

“Vertica 6 takes our concept of ’Analytics Everywhere’ to a new level by expanding the Vertica FlexStore architecture to provide access to any data, stored anywhere, using any interface,” said Colin Mahony, Vice President and General Manager at Vertica, which was acquired by HP in March 2011. “Now our clients can use the HP Vertica Analytics Platform as an analytics hub, providing access and analysis to harness the power of all their data, to drive growth, advantage and opportunity.”

The other noteworthy new feature in Vertica 6 is the addition of R compatibility. Users can now right user defined functions in R, an open source predictive analytics language popular with academia and the new generation of Data Scientists, direct on the Vertica platform.

The announcement came a day before the launch of HP Discover, HP’s annual customer and partner even, in Las Vegas. Its no secret HP is in the midst of what can kindly be called a transition period, as new CEO Meg Whitman looks to right the ship after the disastrous tenure of Leo Apotheker. Whitman announced just last month that the company is laying off 27,000 workers over the next three years, including 9,000 in 2012.

TechCrunch got a hold of an internal video memo by Whitman to HP employees:

“We’re struggling under our own weight,” said Whitman in today’s internal video memo. “And we’ve got to restore a healthy balance in order to return HP to its position as a growing… thriving… innovating… industry leader. That’s what this is all about. And the workforce reduction is only one piece of a comprehensive effort. We see a lot of opportunity to remove complexity, streamline and reduce costs in a number of areas across HP.”

As for Vertica, it’s been quite a year. The company’s CEO Chris Lynch left in March, succeeded by Mahony. And CRN reported yesterday that a number of other key executives have since departed as well. On the plus side, the company came out on top of Wikibon’s Big Data pure-play revenue report, with an estimated $84 million in revenue in 2011. And, unlike many of its competitors, Vertica has delivered hard, tangible Big Data results at customers like Zynga, Twitter, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Novartis.

Wikibon CEO Dave Vellante and myself are speaking live with Mahony inside theCUBE from the floor of HP Discover this afternoon at 3:00 pm ET. We’ll talk about the state of the company, get his opinion on making Big Data a reality in the enterprise, and more. Don’t miss it at SiliconANGLE.tv. In the meantime, here’s a clip from last year’s Discover.