Reliant Data Systems Inc.'s Data Conversion Language
Engine (DCLE)
Intellidex's Warehouse Control Center
Search Software America's Data Clustering Engine
V2.0
Speedware Corp.'s Esperant V4.0
Pine Cone Systems' Data Usage Tracker and Charge
Black Manager
Intersolv Inc.'s Data Direct ODBC 3.0 Drivers
Knowlege X Inc.'s Knowlege X
Sequent Computer Systems Inc.'s NUMA-Q2000
Poetry Software Corp's added ODMG Java functionality
Tandem Computer Inc.'s Object Relational Data Mining
Quest Sofware Inc.'s Vista Plus
Raimia Corp.'s Velocis Database Server version
2
Bradmark Inc.'s Server Manager for Oracle and Performance
Monitor for Sybase
Reliant Data Systems Inc.'s brand-new Data Conversion Language Engine (DCLE) promises to solve the trickiest data migration problems, such as warehouse migration, data cleansing, and Year 2000 data conversion. DCLE (pronounced "diesel") is a codeless platform- and database-independent data migration tool that lets users convert data among almost any formats and platforms.
DCLE's GUI-based SQL-like environment lets users define source, target, and intermediate environments, tables, and fields among which data is migrated. The DCLE conversion engine then executes the migration process without requiring any custom programming. Users can also schedule the engine to trigger migration and/or cleansing events.
As part of the migration specifications, users can predefine any number of data cleansing processes or transformations. The product contains a number of data cleansing macros and also provides an API that lets users create customized data cleansing rules in C code. Based on metadata from the target database, DCLE can test data for compliance with data in the target environment prior to migration.
The product's graphical user interface, called DCLE Connect, lets users establish source-target relationships either by point-and-click or in a command-line interface.
Reliant's Virtual Workgroup technology enables multiple geographically dispersed users to access DCLE on a network, through dial-up connection, or via an Internet connection.
The Reliant DCLE runs on Solaris, HP/UX, AIX, and Windows NT operating systems. DCLE Connect is available for Windows 95 and NT. Other client systems can access DCLE through a Telnet connection.
Prices vary based on the number of copies and sites, the scope of migration projects, and project time frames.
Reliant Data Systems,6101 Balcones Dr., Austin, TX 78731, (800) 713-7070,
(512) 329-8391, Fax (512) 329-8368.
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Intellidex released a brand-new tool for managing data warehouse or data mart metadata. The Intellidex Warehouse Control Center links business decision makers to data warehouse information and gives warehouse administrators a collection of centralized control tools.
The product captures the following types of information:
Warehouse Control Center features a graphical user interface that provides synchronized business and technical views of the warehouse. An intuitive information directory lets decision makers navigate, search, and request data in business terminology, while warehouse administrators retain a centralized control point for warehouse resources.
Warehouse Control Center is packaged in three versions designed to fit requirements ranging from a small data mart to an enterprisewide warehousing environment. The product supports DB2, Oracle7, and SQL/Server 4.1 or above.
Pricing begins at $40,000.
Intellidex Systems, 25 Bartlett Rd., Winthrop, MA 02152, (617) 539-1370,
Fax (617) 846-4903.
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Search Software America (SSA) announced version 2.0 of its Data Clustering Engine. The Data Clustering Engine analyzes and groups diverse data records into "clusters" of related records. It helps users eliminate duplicate records, identify relationships between records, mine data for customer information, marketing, or fraud detection, and combine multiple files into a data warehouse.
The Data Clustering Engine groups data according to user-defined rules, such as groups of the same person, address, company name, or account number. It accepts data from multiple, varied databases, including IMS, DB2, Sybase, Oracle, and Informix.
The product analyzes and groups data into "fuzzy sets" using fuzzy keys and scoring algorithms. According to SSA, the Clustering Engine will cluster nonuniform and poor-quality data in any character set, from any country, regardless of spelling, keying, word variation, or sequence errors. The Data Clustering Engine outputs a file of the original data grouped into clusters by the criteria chosen by the user.
The product is designed for use with SSA-Name, SSA's name-search and matching tool. It is currently available for Unix, MVS, Windows NT, Windows 95, DOS, and OS/2 and it is scalable for projects from 50,000 to 500,000,000 records.
The license price for SSA-Name and the Data Clustering Engine ranges
from $64,000 to $152,500, depending on the platform.
Search Software America, 1445 E. Putnam Ave., Old Greenwich, CT 06870,
(203) 698-2399, Fax (203) 698-2409.
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Speedware Corp. released a new version of its query and reporting tool, Esperant. Version 4.0 features charting, graphing, security, user interface, and ROLAP enhancements. The new ROLAP capabilities include data pivoting, "surfing," visualization, and drill-down.
Esperant 4.0 will be tightly integrated with a new desktop edition of Speedware Corp.'s Media/PE. Esperant query results can be instantly transferred into Media/PE's multidimensional database. Media/PE can then deliver higher analysis capabilities against the results of an Esperant query.
Esperant 4.0 lets users "surf" data by applying Named Filters to query results. These centrally or user-defined filters can represent complex business rules. The new graphing and charting module produces three-dimensional graphs with rotation and animation capabilities. A built-in Data Visualizer highlights relationships hidden within data.
Other upgrades include:
Esperant and Media/PE support Windows 3.x, 95, and NT. Esperant supports Oracle, Sybase, Microsoft SQL Server, DB2, Informix, and ADABAS C and D.
Esperant 4.0 is priced at $595 per user for one to eight copies, with
quantity discounts available. The Administrator Edition is priced at $795.
For Media/PE pricing information, contact the vendor.
Speedware Corp., 150 John St., 10th Floor, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5V
3E3, (416) 408-2880, Fax (416) 408-2872.
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Pine Cone Systems released Data Usage Tracker and Charge Back Manager, tools that manage the hardware and software activity and costs associated with data warehousing and decision support. Data Usage Tracker is designed to pinpoint "dormant data" existing in data marts and warehouses. By identifying such unused data, the tool promises to reduce warehousing maintenance costs.
Data Usage Tracker also describes which users access the system most and at what times of the day, how system utilization varies throughout the month, and which queries consume the most resources. In addition, it can track DSS response times.
The Charge Back Manager tool works with Data Usage Tracker to calculate the costs of data warehouse and data mart processing based on an end user's activity. The Data Usage Tracker traps the activity that goes against a data warehouse or data mart. This information on user activities is then passed on to Charge Back Manager's charge-back algorithm to calculate usage costs.
Charge Back Manager is intended to make users aware of DSS costs and distribute those costs fairly across the corporation. Data warehouse administrators can tailor the product's charge-back algorithm to meet the needs of the organization. Charge-back options include:
Data Usage Tracker and Charge Back Manager operate on standard data warehouse
platforms, including Oracle, Red Brick, Informix, Sybase, and DB2.
Pine Cone Systems Inc., 7340 E. Caley Ave., Englewood, CO 80111, (303)
221-4000, Fax (303) 221-4010.
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Intersolv Inc. released DataDirect ODBC 3.0 Drivers to support Microsoft's new ODBC 3.0 specification. The DataDirect ODBC 3.0 Drivers are available for Windows NT and 95 platforms.
The 3.0 Drivers will enable developers to capitalize on ODBC 3.0's specifications for the ADO and OLE DB environments. The Drivers also integrate with Intersolv's JDBC/ODBC Bridge, providing intranet data access for Java JDBC environments.
The DataDirect ODBC 3.0 Drivers are priced at $99.
Intersolv Inc., 3200 Tower Oaks Blvd., Rockville, MD 20852, (301) 230-3200,
Fax (301) 231-7813.
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KnowledgeX Inc. released KnowledgeX, a knowledge-management system that reveals hidden relationships between accumulated data, determines the strength of those relationships, and identifies their relevance to a defined business goal or problem.
The system works by releaving graphical hypertext-like connections among related data. A typical application might be a company assessing its competition. The company would input public information-such as product acquisitions, personnel hirings, closings and openings of regional facilities, and new equipment purchases-on its competitors. KnowledgeX then lets the company compare this data to find people or activities common to more than one company and to determine possible market alliances.
Input into the KnowledgeX system can be news media, magazine articles, annual reports, press releases, graphic images, or SEC documents. Using drag-and-drop objects and natural-language descriptives, users define the information they want to track or relationships they want to reveal.
Users can publish collections of data in multiple formats and distribute this information to the appropriate decision makers. Users can also subscribe to specific areas of interest and be automatically notified of any changes or updates in these areas.
KnowledgeX runs on Windows NT and 95 and supports Oracle and SQL Server
databases. A solo version of the product is priced at $995. The enterprise
version begins at $25,000 for eight users.
KnowledgeX Inc., 11 Piedmont Ctr., Ste. 716, Atlanta, GA 30305, (404)
816-4807, Fax (404) 816-5123.
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Sequent Computer Systems Inc. released its new NUMA-Q 2000 enterprise server family. According to Sequent, Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA) technology provides up to 12 times the performance of SMP systems.
The NUMA-Q 2000 family is binary compatible with Sequent's Symmetry 5000 SMP servers, so Symmetry and NUMA-Q nodes can be mixed within the same cluster.
The NUMA-Q servers feature Sequent's four-chip Intel Pentium Pro processor SMP baseboards (quads) and IQ-Link, a high-speed interconnect between the quads. Within these quads, Sequent placed memory, input/output, and processors close together so that 93 percent of accesses can be handled at the quad level over a single, shared 500MB-per-second bus, the company said. According to Sequent, adding quads to the system increases the effective bus bandwidth up to 32GB per second.
IQ-Link can move data at a rate of 1GB per second with a data pump chip based on GaAs technology. This high-speed interconnect system lets users build systems containing up to 252 processors, the company said. The IQ-Link also contains error-checking circuitry designed to correct data transmission errors and to reconfigure data paths if a quad fails.
At the operating system level, NUMA-Q 2000 runs on Sequent's DYNIX/ptx.
Entry-level system prices range from $242,000 to $253,000, depending on
the configuration.
Sequent Computer Systems Inc., 15450 SW Koll Pkwy., Beaverton, OR 97006,
(800) 257-9044, (503) 626-5700, Fax (800) 257-9044.
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Poet Software Corp. added ODMG Java tight binding to its Universal Object Server, giving its object database transparent access to all objects from both Java and C++ applications. This new functionality gives developers new options for their Java applications, including multiple database transactions, multiuser access, queries, replication, and publish-and-subscribe.
According to Poet, Java 1.0's Java tight binding creates a single, unified object-type system shared by the Java language and the Poet object database. Programmers perceive the binding as an extension to the development language. The syntax used to create, delete, identify, reference get/set field values, and invoke methods on a persistent object is the same as that used for objects of shorter lifetimes.
With the addition of Poet Java 1.0, the Poet Universal Object Server family provides C++ and Java software development kits, allowing developers to write applications that exchange C++ and Java objects. The first release of Poet Java tight binding contains a Java client and relies on the fourth-generation Poet kernel written in C++ for the local client database engine. However, at the end of 1997, Poet promises to introduce a pure Java client supporting full connectivity to any Poet database server without reliance on the C++ kernel.
Poet has also announced that an upcoming release will enable Java and C++ applications to access data from relational databases.
The Poet ODBMS is available for all major platforms. Poet Java 1.0 is
priced at $499. A free evaluation version is available at www.poet.com.
Poet Software Corp., 999 Baker Way, Ste. 100, San Mateo, CA 94404, (415)
286-4640, Fax (415) 286-4630.
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"Object Relational Data Mining" is Tandem Computers Inc.'s latest addition to the database world. It refers to the ability to conduct real-time data mining on a data warehouse's complete dataset.
According to Tandem, this new architecture establishes a standard SQL interface between client data mining tools and both object/relational and relational database engines. The database engines will perform specialized data-manipulation functions required by the data mining algorithms. Tandem says it will promote the establishment of de facto standards for the SQL extensions providing the interface between data mining tools and the database engine.
To realize this Object Relational Data Mining architecture, Tandem has formed partnerships with Angoss Software International, Data Distilleries B.V., Magnify Inc., NeoVista Solutions, and Syllogic B.V.
Angoss' KnowledgeSeeker, Data Distilleries' Data Surveyor, Magnify's Pattern:Detect and Pattern:Profit, NeoVista's Decision Series suite, and a new data mining release from Syllogic will be tightly integrated with Tandem's object/
relational engine. Syllogic's new Data Mining Tool/MP, a parallel extension of its Data Mining Tool, is designed for interactive data mining on extremely large datasets.
Tandem's Object Relational Data Mining Architecture will be available in the third quarter of 1997 for databases on either Microsoft Windows NT Server-based platforms (including Tandem's new S-Series servers) or Tandem's NonStop Himalaya servers.
Tandem Computers Inc., 19333 Vallco Pkwy., Cupertino, CA 95014, (408)
285-6000, Fax (408) 285-0505.
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Quest Software Inc. is shipping a Java-based version of its report warehousing tool, Vista Plus.
Vista Plus is a report-management system that captures and stores information from heterogeneous networks in a "report warehouse," letting users view reports online before deciding how much to print or download to applications.
The Vista Plus Java release can establish connections with a Vista server over the Internet or a corporate intranet and retrieve reports, view them, perform searches, and e-mail and download them into user workstations. Users can either launch the Vista Client from the Web browser of their choice or run it directly from their workstation as an independent application.
In a concurrent announcement, Quest Software released a 2.0 version of its SQLab application tuning tool for Oracle. SQLab is designed to give DBAs and developers with little Oracle experience the ability to tune and maintain home-grown and packaged applications.
SQLab's 2.0 release is available as a 32-bit application. It features a new Tuning Repository, which lets DBAs save SQL tuning sessions and sample sets from the product's Collector and QuickPick queries. This ability lets DBAs create their own SQL knowledgebase and perform scenario management.
A new PL/SQL editor lets users load stored procedures, packages, and triggers from the database, extract individual SQL statements, tune them, and store them back into the database.
Version 2.0 also includes an import/export feature, with which DBAs can import SQL from external files and objects for fine tuning. Tuned statements can then be exported back into their original sources.
Other enhancements include an Explain-All option that analyzes all captured SQL statements; online tuning advice; and automatically generated scenarios designed to speed up the tuning process.
For pricing information, contact Quest Software.
Quest Software Inc., 610 Newport Center Dr., Ste. 1400, Newport Beach,
CA 92660, (714) 720-1434, Fax (714) 720-0426.
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Raima Corp. announced version 2 of its Velocis Database Server. Velocis, an embedded database targeted toward C/C++ developers, features a component-based architecture that permits the use of the relational model, the pointer-based network model, or a combination of the two.
This major upgrade will add new features for the management of binary large objects (BLOBs), ODBC, hot online backup, VLDB support, and Chinese and Japanese character sets. It will also include native interfaces to Visual Basic and Borland Delphi, as well as an Internet connector that supports a direct interface to the Netscape API.
Velocis version 2.0 will support BLOBs through industry-standard ODBC support, enabling insertion, deletion, and updating of untyped data such as graphics, text, sound, and video.
The VLDB version of Velocis 2.0 will expand database addressing to six-byte addressing (two for file addressing and four for slot addressing), thus extending the potential size of a database from 256 files to 65,000 files with four billion records per file. (The standard and VLDB versions of Velocis 2.0 will not be compatible.)
Velocis also includes a library of C functions, an ANSI 89compliant SQL API, and a C++ API through the Raima Object Manager. It also offers the option to develop custom APIs or partition applications by hosting client application code on the server.
For pricing information, contact the vendor .
Raima Corp., 1605 N.W. Sammamish Rd., Ste. 200, Issaquah, WA 98027, (800)
327-2462, (206) 557-0200, Fax (206) 557-5200.
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Bradmark Inc. released new additions to its DBGeneral family of database tuning tools: Server Manager for Oracle and Performance Monitor for Sybase.
DBGeneral Server Manager for Oracle is a graphical display tool that shows the logical and physical structures of an Oracle tablespace and predicts space problems with trend analysis.
Server Manager uses server agent architecture and "virtual server" technology to provide DBAs the ability to tune any server within an enterprise. It facilitates tablespace management, trending analysis, user and role management, structural change management, database administration, and SQL generation.
According to Bradmark, the product provides comprehensive script file generation capabilities that enable users to execute any changes in batch or online. It can also extract the DDL from the Oracle catalog for any object, and has a SQL editor.
In a separate announcement Bradmark introduced a version of DBGeneral Performance Monitor for Sybase (versions for Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server are already available). Performance Monitor lets DBAs manage geographically dispersed database environments across corporate networks. Using distributed agents running unattended on the server, Performance Monitor analyzes the SQL Servers, alerting DBAs to performance anomalies.
In addition to real-time alarming and alerting for Sybase-specific statistics, the product lets DBAs use drill-down technology to identify problems, measure performance metrics with either predefined events or user-defined events, specify multiple alert actions, and view snapshot, trending, and repository data in a customizable format.
Server Manager 2.0 for Oracle and Performance Monitor 2.0 for Sybase are available with native agents for Windows NT, 95, HP-UX, IBM AIX, and Sun Solaris.
For pricing information, contact the vendor.
Bradmark Inc., 4265 San Felipe, Ste. 800 Houston, TX 77027, (800) 621-2808,
Fax (713) 621-1639.
Copyright 1997 Miller Freeman Inc. All Rights Reserved
Redistribution without permission is prohibited.