DataMirror Helps Data Warehouses Get Info Flowing in Real Time

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DataMirror Corp. has rolled out a dynamic operational data store for data warehouses to help companies add new data sources, eliminate performance issues and enable real-time information flow.

The Dynamic ODS platform is designed to help businesses get real-time access to production data for BI (business intelligence), BAM (business activity monitoring), or application testing and development.

The move is meant to address data integration, an increasingly important topic when it comes to populating operational systems or moving data into databases, according to Ted Friedman, vice president of research for Gartner Inc.

An ODS is a data structure that holds fresh, raw, real-time operational data used for short-term operational analytics. Its unlike historical trending, used in warehouses, and instead lends itself to here-and-now analytics, as well as to building applications that require access to data thats coming from multiple databases.

ODSes have been around for a while, but DataMirror is jumping into the game with its own value-add, which is real-time data movement, Friedman said. Gartner tracks DataMirror in the category of ETL (extraction, transformation and load) vendors. Its competitors include Ascential, recently acquired by IBM, and Informatica Corp., among others.

/zimages/6/28571.gifClick here to read an interview with IBMs Janet Perna on how the Ascential buy will fill holes in IBMs information integration plan.

“DataMirror takes a different angle: Theyre more about low latency, real-time data movement and integration of data, which has not been the forte of the more traditional vendors,” Friedman said. “Most ETL vendors have over the years operated in very batch-oriented mode, moving data in batches in time-oriented boundaries. With DataMirror, its more about real-time movement of data, capturing change as it happens in real time. Say youre making updates to the database: DataMirror can capture the changes, recognize them as they occur, and in near real time propagate to some other database.

“There are other vendors that do or can do similar stuff well, from big guys like IBM down to other small players like Lakeview Technologies or Golden Gate Software,” he said.

/zimages/6/28571.gifData-integration vendors are focusing on marrying business and IT processes. But where, vendors ask, is the metadata story? Click here to read more.

Feedback from customers is that DataMirrors underlying technology for doing integration in real time is high-performing, reliable and easy to implement, Friedman said.

For more on DataMirrors Dynamic ODS, check out the companys site.

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