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Lakeview Technology Inc. and OuterBay Technologies are coming out with ways to juggle data replication and management while retaining real-time access to that data.
Lakeview, of Oakbrook Terrace, Ill., is getting ready to roll out OmniReplicator 4.0, a major update to its data replication software that reflects an important architecture overhaul with the introduction of Java and multithreading. The re-architecture is geared to provide better resource allocation and system resource conservation and also features less polling of tables or other data structures to determine if work needs to be performed. According to company officials, the result is performance that measures between three and 10 times faster than the previous iteration.
OmniReplicator 4.0 features a new synchronization capability that combines the tools previous Copy and change-based Replication features. The new synchronization feature takes a snapshot of database tables while continuing to capture ongoing data changes. It then applies the changes automatically.
Lakeview also added a new GUI for monitoring and control. The new GUI accompanies the current OmniDirector GUI and lets users check the progress of data movement without according them the right to change it. This protects sensitive transactional or customer data from getting tinkered with by administrators while in transit but retains administrators ability to keep control of the replication process, officials said. Alternatively, the new GUI, called OmniConsole, allows monitoring and control from the command line.
In addition, performance has been upgraded with OmniReplicators new Java architecture. The Java Database Connectivity driver of users choice now enables the Java-based software to access database servers, as well.
Expression Handler has also been enhanced. This feature lets users make complex row selection and column transformation decisions and features a collection of built-in expressions for common transactions.
Lakeview has also eased data distribution with Paths. This comes into play for security reasons, when a firewall is in use, or for performance reasons, with network bottlenecks. The Paths feature lets users send data from one source through intermediate hosts to a variety of locations. Those intermediate hosts dont need installed databases, nor do they need to store the data.
Security in OmniReplicator has been upgraded to include Java SSE (Secure Socket Encryption) as well as user IDs and roles. The software also uses JSSE (Java Secure Socket Extension), a Java implementation of SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) and TLS (Transport Layer Security) protocols for authentication and encryption, including 128-bit encryption.
Finally, OmniReplicator 4.0 packs a revamped knowledge base, increased support for Unicode data types and elimination of third-party middleware.
OmniReplicator 4.0 will be generally available sometime in August. Pricing is tiered.
OuterBay
For its part, OuterBay is teaming up with NEC Solutions America to help PeopleSoft Inc. customers get to their data.
OuterBays Application Data Management Suite will allow enterprises to relocate inactive PeopleSoft data to less expensive storage classes while retaining connected, real-time access to that data. OuterBay officials in Campbell, Calif., said that the motivation for the pairing is that stringent data retention requirements, worldwide consolidations and software upgrades are leading to massive increases in data growth that affect systems performance. PeopleSoft upgrades in particular are a challenge, officials said, that result in long outages and significant increases in database size.
OuterBays ADM tool is designed to allow users to proactively monitor, detect, diagnose and resolve data growth issues through application data lifecycle. The aim is to identify inactive application data and transfer it to cheaper storage devices, where it remains online and accessible to users from existing application user interfaces.
Over time, customers can monitor and forecast data growth, set and enforce data retention policies, and relocate or archive data to cost-effective storage, allowing companies to set aggressive data retention policies and reduce the data stored in live production environments from years worth down to months worth.
By slashing data growth rates, other resources can be freed up, including network capacity, server processing bandwidth, storage capacity and IT personnels time. Officials cite savings figures from customers that get up to 70 percent better performance, 60 percent for database reductions, and storage savings in the millions annually.