DBTA E-EDITION
March 2009
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Trends and Applications
Business intelligence (BI) and analytics solutions have been available for years now, and companies have learned to employ these tools for a variety of purposes, from simple report generation and delivery to more sophisticated data integration, executive dashboards, and data mining. They also recognize the need to get beyond spreadsheets, and to be able to provide more sophisticated, pervasive, and automated BI solutions to more end-user decision makers. However, most see their efforts stymied by the historically high cost of BI software and the complexity of available solutions.
Over the past year, we have seen a number of new entrants in the data warehouse appliance market. What user requirements are driving the launch of these new appliance solutions and are appliances a niche solution, or is this the beginning of a broader-based trend?
The time is past when the unique attributes of the MultiValue database model alone provided sufficient justification for the use of the technology, according to Pete Loveless. He explains why MV companies must support interoperability and integration from the ground up, in order to meet the challenges presented by the market now, and in the future.
Many IT and business managers are now familiar with the concept of virtualization, especially as it pertains to the ability to run a secondary operating system within the same hardware that already supports a separate OS brand. Seasoned data center professionals have been aware of virtualization as a capability available on mainframes for years. The ability of virtualization to provide advantages to data center operations in terms of systems consolidation and simplifying administration has been well-documented.
Columns - Applications Insight
Way back in 2003, Walmart announced that it would require Radio Frequency ID (RFID) tags—so-called "electronic barcodes"—to be attached to virtually all merchandise. Walmart pioneered the use of the printed bar code back in the 1970s, and many—myself included—became convinced that the company's directive would be the tipping point leading to universal adoption of RFID tabs in consumer goods and elsewhere.
Columns - Database Elaborations
In formulating the tenets of relational theory, issues anent to order were explicitly addressed. These relational theory tenets included defining a relational database so that it need have no concern with the order of columns in a row, or with the order of rows in a table. And yet, such a stance seems counter-intuitive since the database brings structure and organization to content. Chaos is the primordial soup from which all things originated. Thus it seems only reasonable that a relational database, being the best and brightest of its kind, should abhor such chaos and bring ever more order instead, right?
Columns - DBA Corner
Have you noticed that dynamic SQL is more popular today than ever before? There are a number of factors contributing to the success of dynamic SQL. Commercial off-the-shelf applications, such as SAP, Siebel, and PeopleSoft, utilize dynamic SQL exclusively. In many cases, too, dynamic SQL is the default choice for in-house application development.
Columns - Quest IOUG Database & Technology Insights
Hundreds of educational sessions, countless networking opportunities, and numerous Oracle executives and top IT Solution Providers-all under one roof. Join us for the premier conference of the year for Oracle users: COLLABORATE 09-IOUG Forum, taking place May 3-7, 2009, in Orlando, Fla.
Columns - SQL Server Drill Down
The Future of Coding for SQL Server, Part 2
MV Community
BlueFinity International, a member of the Mpower1 Group of Companies, has added a new product to its range of Microsoft development tools for MultiValue users. BlueFinity's mv.SSIS allows MultiValue users to extract data from any major MultiValue database (in both bulk and filtered export mode) into MS SQL Server using Microsoft's SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) product.
Entrinsik, well known in the MultiValue arena for database reporting and analytics software and services for the UniVerse and UniData databases from IBM, is announcing the feature-complete beta release of a major new version of the company's Informer Web Reporting solution this month. The new release offers native access to multiple databases, including Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, DB2, Informix, and Microsoft Access, in addition to UniVerse and UniData, as well as easy navigation and dynamic linking for reporting across multiple data sources.
IBM has announced the release of IBM UniVerse 10.3, which delivers a powerful new development tool, mobile API support, numerous security enhancements, and consumability improvements for Web Services.
In the face of an uncertain economic outlook, organizations as well as government agencies and educational institutions are focused on controlling costs, while also maximizing IT investments that have already been made. In this special section, DBTA asks leading MultiValue vendors: What is your company doing to help customers extend the value of their MultiValue assets?