Data store bundles to speed report set ups
August 29, 2011
Taurus Software, Quest Software and Abtech Systems are teaming up for a product which plays by a 3000 homesteader's rules: Migration is too costly in a legacy environment.
The new SystemBridger Bundle combines the BridgeWare software from Taurus and Quest Software with systems and integration services from Abtech. The goal is to get a real-time operational datastore running in lock-step with a 3000 — and the hook is to accomplish it in as little as two weeks.
Taurus President Cailean Sherman said the Bundle allows 3000 sites to take advantage of homesteading by leveraging state-of-the-art reporting tools. The combination of the software and hardware is designed to bridge an open systems environment with legacy systems.
"Over the years we've been working with a lot of companies who are either homesteading, or taking their time migrating off the 3000," Sherman said. "But they also want to take advantage of all the open systems tools to perform ad hoc analysis."
This type of analysis wasn't feasible for some homesteaders, because the access took its toll on the production performance of IMAGE and KSAM databases, she explained. A combination of recent projects, BridgeWare enhancements and discounting led to the partnership with Abtech. The result is a data store, including the relational database license and hardware fully implemented, priced between $10,000 and $75,000.
The open systems tools which then become available to users could include Crystal or Oracle's Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition. The Abtech services include networking the data store server to the MPE/iX system. Quest Software, the co-developer of BridgeWare, is also promoting the Bundle to 3000 homesteaders. The solution can be tuned to another robust commercial environment, the AS/400.
The newest version of BridgeWare replicates IMAGE files in real time, as well as MPE files, the Eloquence database, and the usual suspects in the relational roster: Oracle, DB2, SQL Server, MySQL, or any ODBC database.
A good share of the latest BridgeWare work has been supporting customers who want to stay on the server. "We've been building a lot of operational data stores lately for customers who want to stay on the 3000," Sherman said. "These people want to have their production data available real time in a relational environment for reporting and analysis. The data can be ported to open systems once a migration is over, to replicate data between databases and files on open systems."