Microsoft Corp announcements these days are invariably accompanied with multiple endorsements from third party software houses, and the latest developments on the Microsoft Repository are no exception. Microsoft yesterday previewed a set of data warehousing extensions to its Repository, including data transformation services and OLAP online analytical processing extensions. It also began what it called an open design review process for gathering industry feedback on the extensions, which will go on until next February. Microsoft has been working with Platinum Technology Inc on the Repository since July – before that it had been working with Texas Instruments Software, now part of Sterling Software Inc. The two styled the announcement as the first milestone of the collaboration. Aside from Platinum and Sterling, others lining up to support the extensions included Apertus Carleton Corp, Cayenne Software Inc, Cognos Inc, Informatica Corp, Visible Systems Corp and VMark Software Inc. The Metadata Coalition included a translation tool to act as a bridge between its Metadata Interchange Specification and the Microsoft repository, on the CD-ROM issued by Microsoft yesterday.
