Database gateway specialist Micro Decisionware Inc, Boulder, Colorado, has opened international headquarters in the UK. Newly-formed Micro Decisionware International, in Maidenhead, Berkshire, will sell and support its flagship product, Database Gateway. Vice-president, international operations Terry Booth will head up the operation. The office will be responsible for setting up indirect sales channels across Europe, South America and the Asia-Pacific. Simultaneously, the company announced its first Unix-based Database Gateway product, a version for AIX, which provides access from DB-Library and Open Data Base Connectivity applications and enables the transfer of data between enterprise data sources and SQL Server. Although the company has been going since around 1980, for a long while it concentrated on research and development projects for other companies: this approach stems from its roots as an offshoot of the University of Colorado. Indeed, according to Booth, it is only in the last couple of years that it has focused on product marketing. In the UK, the company’s products will continue to be distributed by Camberley, Surrey-based Admiral Group Plc. Micro Decisionware says it also has distribution agreements in place in many other European countries.
Remote access
Despite the new push for international business, Micro Decisionware is to continue concentrating on its core database access gateway range. Database Gateway provides transparent data access across a variety of relational databases including IBM Corp’s DB2/6000, DB/2, SQL/DS, OS/2, Sybase’s SQL Server, Oracle and Informix – it is IBM Distributed Relational Database Access and Microsoft Open Database Connectivity-compliant. The addition to this range is claimed to provide a broad array of functionality including remote access to DB2 data from DB-Library and Open Data Base Connectivity applications; direct access to CICS transactions and applications with client-server systems; access to non-relational data sources and the integration of mainframe production data and applications with client-server systems, and bi-directional transfer of data between mainframe and local network data systems. Its performance features are claimed to include data compression, suppression of Advanced Program-to-Program Communications messages, and the flexible use of temporary storage. The product is going into beta test, and if that goes as planned, it is scheduled for delivery this July.
