AlphaBlox Corp has made its move into data warehousing, after abandoning its original idea of producing web-based office component software. The Mountain View, California-based company has launched AlphaBlox Enlighten, a web-based operational analysis application using Java that can access and analyze information stored in databases, data marts and data warehouses from the web. Components are snapped together on a web page, creating applications that can be accessed through Java-capable browsers. The tools are intended to open up analysis functions to line of business managers rather than just specially trained analysts, says Alphablox. Enlighten has three parts: Java Building Blox for assembly into applications; InterBlox, a dynamic application assembly framework handling the communications, cooperation and control of the individual components; and Base, the server component providing centralized maintenance and administration of the applications. Version 1.1 includes a suite of application-specific components, such as Data Blox for accessing data sources, Query Blox for defining queries, Presentation Blox for displaying the data, and Forms Blox for data driven elements to drive the functionality of the application. AlphaBlox Enlighten is priced from $50,000 per server for up to 50 users, and runs on Unix or Windows NT systems. AlphaBlox was founded in the UK in 1995 by Michael Skok from Symantec Corp and Richard Rabins, also the co-founder of Alpha Software Corp of Boston, Massachusetts – now a subsidiary of SoftQuad International Inc. But Skok later acquired rights to the Alphablox name from Alpha Software, leaving behind the OfficeBlox office component suite and re-focusing the company on information analysis tools. The company began by using Microsoft Corp’s ActiveX technology as the basis for its Blox building block approach to software, but eventually abandoned that in favor of Java.
