The data warehouse technology that Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois- based Platinum Technology Inc has assembled – through a remarkably concerted and wide-ranging strategy of merger, acquisition and development – is beginning to take shape: * Its Data Warehouse business unit catalogue encompasses data movement, transformation, meta data management and data access. Data Shopper 1.2 is a graphical front-end for the Platinum Repository, enabling drill-down queries, or what Platinum describes as a shopping cart for query building: it hands queries to supporting query and reporting tools, including Platinum InfoQuery and Forest & Trees, Microsoft Corp Query and Intersolv Inc’s Q+E. Shipping now, version 1.2 costs from $25,000 for 100 users.
Repository MVS 3.3 enables IBM Corp System 390 mainframe data to be managed and accessed from OS/2, Windows95 and NT and most Unix systems. Support for new import sources include Informix, Learmonth & Burchett Management Systems and Platinum InfoRefiner. It’s available now, and prices start at $50,000.
Platinum’s InfoHub 2.0 extraction tool provides transparent SQL access to MVS relational and non-relational databases, including Adabas, CA-IDMS, IMS, VSAM and MVS from personal computer-based applications or from front-end query and report writing tools. InfoHub enables interactive read, write and update access to mainframe legacy data without database manager-specific code. It supports the Open Data Base Connectivity and DB-Library, enabling access from most popular client systems. It can also be used in conjunction with Platinum’s InfoPump to move data between client- server systems and MVS databases. New features include a Distributed Relational Database Architecture communications infrastructure to handle movement between client and host. In beta test now, it’s due next quarter at $55,000.
Platinum InfoRefiner 3.0, originally known as Platinum Pipeline and licensed from Dataware Inc, is a software tool enabling organisations to take legacy data – data in DB2, IMS hierarchical files, VSAM, and other sequential file formats – and seamlessly integrate it into DB2. It includes a new graphical front end. Prices start at $90,000 depending the on number of processors.
InfoPump is Platinum’s bi-directional data replication tool. It supports OS/2 V2.1, AIX V3.2 and Windows NT V3.5; a Windows V3.1- compatible workstation is required with network access to Sybase or Microsoft Corp SQL Server. The latest version has been updated to support HP-UX, Solaris and AIX and NT. It’s priced from $25,000 for NT, and from $35,000 for HP-UX and Solaris.
InfoTransport 2.0 – previously Data Transport – moves large volumes of MVS data (DB2, IMS, VSAM, and sequential files) to personal computer-, Unix-, and local network-based databases (DB2 for OS/2, DB2 for AIX, Sybase SQL Server, Microsoft SQL Server, Informix, and Oracle). Version 2.0 supports change propagation from InfoRefiner, enabling the distribution of changes to a data file. It also includes enhancements to the user front-end and support for DB2 for MVS Version 4.0 as a source and Informix and ASCII as a target. It has added Pyramid Technology Corp and NCR Corp Unix operating systems to its roll call. Prices go from $40,000.
Meantime, Platinum will combine its Forest & Trees, InfoQuery and InfoReports data mining tools with UK-based Integral Solutions Ltd’s Clementine neural network and rule induction technology for decision support. The two say they will deliver a ‘business intelligence workbench’ for accessing data to enable applications such as market basket analysis in the retail sector or call transaction pattern analysis for fraud detection in telecommunications.
