Following the recent establishment of its alliance with Microsoft Corp (CI No 3,205), Platinum Technology Inc has announced a series of updates that add to the facilities of its repository product line. The Oakbrook, Illinois company joined forces with the software giant a couple of weeks ago to port and distribute its software repository on third party platforms, to which Platinum will own exclusive marketing rights. Microsoft says it wants to enable developers to write applications that can be deployed across multiple systems. The releases from Platinum include new versions of its repository software, Platinum Repository/Open Enterprise Edition (OEE), for Windows NT and (soon) major Unix platforms, and Platinum Repository/MVS for IBM Corp mainframes running the DB2 database, accessible through OS/2 Presentation Manager or Microsoft Windows. Version 1.5 of the OEE repository sees the introduction of an enhanced interface, a security facility that will enable administrators to manage user access to the repository more efficiently, the ability to store data documents and view the data warehouse definitions of data sources and data targets, as well as movement and transformation processes. It also features a new impact analysis utility to provide more detailed information about the repository’s effect on metadata, and metadata management support for the Microsoft SQL server, Tandem Computers Inc’s COBOL, Logic Work Inc’s ERwin, Oracle Corp’s Designer/2000, and Cayenne Software Inc’s GroundWorks, Terrain and Terrain 2000. Version 3.4 of the MVS repository supports the Cayenne and Logic Works offerings that OEE does, but also offers support for Prism Solutions Inc’s Warehouse Manager and Warehouse Directory, Tandem’s NonStop SQL, Carleton Corp’s Passport and SAP AG’s R/3. Both have price tags starting at $150,000. Platinum has also enhanced its Data Shopper graphical interface for accessing metadata in OEE and MVS, and introduced a new version of its InfoPump, enabling users to view and copy objects between multiple development environments and will enable them to re-use frequently executed code.
