Microsoft To Release Enhanced Data Repository
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PC Week has reported that Microsoft Corp. plans to release by month's end the beta of its upgraded data repository, which includes a schema model that enables database definitions to be used across a range of applications and databases. The Redmond, Wash., company also is expanding the Repository, first released in March with Visual Basic editions, to include administrative components for data warehouses. Version 2.0 of the Repository is due commercially next year, officials said.
Microsoft has enlisted the help of ISVs, including Sybase Inc.'s Powersoft Division, Forte Software Inc. and Rational Software Inc., to ensure that the Repository is accessible to as many tools as possible, officials said.
Microsoft officials said 65 companies are either including the Repository in their products or providing export/import facilities for it. The Repository supports Open Database Connectivity drivers for Windows 95 and Windows NT. Support for other platforms and drivers will be provided by third parties, including Platinum Technology Inc., of Oakbrook Terrace, Ill., which is extending the Repository to Unix and IBM's AS/400 and MVS platforms.
The schema model stores database definitions for application development and data warehousing tools. A software development kit for current Repository users will be available by the end of the month. Users said the system will allow applications to draw data from multiple databases and use a warehouse store that is accessible through the Repository.
"The Repository is the basis for what we call our business component solution," said Dale Gross, senior technical manager at Intergraph Corp., of Huntsville, Ala., which is building a system that will allow shipyards to share three-dimensional project models and associated data of ships under construction.
"We see the Repository and the Microsoft Transaction Server ultimately leading to simpler and more integrated business components," Gross said. In 1998, Microsoft will work to implement into the Repository metadata models for data transformation and OLAP (online analytical processing), company officials said.
A data transformation model stores information on the origin of data in a warehouse and how that data was transformed before it was loaded from a database; an OLAP model contains information on the data aggregations that were performed to create multidimensional data arrays.
Preliminary specifications for the models are available for review and comment on the company's Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/repository A final review is scheduled in February by ISVs that have built prototypes of products using the specifications.