Prism Unveils Next-Generation Data Warehousing Solution
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Prism Solutions, Inc., a leading provider of solutions to deliver business intelligence applications, announced the latest release of the Prism Executive Suite. The Executive Suite is a data warehousing software product that combines the power and flexibility of warehousing tools with the speed and ease of use of data mart tools. The Executive Suite also introduces server-side Java technology to the data warehousing market, as part of its new, leading-edge architecture.

The Prism Executive Suite allows users to build flexible systems that acquire, transform, integrate and deliver all of the information needed to answer today's -- and tomorrow's -- critical business questions. Unlike traditional data warehousing and data mart solutions, the Executive Suite places no limits on who can build and use applications. In addition, the Executive Suite does not restrict the types of data sources users can access, or the size and scope of their projects.

John Ladley, senior program director at the Meta Group, a Connecticut-based market research firm, notes that the Prism Executive Suite represents the third generation in data warehousing. He said, "The Prism Executive Suite leverages server-side Java technology and an innovative systems architecture to offer flexibility and performance. And, because it offers more choices, the Executive Suite will appear on more companies' short-lists."

"The Prism Executive Suite is the only data warehousing solution that lets you access all of your company's data, in any combination, from any location, in order to answer the questions you face today, and those you'll discover tomorrow," adds Chris Hyrne, Prism's vice president of marketing.

Key features of the Prism Executive Suite include:

• Right Choice Architecture. So that users can process what they want, where they want, when they want, the Executive Suite's innovative Right Choice Architecture gives users native access to all types of data, including both relational and legacy sources. The Right Choice Architecture leverages Prism's extensive experience in building data warehousing solutions to offer comprehensive coverage of numerous data types, which includes all standard relational data formats, SAP's APAB format, COBOL, and ADABAS. The architecture delivers performance improvements through a built-in optimizer that reads and parses meta data input to determine the most efficient method of program execution. In addition, by integrating the TimesTen Data Manager data accelerator, users process in main memory to deliver data up to ten times faster than before.

• Code-transparent transformation engine, based on Java technology. By incorporating a transformation engine based on server-side JAVA technology, the Executive Suite allows users to write data extraction and transformation applications once, and deploy them in any Java technology-enabled environment. Since it is "code-transparent," power users have the access they need for complex processing, while departmental users can simply point and click to extract data, transform it and load it into the target database -- in a seamless, uninterrupted flow. In addition, users own the Java executables they create, so they are not dependent on proprietary data mart solutions for updates and extensions.

• Intuitive, collaborative development environment. The Executive Suite now allows users to manage changing requirements while sharing the skills and building on the work of the entire development team. It provides a truly collaborative environment that allows departmental users to quickly build warehousing databases, and it can scale to allow power users to handle the most difficult data acquisition challenges. The Executive Suite also offers an enhanced user interface that is highly intuitive and fully extensible. Meta data directory. Unlike other alternatives that only manage meta data for developers, the Prism Executive Suite's Directory allows all types of users to easily manage, navigate and deliver warehoused information through a standard Web browser or standard query/reporting tools. In addition to development meta data, the new release integrates business, operational and data quality meta data to provide a complete view of the warehoused information. Prism offers Web access to the Directory through its partnership with Actuate (see Industry Experts Support Prism).