Sand Technology Launches Nucleus 2.5
Sand Technology Systems International Inc., has launched a feature-packed upgrade to Nucleus, the award winning set of data warehousing tools which are, revolutionising data warehousing.
"Version 2.5 of Nucleus is the cherry on the cake," said Duncan Painter, the general manager of Sand Technology Systems Europe. "It features some major enhancements on what is already an important set of data warehousing tools that fill the yawning gap between products such as Microsoft Access and bespoke solutions costing millions of pounds."
Nucleus comprises two tools. Nucleus Exploration Warehouse is a prototyping and development facility for data warehouse designers that allows fast and simple data acquisition, assimilation, and validation. It allows warehouse development to be completed within days, instead of the typical months or even years, and enquires up to 70 per cent less manpower to complete a typical implementation. Further, using the Nucleus Exploration Warehouse, end users have access to the data throughout the process to allow required business questions to be structured from day one.
Nucleus Exploration Mart is a powerful analytical processing tool for end users of existing data marts and warehouses. This product addresses the need to perform iterative, ad hoc, forensic queries of data, involving drill down often not envisioned during the original design of the data warehouse/mart. The patented data storage techniques of Nucleus allow any, question to be asked and answered in seconds or minutes instead of hours or days.
Nucleus has more analytical power than most top-end solutions and version 2.5 builds on this by giving the user even more control, while at the same time enhancing the database capabilities of the software.
The new version is even easier to install than before and has an enhanced GUI, improving the "Look and feel" of the software, including toolbars, right clicking, a find utility, and easier keyboard navigation. There is also taskorientated, context sensitive help, including links to the Nucleus documentation library.
Nucleus 2.5 comes with a range of enhanced database features and tools. For example, Nucleus Explorer includes a new implementation of the ODBC method of data retrieval and database navigation and manipulation.
Nucleus Explorer now also features a column analyser, which allows users to view a range of information about the data values contained in a specified column of a Nucleus database table. This includes the number of rows in the. table, the number of distinct values in the column, the number of null values in the column, the three highest column values, the three lowest column values and the three most frequent column values.
There is also a new utility for Windows NT entitled Nucleus Service. This allows the user to automatically or manually mount and dismount any number of Nucleus databases which have been specified in the Nucleus.ini file.
One of the key differences between Nucleus and standard databases is its radical Token database technology, which, put simply, drastically reduces the amount of data that has to be stored by stripping out replicated information and replacing it with tokens. For example, "Mr" might be replaced with a token of 01 wherever it appeared, "John" might be 02, and "Smith" 03.
Because this technology significantly reduces data storage volumes, there is less information to process with the result that queries can be executed very quickly. This reduced analysis load also means that the hardware needed to carry out even the most complex queries can be considerably less powerful, and therefore less expensive, than that required to run most of the data warehouses currently operating.
Nucleus has already picked up a succession of prestigious awards in North America and was voted the 1998 World Class Solution, Database Engine of the Year for data warehousing and data mart by DM Review, North America's leading business intelligence and data warehousing magazine.
Nucleus is available for both 64-bit Unix and 32-bit Windows NI' and 95/98 platforms.
Sand Technology Systems International Inc. provides high performance, scaleable software solutions for data mining, data marts, data warehouses and online analytical processing (OLAP). Sand's Nucleus product suite brings patented technology to the business user allowing for more timely and accurate decision processing Within the disconnected client, desktep, workgroup, departmental and enterprise computing environments. Supporting industries like retail, finance, healthcare, transportation, telecommunication, manufacturing, government and insurance, Nucleus is used for corporate initiatives such as customer relationship management, risk analysis and management, product trend and profitability analysis, fraud detection, emerging markets, competitive analysis and quality control. Sand has commercial relationships with IBM, Compaq Computer Corporation, Microsoft, Hitachi Data Systems, SAIC, GE, Brio Technology Information Builders Inc., and Wyle Systems. Sand Technology can be reached on the World Wide Web at http://www.sandtechnology.co.uk.