Start-up Enosys Software Inc. officially launches on June 3, rolling out a suite of data integration software that company officials claim features the first commercially available engine based on the XQuery standard.
A self-proclaimed EII (enterprise information integration) company, Enosys joins the rush to help enterprises leverage XML to achieve real-time integration of multiple data types across far-flung systems, according to Raj Pai, vice-president of product marketing with the Redwood, City, Calif.-based company.
“Essentially, we are creating a repository to unlock data assets,” Pai said. “Query results can be used to build applications, integrated product or customer views, or Web services. It’s all done in XML with multiple sources on the back end.”
The J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition)-based Enosys Integration Server exploits native XML and an engine based on the XQuery standard to allow access to different data sources – structured or unstructured – from a single query, inside or outside of the firewall. It can also filter, translate, and transform the data for consumption by a Web-based application or Web service, according to Pai.
In addition, Pai said data integrated via the Enosys suite can be used to complement a company’s existing EAI (enterprise application integration) infrastructure, which focuses more on transaction coordination between applications.
The promise of distributed data management inherent in XQuery is also on the radar of industry heavyweights such as IBM Corp., Microsoft Corp., and Sybase Inc., among others. IBM has already touted its use of XQuery as part of its integration strategy for its DB2 database and other core pieces of its software infrastructure.
One analyst characterized Enosys’ approach to data integration as a “virtual database” play, touting the one-view and real-time functionalities, as well as the ability for remote access.
“Being able to cut across various databases in real time is the new prerequisite,” said Susan Funke, industry analyst for IDC in Arlington, Va. “All of these different systems need one gateway, which Enosys is moving toward.”
In addition to the core Enosys Integration Server, the company’s package includes the Enosys Design Suite, a set of graphical tools for building, testing, and deploying data integration applications, and Enosys Management Tools, a set of utilities for handling such things as data storage population, integration engine logging and reporting, authentication, and access control.
The products will be available in late June. Pricing varies by user configuration, but starts at US$30,000 per server.
