ETL Tools — 2002 Research Module Content Summary SAMPLE

SAMPLEETL Tools — 2002Research Module Content SummaryExtraction, Transformation, and Loading (ETL) tools convert corporate data intovaluable business information to help large organizations operate quickly andreliably. This typically involves integrating heterogeneous environments (such aslegacy systems, various data warehouses, data marts, business intelligence tools,and other disparate enterprise systems and applications) so that data may beefficiently moved across the enterprise and loaded into corporate databases,data marts, or decision support structures.As organizations have moved more business operations online, the Internet hasgreatly affected the needs and requirements of optimized data movement. Dataintegration environments and ETL solutions must now provide platformssupporting a vast array of disparate systems and applications, including ERP,CRM, electronic commerce, and relational databases. A complete set of dataintegration and movement tools must be provided to extract data from sourcesystems and transform and load it into target systems. Metadata managementcomponents should also be included, in addition to measures enabling scalabledevelopment and processing environments. Today’s ETL solutions combinethese elements into a single solution for managing enterprise information andensuring a return on business value.Market AnalysisThe SPEX ETL research module focuses on solutions responsible for managingenterprise information and optimizing business intelligence and data integrationenvironments. It reviews the current state of the market, discusses key trends,and provides an in-depth analysis of market differentiators (players, leaders,product positioning analysis and differentiators).Technology PrimerThe ETL research module helps anyone responsible for evaluating, selecting, orimplementing a data extraction and integration environment, by providinganswers on functional scope, integration issues, and the realities of implementingan ETL solution. A detailed product analysis is included, covering architectures,standards, and ETL functionality including areas such as data integration, dataextraction, data quality assurance, data transformation, metadata management,scalability concerns, development environments, and administration.Copyright © 2002 META Group, Inc. SPEX is a division of META Group Inc. and may be reached at 1950 Roland Clarke Place, Suite 300, Reston, VA, 20191. Phone: (703) 860-6223. Fax: (703) 860-6611. Web:checkspex.com. This publication may not be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without prior written permission. All rights reserved.Reprints are available.1

ETL Tools - SampleHands-on Evaluation AreasOur extensive hands-on product reviews include areas such as:General architecture:• Standard and optional modules• Parallel use and distribution of modules• High availability functions• Online help and wizardsPlatform Support:• Native support of source platforms• ODBC• Targeted DBMS and support for native bulk loaders• Location of the development environmentData Integration:• Support for heterogeneous application integration• Support for various data formats, including COBOL, ASCII, EBCDIC, and XML• Level of integration with various third-party applications, including ERP back officesystems• Support for message queues• Support for real-time data movementData Extraction:• Moving data from multiple source environments• Event-based change data capture2Copyright © 2002 META Group, Inc. SPEX is a division of META Group Inc. and may be reached at 1950 Roland Clarke Place, Suite 300, Reston, VA, 20191. Phone:(703) 860-6223. Fax: (703) 860-6611. Web: checkspex.com. This publication may not be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, includinginformation storage and retrieval systems, without prior written permission. All rights reserved. Reprints are available.

• Bulk data movementSample• Creation of business rules• Support for change data capture methodologiesData Quality:• Data cleansing functionality• Data quality assurance features• Monitoring features• Impact analysis featuresData Transformation:• Support for value transformations• Sample data transformation objects• Conditional and mathematic data transformations• Parsing supportMetadata Management:• Extensible metadata repository• Session management• Metadata sharing with third party applications• Metadata bridges to BI/OLAP environments• Data history displays and lineageScalability:• Load balancing and failover• Debugging functionalityCopyright © 2002 META Group, Inc. SPEX is a division of META Group Inc. and may be reached at 1950 Roland Clarke Place, Suite 300, Reston, VA, 20191. Phone: (703) 860-6223. Fax: (703) 860-6611. Web:checkspex.com. This publication may not be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without prior written permission. All rights reserved.Reprints are available.3

ETL Tools - Sample• Fault-tolerant recovery• Parallelism• Session management featuresDevelopment and Administration:• Centralized administration console or component• Graphical user environments• Audit functions• Load monitoring features• Scheduling options• Multi-user environmentsOther criteria:• Technical features such as development technology, data storage structure,hardware architecture and user interface• Pricing, licensing and other helpful commercial information is included.Bottom line assessments:• Package’s strengths, limitations, and evaluation summary• Positioning graphs showing package’s functional depth in key areas• SPEXmarks ratings summarizing SPEX assessments of each package in four criticaldimensions: functionality, user friendliness, technology, and market strengthThe research module provides a comprehensive Guide and Checklist of questions andcriteria for selecting the package that best fit your organization’s needs.All SPEX research materials are available electronically via the SPEX web site and keptcurrent with continuous updates delivered electronically. SPEX research can becustomized and applied to your context using the SPEX Web Compass.4Copyright © 2002 META Group, Inc. SPEX is a division of META Group Inc. and may be reached at 1950 Roland Clarke Place, Suite 300, Reston, VA, 20191. Phone:(703) 860-6223. Fax: (703) 860-6611. Web: checkspex.com. This publication may not be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, includinginformation storage and retrieval systems, without prior written permission. All rights reserved. Reprints are available.

Products EvaluatedSample• ActaWorks (Acta Technology)• Data Junction Integration Studio (Data Junction)• DataMirror Transformation Server (DataMirror)• Embarcadero DT/Studio (Embarcadero Technologies)• ETI Solution (ETI)• Hummingbird ETL (Hummingbird)• Informatica PowerCenter (Informatica)• Sagent Data Flow Server (Sagent)• Ascential DataStage (Ascential Software) – To be added as an update.Copyright © 2002 META Group, Inc. SPEX is a division of META Group Inc. and may be reached at 1950 Roland Clarke Place, Suite 300, Reston, VA, 20191. Phone: (703) 860-6223. Fax: (703) 860-6611. Web:checkspex.com. This publication may not be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without prior written permission. All rights reserved.Reprints are available.5

ETL Tools - SampleBusiness Technology EvaluationsETL Tools — 2002June 2002Introductory NoteMastering Data Integration Through ETL TechnologyOrganizations of all sizes and industries look to extraction, transformation, and loading(ETL) tools to integrate heterogeneous IT environments and efficiently move dataacross the enterprise and into corporate databases, data marts, or decision supportstructures. ETL solutions provide management platforms for supporting a wide array ofdisparate systems and applications, including ERP, CRM, SCM, electronic commerce,relational databases, etc. By integrating all these systems with a single interface orsolution, ETL tools convert corporate data into valuable business information to helplarge organizations operate quickly and reliably.ETL solutions are also designed to empower business managers and other end users toorganize corporate metadata for advanced business analysis. Through the use ofgraphical interfaces, users can effectively manage data extraction and transformationenvironments, as well as procedures for metadata management, data quality/integrity,ETL development, scheduling and distribution, as well as other administrative features.Today’s ETL tools combine these elements into a single solution for managing enterpriseinformation. Therefore, choosing the right ETL platform is a critical issue fororganizations wishing to integrate corporate data sources and to prepare companymetadata for business intelligence environments.Scope of the Research:This research module focuses on ETL solutions responsible for managing enterpriseinformation and optimizing business intelligence and data integration environments.Categories for specific differentiation are discussed in the technology primer, theproduct questionnaires, and the SPEX Web Compass evaluation model.Market Characteristics and Trends:The current ETL market is a competitive one, because no single vendor or product hasclearly dominated the space in recent years. The ETL vendors included in this evaluationare representative of the current market. Some have experienced periods of modest6Copyright © 2002 META Group, Inc. SPEX is a division of META Group Inc. and may be reached at 1950 Roland Clarke Place, Suite 300, Reston, VA, 20191. Phone:(703) 860-6223. Fax: (703) 860-6611. Web: checkspex.com. This publication may not be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, includinginformation storage and retrieval systems, without prior written permission. All rights reserved. Reprints are available.

financial growth and expansion, while others have struggled. Nearly all, however, areexperienced ETL solution providers with some claim on the current market landscape. Ifthere is an exception, it is Embarcadero Technologies, which entered the ETL marketwith the release of DT/Studio in February 2002, after building the rest of the company’sproduct line around database management and enterprise modeling solutions.SampleIndeed, software vendors of various backgrounds participate in this market. Someorganizations (e.g., Hummingbird, Informatica) develop product solutions coveringmultiple IT departments. Another example, Ascential Software, is a subsidiary ofIBM/Informix. Other vendors are primarily focused on ETL and data integrationtechnology. These companies tend to be smaller organizations, most of whom rely onthird-party partnerships to provide enhanced functionality.As the market for ETL tools continues to evolve, new trends in functionality becomeapparent. Support for real-time data movement and application-to-applicationintegration has become increasingly popular among leading platforms in the last 12months. Adoption of advanced data cleansing and quality assurance features areimportant as well, as most tools look to third-party partnerships to provide thesefeatures. We also expect to see continued partnerships with solutions in otherfunctional areas, such as business intelligence, data modeling, business applications (e.g.,ERP, CRM), and more.Key Selection Drivers:META Group’s SPEX research suggests the following key market indicators for ETLsolutions:• Platform support — A measure of which platforms and databases are supported bythe product, either natively or through ODBC, as well as support for native bulkloaders and engine functionality.• Data integration — The ability of the product to successfully integrate varioussystems and applications in a heterogeneous IT environment. Acta, for example, hasamong the most advanced data integration capabilities on the market.• Data extraction — The ability of the product to isolate and move data from sourcesystems and prepare it for loading into target systems. Vendors such as DataJunction and ETI offer particularly strong data extraction technology.Copyright © 2002 META Group, Inc. SPEX is a division of META Group Inc. and may be reached at 1950 Roland Clarke Place, Suite 300, Reston, VA, 20191. Phone: (703) 860-6223. Fax: (703) 860-6611. Web:checkspex.com. This publication may not be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without prior written permission. All rights reserved.Reprints are available.7

ETL Tools - Sample• Data quality — The ability to monitor, clean, and test defective data prior totransformation to ensure integrity of data integration environments. ETI’s dataquality features are among the best evaluated.• Data transformation — The ability to convert selected data from disparate systemsinto desired, proper database architectures. Vendors such as Embarcadero offerstrong data transformation capabilities.• Metadata management — The ability to store, manage, and share metadata acrossthe enterprise through the use of a flexible repository. Vendors such asHummingbird and Informatica have an edge in this area, according to our evaluation.• Scalability — The ability to support features such as load balancing, failover, parallelprocessing, multithreaded software, and other requirements for optimizingscalability. Informatica and Data Junction are among the leaders in this area.• Development — The presence of user interfaces and multi-user designenvironments for developing ETL jobs and designing enterprise data flows.Hummingbird has strong development functionality.• Administration — The inclusion of centralized management features regarding issuessuch as audits, scheduling, version management, etc. DataMirror and Acta haveespecially impressive administration features.Conclusion and Recommendations:There is more to ETL tools than simply extracting information from data sources andloading it into appropriate database targets. ETL solutions are responsible for managingenterprise information and optimizing corporate data for load into business intelligenceand decision support structures. This typically involves integrating various data sourcesin a heterogeneous environment, including structures such as legacy systems, corporatedatabases, and existing business applications.For users evaluating ETL solutions, we recommend concentrating on the key productdifferentiators outlined above as well as paying close attention to the maturity of thesolution, vendor commitment, financial viability, and architectural features. Users shoulddetermine which areas among the detailed selection drivers are most important tothem, then concentrate on the solutions that offer the greatest functionality in thoseareas. Organizations should also consider the vendor’s ability and willingness to adapt toevolving industry standards and market trends, especially in areas such as real-timeintegration and data quality assurance.8Copyright © 2002 META Group, Inc. SPEX is a division of META Group Inc. and may be reached at 1950 Roland Clarke Place, Suite 300, Reston, VA, 20191. Phone:(703) 860-6223. Fax: (703) 860-6611. Web: checkspex.com. This publication may not be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, includinginformation storage and retrieval systems, without prior written permission. All rights reserved. Reprints are available.

The ETL packages selected for evaluation in this SPEX research module are:Sample• ActaWorks (Acta Technology)• Data Junction Integration Studio (Data Junction)• DataMirror Transformation Server (DataMirror)• Embarcadero DT/Studio (Embarcadero Technologies)• ETI Solution (ETI)• Hummingbird ETL (Hummingbird)• Informatica PowerCenter (Informatica)• Sagent Data Flow Server (Sagent)• Ascential DataStage (Ascential Software) — To be added as an update.Additional vendors and products may be added to this research module throughout thesubscription period. For questions regarding specific products or suggestions for addingadditional vendors and products, e-mail SPEX at info@checkspex.com.Additional SPEX research modules that might be helpful when considering dataintegration solutions include Enterprise Application Integration, Data Warehousing andOLAP Services, and E-Business Intelligence.Copyright © 2002 META Group, Inc. SPEX is a division of META Group Inc. and may be reached at 1950 Roland Clarke Place, Suite 300, Reston, VA, 20191. Phone: (703) 860-6223. Fax: (703) 860-6611. Web:checkspex.com. This publication may not be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without prior written permission. All rights reserved.Reprints are available.9

ETL Tools - SampleBusiness Technology EvaluationsETL Tools — 2002June 2002Market AnalysisContents1. Introduction to Extraction, Transformation, and Loading Technology...................21.1 History ..........................................................................................21.2 Market Maturity and Technology Adoption ................................................................31.3 Business Value and Benefits .....................................................................................52. Market Segmentation ..........................................................................................62.1 Competitive Dynamics ..........................................................................................62.2 Market Size and Growth ..........................................................................................82.3 Market Trends and Future Directions ........................................................................92.4 Packages Selected for Evaluation ...........................................................................122.5 Additional Packages in the Market...........................................................................133. Selection Drivers ........................................................................................133.1 Data Extraction and Platform Support .....................................................................133.2 Product Scalability ........................................................................................143.3 Vendor Viability ........................................................................................154. Conclusions and Recommendations ........................................................................1510Copyright © 2002 META Group, Inc. SPEX is a division of META Group Inc. and may be reached at 1950 Roland Clarke Place, Suite 300, Reston, VA, 20191. Phone:(703) 860-6223. Fax: (703) 860-6611. Web: checkspex.com. This publication may not be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, includinginformation storage and retrieval systems, without prior written permission. All rights reserved. Reprints are available.

Business Technology EvaluationsETL Tools — 2002June 2002SampleTechnology PrimerContents1. Introduction ..........................................................................................21.1 Definition of ETL ..........................................................................................21.2 Definition of EAI ..........................................................................................21.3 Definition of Business Intelligence .............................................................................31.4 Definition of Data Replication.....................................................................................32. Application Within the Enterprise................................................................................32.1 Administrators and End Users ...................................................................................32.2 Third Party Technology ..........................................................................................42.3 Common Verticals ..........................................................................................63. Functionality ..........................................................................................63.1 Data Integration and Platform Support ......................................................................63.2 Data Extraction ..........................................................................................73.3 Data Cleansing and Quality Assurance .....................................................................73.4 Data Transformation ..........................................................................................83.5 Metadata Management ..........................................................................................93.6 Scalability ........................................................................................103.7 Development Environments .....................................................................................113.8 Administration ........................................................................................114. Conclusion ........................................................................................11Copyright © 2002 META Group, Inc. SPEX is a division of META Group Inc. and may be reached at 1950 Roland Clarke Place, Suite 300, Reston, VA, 20191. Phone: (703) 860-6223. Fax: (703) 860-6611. Web:checkspex.com. This publication may not be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without prior written permission. All rights reserved.Reprints are available.11

ETL Tools - SampleEvaluation of: DataMirror TransformationServerSoftware Supplier: DataMirrorWeb site:www.datamirror.comMain phone: 905 415 0310Name of Current Release: Transformation Server 4.6Date of Current Release: April 2001Date of Next Release:4Q02Strengths:• Transformation Server for XML directly takes database sources and makes itpossible to generate XML documents in real time to any JMS-compliant messagequeue. All the XML mapping is done via a GUI.• The product natively supports real-time data replication, so the data warehouse isalways fresh and fully synchronized.• Enterprise Administrator can be used to create “user exits,” which are back-endprograms modified to suit specific ETL requirements. User exits may also becustomized for additional data-cleansing functionality.• Transformation Server naturally integrates with DataMirror LiveAudit to capturespecified transactions and create electronic audit trails. LiveAudit also preservesdata histories and provides features for historical tracking and real-time monitoring.• The product supports “dark room operations,” which enable users to set up alarmsand alerts that can be used to notify administrators via pager, e-mail, or cell phoneon certain selected events.Limitations:• Impact analysis features are not provided but are planned for a future release.• No load balancing or failover measures are included with Transformation Server,though the product can support failover features on AS/400 platforms when usedwith the DataMirror iCluster/High Availability Suite.• Data quality and assurance features could be improved.12Copyright © 2002 META Group, Inc. SPEX is a division of META Group Inc. and may be reached at 1950 Roland Clarke Place, Suite 300, Reston, VA, 20191. Phone:(703) 860-6223. Fax: (703) 860-6611. Web: checkspex.com. This publication may not be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, includinginformation storage and retrieval systems, without prior written permission. All rights reserved. Reprints are available.

• Transformation Server provides standard point-to-point data integrationfunctionality, but requires integration with complementary DataMirror products foradvanced ETL features. For example, Constellar Hub works with TransformationServer to provide support for multiple heterogeneous sources and targets. It alsoenables the product to support data extraction from COBOL formats (whichTransformation Server cannot handle on its own). LiveAudit offers advanced audittrail and historical tracking features. These tools (as well as all other DataMirrorsolutions) are not part of a standard Transformation Server license and are onlyprovided at extra cost.SampleEvaluation Summary:DataMirror Transformation Server is a mature ETL platform that builds on thecompany’s use of data replication technology. The product meets industry averages formost areas of product differentiation, though platform support and administrationfeatures are key strengths. Data cleansing and quality assurance features could beimproved. Potential users should be aware of the product’s data replication features,because that approach is different than other evaluated solutions. Users should alsoconsider how Transformation Server works with other DataMirror solutions to achieveadvanced functionality, particularly with the Constellar Hub solution and LiveAuditfamily of tools.SPEXmarksFunctionalityUsabilityTechnologyMarket StrengthOveralľ̌̌+̌̌̌̌-̌̌̌+̌̌̌-̌̌̌+̌̌̌̌̌ : Outstanding ̌̌̌̌ : Excellent ̌̌̌ : Good ̌̌ : Fair ̌: PoorVendor Background:DataMirror was founded in 1993. Current headquarters are in Toronto, Ontario, butthe company also has offices in the US, Europe, and Asia Pacific. Sales and distributionoffices span 30 countries worldwide. DataMirror has roughly 300 employees and moreCopyright © 2002 META Group, Inc. SPEX is a division of META Group Inc. and may be reached at 1950 Roland Clarke Place, Suite 300, Reston, VA, 20191. Phone: (703) 860-6223. Fax: (703) 860-6611. Web:checkspex.com. This publication may not be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without prior written permission. All rights reserved.Reprints are available.13

ETL Tools - Samplethan 1,600 customers. The company is traded publicly on the Toronto Stock Exchange(under ticker symbol DMC) and on Nasdaq (DMCX).Revenues for FY02 (the 12 months ending January 31, 2002) were $55.7M, down from$56.9M the year before. Net income for the period was $1.6M, compared to $4.7M inFY01. Revenues for 1Q03 reached $14.1M, an increase of 4% over the year before. Netprofit was $637,000. Key technological partners include IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, SSA,and JD Edwards.DataMirror recently announced a corporate rebranding of its software solutions calledLiveBusiness. Officially unveiled in Spring of 2002, LiveBusiness focuses on real-time dataintegration operations to support today’s business economy. LiveBusiness consists offour integrated product families: LiveIntegration, LiveResiliency, LiveAudit, andLiveCapture. Of these four, the family most concerned with ETL and data integrationfunctionality is LiveIntegration. LiveIntegration components include TransformationServer, Constellar Hub, DB/XML Transform, and iDeliver. LiveIntegration componentswork with the other LiveBusiness families to provide a complete real-time enterprisedata environment.Package Background:Transformation Server is a data integration solution that enables users to capture,transform, and flow data in real time throughout the enterprise and across the Internet.Transformation Server supports data integration and transformation among DB2 UDB,Oracle, SQL Server, Sybase, and Pointbase across Unix, Linux, Windows NT/2000, IBMOS/400, and OS/390. Flat-file replication is also supported. Additional components areused to complement or expand Transformation Server functionality into markets otherthan data replication and ETL. Constellar Hub is an EAI platform with ETL functionalityand a centralized repository. iDeliver is integration software for B2B and CRMenvironments. iTransmit is used for wireless administration of the EnterpriseAdministrator GUI. These tools, however, are not part of a standard TransformationServer license and are provided at extra cost.Transformation Server supports three types of data integration modes: real-time datamirroring, net change (showing only what has changed since the last job), and refresh(while still active). Data filtering is supported at either the row or column level. Joinscan also be created at the source level, and source-derived columns may be added aswell.Enterprise Administrator is DataMirror’s Web-enabled, Java-based GUI forTransformation Server. Enterprise Administrator provides the environment for14Copyright © 2002 META Group, Inc. SPEX is a division of META Group Inc. and may be reached at 1950 Roland Clarke Place, Suite 300, Reston, VA, 20191. Phone:(703) 860-6223. Fax: (703) 860-6611. Web: checkspex.com. This publication may not be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, includinginformation storage and retrieval systems, without prior written permission. All rights reserved. Reprints are available.

configuring and managing data movement/transformations from a single point ofadministration. Metadata management features are also provided.SampleEnterprise Administrator provides a display of the Transformation Server ReplicationNetwork with a list of publication servers and DBMSs. Users create “subscriptions,”which are pipelined flows of data specifying hosts, servers, etc. After subscriptions aredesigned, tables from the catalog may be associated. The catalog contains all tablesavailable for replication, and is filled by the user. Subscriptions are created for each flowof data, and filters are easily applied in a check-box format. Once the source is defined,users then go to the target table to associate appropriate targets. Expressions arecreated from a long list of column functions. Value translations are supported here aswell.Enterprise Administrator is also used to create “user exits,” which are back-endprograms that can be modified to suit specific ETL requirements. User exits may also becustomized for data-cleansing functionality. The MetaCapture feature enables users tocreate views of data and associate relationships. Data can then be shared, put inbusiness intelligence environments, or used to produce HTML reports. The AccessManager assigns replication agents for finding servers and setting communicationparameters, so end users do not have to be responsible for these functions.The functional platform of Transformation Server has not changed significantly in thelast 12 months, though DataMirror has developed new technology and additionalcomponents to extend Transformations Server functionality. An example isTransformation Server for XML, which makes it possible to generate XML documents inreal time via a mapping GUI. The resultant XML documents can be directly fed to anyJMS-compliant message queues. This mapping GUI consists of four quadrants, each withits own features for generating XML documents on the fly. Users are presented with atree view of a submitted query and a map of the XML tree structure after the originalhierarchy is defined. Mapping rules for creating XML documents can be specified, and anexpression editor (like with Enterprise Administrator) is supplied for adding moretransformation functions.Another new DataMirror product is LiveAudit, a separate part of the LiveBusinessfamily. LiveAudit captures audit trail information generated by software applications andcan be used with Transformation Server to capture specified transactions and createelectronic audit trails. LiveAudit also preserves data histories and provides features forhistorical tracking. Real-time monitoring is also supported, as are capabilities for pushingaudit trails to heterogeneous environments. LiveAudit requires a specific license(separate from Transformation Server), meaning it comes at an extra cost. However, noCopyright © 2002 META Group, Inc. SPEX is a division of META Group Inc. and may be reached at 1950 Roland Clarke Place, Suite 300, Reston, VA, 20191. Phone: (703) 860-6223. Fax: (703) 860-6611. Web:checkspex.com. This publication may not be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without prior written permission. All rights reserved.Reprints are available.15

ETL Tools - Sampleadditional customization or implementation is required to work with TransformationServer.Constellar Hub is an EAI tool with a code-generating engine for data integration.Constellar Hub uses a hub-and-spoke architecture to provide centralized managementof touch points in the enterprise. It consists of three key components: Hub client (GUItools for creating and scheduling interfaces), Hub repository (always an Oracledatabase), and Hub server. SQLNet is used to communicate with the repository; andthough it is not required that both the repository and the server be located on thesame server, it is recommended for best performance. Constellar Hub andTransformation Server are complementary solutions. They can be used together in largeenterprise environments to extend the data integration functionality of TransformationServer. While Transformation Server is a point-to-point solution, Constellar Hubconnects multiple heterogeneous sources to multiple heterogeneous targets.16Copyright © 2002 META Group, Inc. SPEX is a division of META Group Inc. and may be reached at 1950 Roland Clarke Place, Suite 300, Reston, VA, 20191. Phone:(703) 860-6223. Fax: (703) 860-6611. Web: checkspex.com. This publication may not be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, includinginformation storage and retrieval systems, without prior written permission. All rights reserved. Reprints are available.