NCR Corp has gone to Hinsdale, Illinois-based Geppetto LLP for help adding OLAP data analysis tools to its Teradata relational database. Geppetto’s The Ant Colony dynamic query generation tools have been licensed by NCR for inclusion in its Teradata OLAP Services, which will emerge with Teradata Release 3 due out late in 1998. The OLAP Services will be implemented in the form of a new multi-dimensional database feature, TeraCube, and by OLAP and data mining extensions to Teradata’s SQL implementation. TeraCube will use The Ant Colony’s Dynamic Table Selection database navigation technology, making complex ad hoc queries faster and enabling complex comparisons between tables. NCR has used elements of its Top End middleware, recently sold off to BEA Systems Inc, for load leveling across multiple middle-tier servers and fail-over facilities. The company says it will support third party tools through Microsoft’s OLE DB, and later through the Oracle Corp supported MDAPI Release 2 specification from the OLAP Council. It has set up agreements with Brio Technology Inc, Business Objects Inc, Cognos Inc, Hummingbird Communications Ltd and Microsoft Corp, which is currently readying its Plato OLAP engine for launch.
