Ardent Software Inc yesterday announced a new initiative which the company claims will enable customers to make more out of the information held within their data warehouses. The Westboro, Massachusetts company launched its new MetaConnect Cooperative; a partnership with leading analytical tools vendors that will enable customers using its data warehouse software, DataStage, to share metadata across the enterprise. Under the cooperative, Ardent has got together with BMC, Brio Technology, Business Objects, Cognos, Information Advantage and Informix, among others, to enable end-users to see and understand the criteria used to create the metadata and the business rules that apply to warehoused data. By understanding the metadata of past analytical processes and reports, users will be able to save time and effort when filling out the analysis criteria for future reports, Ardent said. According to Beverly Chiarelli, director of product marketing for Ardent’s data warehousing business unit, the cooperative will solve one of the key issues in metadata management. She said it would be good news for companies deploying multiple analytical, decision support systems. In the past, it wasn’t possible to share the metadata arising from different analytical products, she said, but Ardent’s initiative overcomes that problem by establishing a open infrastructure in which all types of metadata, from previously incompatible products, can now be shared. People want the choice of accessing metadata however it was created or wherever it’s stored, she said, our new program will enable them to do that. Chiarelli said Ardent has used technology from its acquisition of Dovetail earlier this year (CI No 3,432) to develop what it’s calling MetaBrokers (interfaces to the analytical software tools) that enable the metadata to be shared. The first metabroker will be available in December, although Chiarelli could not say which analytical tool it would interface to.
