iWay Integration Solutions for Microsoft SQL Server
Benefit Overview
- Provides direct access to over 80 data sources and applications using standard SQL
- Allows users of common Microsoft analytical tools such as Excel and SharePoint to access information as if it were stored in SQL Server
- Uses Microsoft skill sets to tap into legacy systems
- Improves development timeframes by reducing the number of interfaces that programmers need to know
- Lowers cost of application development and business intelligence deployment by masking the complexity of applications and legacy systems
Rapid, Code-Free Application and Legacy Access
iWay Software unlocks more than 25 platforms, 80 relational and nonrelational databases, and five major packaged applications for users of Microsoft SQL Server. It has never been easier to create new applications that incorporate difficult non-Microsoft technologies. iWay Software and Microsoft have worked closely together to integrate iWay's award-winning adapter suite with the SQL Server product line. iWay's OLE DB provider works within a SQL Server-linked server configuration to allow users to access over 100 adapters using standard SQL Server commands.
Making Legacy Systems Easy to Use
Many organizations still have most of their data on inaccessible legacy systems that were never designed to interoperate, and often only provide proprietary Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for data access. Many of these systems were built before the advent of SQL, the standard language of data operations.
iWay's adapters intelligently translate SQL into the native APIs of the underlying systems. SQL Server users can now easily access existing hierarchical, network, flat file, and other structures on a variety of platforms using common Microsoft query tools and standard SQL.
Even complex structures such as repeating groups, redefined fields, and packed decimal fields can be accessed as if they were simply other fields in a SQL-based database.
Standardizing the Relational View of Non-Microsoft Data
Making legacy systems look like relational databases is not enough. Even relational databases have their differences. Outer join processing, date and time formats, tuning considerations, and return codes often vary dramatically from one relational database to the next.
iWay's adapters mask the differences among relational databases by using ANSI-standard SQL regardless of the database being accessed. Just as nonrelational adapters translate SQL into the native syntax of nonrelational data sources, iWay's relational database adapters translate from the ANSI standard into the native dialect of the database being accessed, and make the return codes and formats consistent across every data source.
Packaged Application Support
iWay's packaged application adapters make it easy to use SQL Server and related tools to access SAP, PeopleSoft, J.D. Edwards, Lawson, and Siebel. Rather than learning different interfaces and requirements for each application, the iWay adapters allow users to work with these packaged applications just as if they were another instance of SQL Server.
Special features
In addition to providing specific features for each data source, the iWay Universal Adapter Suite enables a number of key capabilities that greatly simplify data-level integration within SQL Server.
- Calculations and transformations can be exposed as if they were simply other fields in the database
- Joins can be achieved across multiple adapters with a single query – even if the adapters reside on different platforms
- Custom data views can include automatic joins, name changes, and even data type conversions
- Detailed metrics on usage and performance characteristics can be captured for use in chargeback systems and database tuning
- Queries can be proactively governed so that only those that meet specific performance and usage characteristics will be executed
Comprehensive Support for the Microsoft Toolset
All of these capabilities are delivered to Microsoft SQL Server users through linked-server configurations, meaning that they can be managed through SQL Server's Enterprise Manager and incorporated into any Microsoft-based application. DTS packages can easily move information from legacy systems into SQL Server tables or Analysis Services cubes. Office Web, Excel, Outlook, and SharePoint products and technologies can tap into information from virtually anywhere in the enterprise as if it all resided directly in SQL Server.
iWay also supports other Microsoft products, with special emphasis on BizTalk Server 2000, 2002, and 2004 ("Jupiter").
Find Out More
To find out more about how iWay Software and Microsoft SQL Server can easily integrate data throughout your enterprise, visit www.iwaysoftware.com/microsoft or, in the U.S. and Canada, call toll-free (866) 297-4929.
