Adding Smarts to Real-Time Queries

Datamation content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.

To improve data query performance, many DBAs implement
data caches–summarized and/or specifically extracted data
tables that are periodically refreshed from the raw transactional
information–that allow BI analysts to receive quicker reponses
to their queries than they would if they were forced to go
directly to the main transactional DBs themselves. A potential
problem with this approach, however, is deciding what data to
cache, and then having to pre-define selected queries for the
analysts that will run properly from that cached data.

A new offering from Teksouth Corporation, however, seeks
to add intelligence to the data cache selection and usage
process. Planted between your BI toolset (and connecting to
it via OLEDB) and your data caches and DBs, their EntelliCache
software automatically analyzes the queries delivered from the
BI application and decides on the fly which queries should be
delivered from the data caches and which should go direct to
the raw transactional stores. The result is that BI analysts
are free to create queries in any way they desire; and the
vendor notes that typically 80% of these queries still end
up at the data caches anyway. And a future version of EntelliCache
is expected to be initially setup without a data cache at all
in a special “learning mode” that will enable it to determine
the data that should be cached and how often it should be
refreshed.

Several other new product offerings also made their debut in
this week’s
Enterprise IT Planet Product Guide
briefings. TraceSecurity launched their SiteAssure product
portfolio targeted primarily to financial institutions, which
offers both anti-phishing components (free to both consumers
and organizations) and two-factor authentication capabilities;
Interop Systems introduced their Interop Secure Shell, specifically
for UNIX-ified Windows servers; and Raritan debuted their
CommandCenter NOC appliance line, offering both performance
monitoring and vulnerability scanning for network servers and
devices.

And in our featured online resource: Do you know how long
the average SMTP transaction is taking on the Internet right now?
MX ToolBox does, and they’re willing to share their knowledge.

This article was first published on EnterpriseITPlanet.com.