New Products, December 2004

ADMINISTRATION TOOL

Use Stored Procedures to Automate Exchange Updates

Logicom announced xp_sql2exchange, a collection of SQL extended stored procedures that lets DBAs use their SQL programming skills to automatically update Microsoft Exchange Servers. xp_sql2exchange saves you the time and effort of writing routines to update your Exchange Server information. Instead, you create SQL Server table triggers that call stored procedures to automatically update Exchange objects. The freeware collection lets you update objects such as Contacts, Appointments, Tasks, and Journal Entries in your Exchange Server public folders by simply updating records in a SQL Server table. Logicom grants its consulting clients an extended version of the product that provides integration of less frequently used objects such as Categories. Both xp_sql2exchange versions offer resilient SQL Server and Exchange Server connections that can recover following restarts or short network outages. For more information, contact Logicom at 866-564-4266, [email protected], or http://www.logicom-inc.com/xp_sql2exchange.

BACKUP AND RECOVERY

Continuously Protect Your Data

XOsoft announced Enterprise Rewinder, the latest release of the company's Data Rewinder continuous data protection (CDP) product. CDP goes beyond both traditional backup—which freezes a set of data at a specific point in the past—and replication—which tracks the data as it changes. CDP continuously tracks changes in the data, but instead of simply copying the changes to a replica, it records a local "rewind journal" of the operations required to undo the changes that are taking place. If you need to recover your database, the CDP solution plays the undo operations backward to any desired point that's recorded in the journal. Enterprise Rewinder provides protection tailored and optimized for specific application servers, including SQL Server 2000 and 7.0; Microsoft Exchange 2003, 2000, and 5.5; Oracle; and network file servers. This enterprise-level release integrates with your existing backup systems, so you don't have to start your backup processes from scratch; you can begin using Enterprise Rewinder wherever you are in your backup process. Also, this release is implemented in your environment's data center so that you can control backups on all your database systems through one centralized GUI. Pricing for Enterprise Rewinder starts at $25,000. For specific pricing or other information, contact XOsoft at 781-685-4651, [email protected], or http://www.xosoft.com.

DATABASE MIGRATION

Migrate FileMaker Databases to Your SQL Server

.com Solutions announced FmPro Migrator 2.24 Enterprise Edition for MacOS X and Windows, a graphical application that documents and migrates FileMaker Pro databases and standalone solution files to eight different database servers, including SQL Server, Microsoft Access, Oracle, and IBM DB2. The product generates SQL code to create tables for each FileMaker database it processes and recreates field names as SQL92-compliant column names. FmPro Migrator reports the maximum amount of stored data in each field so that you can customize your SQL code for the amount of data you need to migrate. A Direct Data Transfer feature preserves special characters and JPG images, eliminating the need to export data to text files during migration. An important feature of the latest release of the product generates scripts to migrate FileMaker repeating fields to SQL Server databases, eliminating the need for DBAs to perform this work manually. FmPro Migrator Enterprise Edition costs $100, and you can download a free demo version at http://www.dotcomsolutionsinc.net/downloads/demo_ software/index.html#fmpro_migrator_demo. Contact .com Solutions at 815-346-2589, [email protected], or http://www.dotcomsolutionsinc.net.

DEVELOPER TOOLKIT

Add Realtime Graphics to Applications

Quinn-Curtis announced Real-Time Graphics Tools for .Net, an object-oriented, .NET-based toolkit that lets developers add realtime graphics to C# and Visual Basic for .NET applications. Developers who create applications for such uses as financial reporting, network monitoring, factory automation, process monitoring, research and development, systems testing, and quality control can use the toolkit to provide users with interactive charts and displays. The toolkit includes more than 30 realtime displays, including scrolling graphs, bar indicators, dials, meters, clocks, annunciators, and digital-panel meter indicators. Users who work with the displays can add annotations, define custom tool tips, and zoom in to look more closely at a graphic. Pricing for a single-developer, 1-year subscription (including free updates during the year) is $100. A redistributable license is required for redistribution or deployment of applications or Web sites that use the software; the cost per application or Web site is $100. A 30-day trial version of the software is available for download. For more information, contact Quinn-Curtis at 508-359-6639, info@quinn-curtis, or http://www.quinn-curtis.com.

SECURITY

Offload Cryptographic Functions

Ingrian Networks announced DataSecure Platform, a security solution that performs database-server encryption tasks by using Ingrian's cryptographic functions and network-based, dedicated-hardware appliances. The latest release of the platform provides standard interfaces to integrate with SQL Server, Oracle, and IBM DB2 servers. New features to support SQL Server include data encryption at either the column or field level; comprehensive logging, auditing, and administration capabilities for cryptographic operations; robust authentication and authorization to protect access to data decryption; minimal application-integration time; and tight integration with SQL Server user security. For pricing or more information, contact Ingrian at 650-261-2400, [email protected], or http://www.ingrian.com.

TECHNICAL RESOURCE

Read Up on SQL Server

Chris Kempster announced the release of two e-books: the latest e-book in his Professional DBA Series, SQL Server: A Practical Guide to Backup, Recovery & Troubleshooting and SQL Server 2000 for the Oracle DBA. SQL Server: A Practical Guide to Backup, Recovery & Troubleshooting is a guide for disaster management in SQL Server 2000 environments. The 345-page e-book (which you can get free from Imceda) describes disaster scenarios and covers procedures and policies for protecting your data when disaster strikes. To get the book, contact Imceda at 781-229-6300 or http://www.imceda.com. SQL Server 2000 for the Oracle DBA is a 350-page e-book designed to help experienced Oracle DBAs move into SQL Server environments. This book costs $25 and covers topics including SQL Server architecture, installation, command-line tools, performance tuning, networking, and security. You can find a table of contents and sample chapters of this book at http://www.chriskempster.com. For more information, contact the author at [email protected] or [email protected].

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

Use Realtime Enterprise Analytics

ProClarity announced that ProClarity Analytics Platform 6.0, an enterprise-class analytic platform designed to improve IT productivity and performance, became publicly available in November. The most significant enhancement in this release is the addition of ProClarity Line Server (PLS), which can centrally manage live, persistent connections to multiple data sources. PLS lets you bring data together without having to physically move or integrate the data, and you don't need to wait for the data to be scrubbed or transformed to use it for analysis. And PLS offers Microsoft Excel as its primary UI. Other features of ProClarity 6.0 include extensive support for SQL Server 2005 Beta 2, new actionable Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and easy-to-use GUIs. You can access a self-running demonstration of ProClarity 6.0 at http://www.proclarity.com/demo/default.asp. For pricing and product information, contact ProClarity at 208-344-1630, [email protected], or http:// www.proclarity.com.