ETL Nowadays, most companies existence depends on data flow.

When plenty of information is generally accessible and one can find almost everything he needs, managing became easier than ever before. The Internet simplifies cooperation time needed to send and receive requested data gets shorter as more and more institutions computerize their resources. Also, the communication between separate corporation departments became easier no one needs to send normal letters (or even the office boys) as the process is replaced by e-mails. Although the new ways of communication improved and facilitated managing, the ubiquitous computerization has its significant disadvantages.

The variety of data as positive phenomenon as possible got a little bit out of control. The unlimited growth of databases size caused mess that often slows down (or even disable) data finding process. Its all about effective information storing. Uncategorized data is assigned to different platforms and systems. As a consequence, finding wanted data brings a lot of troubles user needs to know what data he administers, where it is located (and whether he has proper access), finally how to take them out. Wrong was someone who thought that the hardest task was making decisions basing on data. No finding data itself is often much more annoying. But users are not the only ones suffering for databases overgrowth. The IT departments usually responsible for keeping the systems work have to struggle with data in different formats and systems. Keeping it alive is extremely time-consuming what delays the companys work. Slow (or sometimes omitted at all) transformation of data causes that its usually impossible to provide demanded information in demanded time. Formed divergence between data provided and data really existing in the moment of need harms the IT departments image. To achieve better results, companies invest in external systems computing power and resources. Not enough power causes lacks of synchronization of data. Transporting information between separate units lasts too long to work effectively. On the other side, computing power increasing that might be an example solution is expensive and lead to overgrowth of the operation costs. Supposing that example company managed to prepare well-working database responsible for supporting designated operation. A lot of money and time got spent. Everything seems wonderful until it comes to another operation. Suddenly it appears that once created system doesnt really fit the requirements of new operation and the best idea is to create a new system from the beginning. Yes, modifications might be made but there is no single developer common for all parts of the projects, so it demands cooperation of at least a few subjects that hardly disables the idea. ETL process The three-stage ETL process and the ETL tools implementing the concept might be a response for the needs described above.

The ETL shortcut comes from 'Extract, transform, and load' the words that describe the idea of the system. The ETL tools were created to improve and facilitate data warehousing. The Etl process consists of the following steps: Initiation Build reference data Extract from sources Validate Transform Load into stages tables Audit reports Publish Archive Clean up

Sometimes those steps are supervised and performed indirectly but its very time-consuming and may be not so accurate. The purpose of using ETL Tools is to save the time and make the whole process more reliable.

ETL Tools The times of increasing data-dependence forced a lot of companies to invest in complicated data warehousing systems. Their differentiation and incompatibility led to an uncontrolled growth of costs and time needed to coordinate all the processes. The ETL (Extract, transform, load) tools were created to simplify the data management with simultaneous reduction of absorbed effort. Depending on the needs of customers there are several types of tools.

One of them perform and supervise only selected stages of the ETL process like data migration tools(EtL Tools , small ttools) , data transformation tools(eTl Tools , capital Ttools).Another are complete (ETL Tools ) and have many functions that are intended for processing large amounts of data or more complicated ETL projects. Some of them like server engine tools execute many ETL steps at the same time from more than one developer , while other like client engine tools are simpler and execute ETL routines on the same machine as they are developed. There are two more types. First called code base tools is a family of programing tools which allow you to work with many operating systems and programing languages.The second one called GUI base tools remove the coding layer and allow you to work without any knowledge (in theory) about coding languages. How do the ETL tools work? The first task is data extraction from internal or external sources. After sending queries to the source system data may go indirectly to the database. However usually there is a need to monitor or gather more information and then go to Staging Area . Some tools extract only new or changed information automatically so we dont have to update it by our own. The second task is transformation which is a broad category: -transforming data into a stucture wich is required to continue the operation (extracted data has usually a sructure typicall to the source) -sorting data -connecting or separating -cleansing -checking quality The third task is loading into a data warehouse. As you can see the ETL Tools have many other capabilities (next to the main three: extraction , transformation and loading) like for instance sorting , filtering , data profiling , quality control, cleansing , monitoring , synchronization and consolidation. ETL Tools providers Here is a list of the most popular comercial and freeware(open-sources) ETL Tools. Comercial ETL Tools: IBM Infosphere DataStage Informatica PowerCenter Oracle Warehouse Builder (OWB) Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) SAS ETL Studio Business Objects Data Integrator(BODI) Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services(SSIS) Ab Initio Freeware, open source ETL tools:

Pentaho Data Integration (Kettle) Talend Integrator Suite CloverETL Jasper ETL

As you can see there are many types of ETL Tools and all you have to do right now is to choose appropriate one for you. Some of them are relatively quite expensive, some may be too complex, if you dont want to transform a lot of information or use many sources or use sophisticated features. It is always necessary to start with defining the business requirements, then consider the technical aspects and then choose the right ETL tool. ETL TOOLS COMPARISON ETL Tools - general information ETL tools are designed to save time and money by eliminating the need of 'hand-coding' when a new data warehouse is developed. They are also used to facilitate the work of the database administrators who connect different branches of databases as well as integrate or change the existing databases. The main purpose of the ETL tool is: extraction of the data from legacy sources (usually heterogenous) data transformation (data optimized for transaction --> data optimized for analysis) synchronization and cleansing of the data loading the data into data warehouse.

There are several requirements that must be had by ETL tools in order to deliver an optimal value to users, supporting a full range of possible scenarios. Those are: - data delivery and transformation capabilities - data and metadata modelling capabilities - data source and target support - data governance capability - runtime platform capabilities - operations and administration capabilities - service-enablements capability. ETL tools comparison criteria The research presented in this article is based on Gartners data integration magic quadrant, forrester researches and our professional experience. The etltools.org portal is not affiliated with any of the companies listed below in the comparison.

The research inclusion and exclusion criteria are as follows: - range and mode of connectivity/adapter support - data transformation and delivery modes support - metadata and data modelling support - design, development and data governance support - runtime platform support - enablement of service and three additional requirements for vendors: - $20 milion or more of software revenue from data integration tools every year or not less than 300 production customers - support of customers in not less than two major geographic regions - have customer implementations at crossdepartamental and multiproject level. ETL Tools Comparison The information provided below lists major strengths and weaknesses of the most popular ETL vendors. IBM (Information Server Infosphere platform) Advantages: strongest vision on the market, flexibility progress towards common metadata platform high level of satisfaction from clients and a variety of initiatives Disadvantages: difficult learning curve long implementation cycles became very heavy (lots of GBs) with version 8.x and requires a lot of processing power Informatica PowerCenter Advantages: most substantial size and resources on the market of data integration tools vendors consistent track record, solid technology, straightforward learning curve, ability to address real-time data integration schemes Informatica is highly specialized in ETL and Data Integration and focuses on those topics, not on BI as a whole focus on B2B data exchange Disadvantages: several partnerships diminishing the value of technologies limited experience in the field. Microsoft (SQL Server Integration Services) Advantages: broad documentation and support, best practices to data warehouses ease and speed of implementation standardized data integration real-time, message-based capabilities relatively low cost - excellent support and distribution model Disadvantages: problems in non-Windows environments. Takes over all Microsoft Windows limitations.

unclear vision and strategy Oracle (OWB and ODI) Advantages: based on Oracle Warehouse Builder and Oracle Data Integrator two very powerful tools; tight connection to all Oracle datawarehousing applications; tendency to integrate all tools into one application and one environment. Disadvantages: focus on ETL solutions, rather than in an open context of data management; tools are used mostly for batch-oriented work, transformation rather than real-time processes or federation data delivery; long-awaited bond between OWB and ODI brought only promises - customers confused in the functionality area and the future is uncertain SAP BusinessObjects (Data Integrator / Data Services) Advantages: integration with SAP SAP Business Objects created a firm company determined to stir the market; Good data modeling and data-management support; SAP Business Objects provides tools for data mining and quality; profiling due to many acquisitions of other companies. Quick learning curve and ease of use Disadvantages: SAP Business Objects is seen as two different companies Uncertain future. Controversy over deciding which method of delivering data integration to use (SAP BW or BODI). BusinessObjects Data Integrator (Data Services) may not be seen as a stand-alone capable application to some organizations. SAS Advantages: experienced company, great support and most of all very powerful data integration tool with lots of multi-management features can work on many operating systems and gather data through number of sources very flexible great support for the business-class companies as well for those medium and minor ones Disadvantages: misplaced sales force, company is not well recognized SAS has to extend influences to reach non-BI community Costly Sun Microsystems Advantages: Data integration tools are a part of huge Java Composite Application Platform Suite - very flexible with ongoing development of the products 'Single-view' services draw together data from variety of sources; small set of vendors with a strong vision Disadvantages: relative weakness in bulk data movement

limited mindshare in the market support and services rated below adequate Sybase Advantages: assembled a range of capabilities to be able to address a mulitude of data delivery styles size and global presence of Sybase create opportunities in the market pragmatic near-term strategy - better of current market demand broad partnerships with other data quality and data integration tools vendors Disadvantages: falls behind market leaders and large vendors gaps in many aspects of data management Syncsort Advantages: functionality; well-known brand on the market (40 years experience); loyal customer and experience base; easy implementation, strong performance, targeted functionality and lower costs Disadvantages: struggle with gaining mind share in the market lack of support for other than ETL delivery styles unsatisfactory with lack of capability of professional services Tibco Software Advantages: message-oriented application integration; capabilities based on common SOA structures; support for federated views; easy implementation, support andperformance Disadvantages: scarce references from customers; not widely enough recognised for data integration competencies lacking in data quality capabilities. ETI Advantages: proven and mature code-generating architecture one of the earliest vendors on the data integration market; support for SOA service-oriented deployments; successfully deals with large data volumes and a high degree of complexity, extension of the range of data platforms and data sources; customers' positive responses to ETI technology Disadvantages: relatively slow growth of customer base rather not attractive and inventive technology. iWay Software Advantages: offers physical data movement and delivery; support of wide range of adapters and access to numerous sources; well integrated, standard tools;

reasonable ease of implementation effort Disadvantages: gaps in specific capabilities relatively costly - not competitive versus market leaders Pervasive Software Advantages: many customers, years of experience, solid applications and support; good use of metadata upgrade from older versions into newer is straightforward. Disadvantages: inconsistency in defining the target for their applications; no federation capability; Limited presence due to poor marketing. Open Text Advantages Simplicity of use in less-structured sources Easy licensing for business solutions cooperates with a wide range of sources and targets increasingly high functionality Disadvantages: limited federation, replication and data quality support; rare upgrades due to its simplicity; weak real-time support due to use third party solutions and other database utilities. Pitney Bowes Software Advantages: Data Flow concentrates on data integrity and quality; supports mainly ETL patterns; can be used for other purposes too; ease of use, fast implementation, specific ETL functionality. Disadvantages: rare competition with other major companies, repeated rebranding trigger suspicions among customers. narrow vision of possibilities even though Data Flow comes with variety of applications. weak support, inexperienced service.

ETL Products Open source (freeware) data integration tools are the latest segment in the community-driven software. They are an alternative to commercial packaged solutions as well as an productive and efficient option to writing custom code. The most advanced ETL tools packages on the market include enterprise-level offers from IBM, Informatica or Ab Initio. They are designed to handle high performance and scalability requirements. Minimum prices of them range from $45,000 to around $150,000 per CPU for an Enterprise package. There are, however, less expensive options but they often are limited in support for heterogenous environments (Microsoft, Oracle) and sometimes charge extra for additional facilities and sevices

(Metadata management, Data Quality, Data federation modules for instance or connectors for SAP or IFS). It is a challenge for data integration architects to create an ETL tool that will be capable of integration of the data between a variety of data sources and targets and be reasonably priced. If there is a need for such a solution, an open source model should be considered. Open Source ETL Open source implementations play a significant role both in bringing community power into ETL and promotion of development of standards. A large number of testers is available which makes free ETL tools to be widely spoken of and evolving. But the most important feature of open source ETL products is that they are significantly less expensive than tools of commercial licence. There are four basic constituencies that adopt free ETL tools are: independent software vendors (ISV) that are looking for embeddable data integration - costs are reduced and the savings are passed on customers, data integration, migration and transofrmation capabilities are incorporated as an embedded component, memory footprint of the end product is reduced in comparison to large commercial offers; system integrators that look for not expensive integration tooling - open source ETL software allows system integrators to deliver integration capabilities significantly faster and with higher quality level than it is done by custom-building of the capabilities; enterprise departamental developers that look for a local solution - using the free ETL tools technology by larger enterprises gives support to small initiatives; midmarket companies with smaller budgets and less complex requirements - small companies more likely support open source BI providers as they have less demanding needs for data integration software, hence no need for a costly BI provider.

A number of open source projects are capable of performing more than one ETL function. The technical features of these projects are less different than similar. Free ETL tools Pentaho Data Integration (PDI, Kettle) According to Pentaho itself, it is a BI provider that offers ETL tools as a capability of data integration. These ETL capabilities are based on the Kettle project. Pentaho is known by selling subscriptions such as support services or management tools. Focusing primarily on connectivity and transformation, Pentaho's Kettle project is able to incorporate significant number of contributions from its community. Community-driven enhancements include: a Web services lookup, a SAP connector and the development of an Oracle bulk loader. The SAP connector, although it is integrated with Kettle, is not a free product - it is a commercially offered plug-in, however it is around 10 times cheaper than an SAP connectivity for Infosphere Datastage.

Pentaho Data Integration is a part of the Pentaho Open Source Business intelligence suite. It includes software for all areas of supporting business decisions making - the data warehouse managing utilities, data integration and analysis tools, software for managers and data mining tools. Pentaho data integration is one of the most important components of this business intelligence platform and seems to be the most stable and reliable. Pentaho Data Integration is well known for its ease of use and quick learning curve. PDI's implements a metadata-driven approach which means that the development is based on specifying WHAT to do, not HOW to do it. Pentaho lets administrators and ETL developers create their own data manipulation jobs with a user friendly graphical creator, and without entering a single line of code. Advanced users know, that not every user friendly solution is as effective as it could be, so skilled and experienced users can use advanced scripting and create custom components. Pentaho Data Integration uses a common, shared repository which enables remote ETL execution, facilitates team work and simplifies the development process. PDI components There are a few development tools for implementing ETL processes in Pentaho: Spoon - data modeling and development tool for ETL developers. It allows creation of transformations (elementary data flows) and jobs (execution sequences of transformations and other jobs) Pan - executes transformations modeled in Spoon Kitchen - is an an application which executes jobs designed in Spoon Carte - a simple webserver used for running and monitoring data integration tasks Pentaho Enterprise Edition The enterprise edition of the Pentaho Data Integration adds some extra components that extends the capabilities of Pentaho platform. For ca. $15,000 per year, the enterprise edition gives you support from Pentaho specialists, access to documentation which makes problems and issues resolution easier and extra applications for administration and development of the Business Intelligence content. The support is delivered through telephone and e-mail. The enterprise edition also gives you access to the latest patches and updates for which users of the community edition need to wait. The software maintenance for users of the enterprise edition is diffrent than for users of the free edition. Every user of the enterprise edition gets a professional engineer help in maintaining his business inteligence software. It means not only a person who will do the job, but also someone who can teach new developers and administrators everything about this platform. Users of the enterprise edition can monitor performance of their data integration system with special tools. They also are able to administer their data warehouses remotely, and are alerted about special events in their systems. The Pentaho Data Integration is a part of a great solution for companies and organizations that need business intelligence software with minimum cost and without experienced specialists.

Talend It is a startup of French origin that has positioned itself as a pure play of open source data integration and now offers its product - Open Studio. For vendors wishing to embed Open Studio capabilities in their products, Talend has an OEM license agreement. That is what JasperSoft has done, thus creating an open source BI stack to compete with Pentaho's Kettle. Talend is a commercial open source vendor which generates profit from support, training and consulting services. What Open Studio offers is a userfriendly graphical modeling environment as it provides traditional approach for performance management as well as a pushdown optimization (architectural approach). The latter allows users to bypass the actual cost of dedicated hardware to support an ETL engine and enables users to leverage spare capacity of the server within both the source and target environments to power the transformations. Talend Open Studio Talend offers a variety of data integration and data quality tools of which Talend Open Studio was the first one. The products support data warehousing, migration, consolidation and synchronization as well as profiling and cleansing. Talend's products work under Open Core model. This means that the core functionality is provided under GPL v2 open source license but additional services require a commercial subscription license. The commercial license also includes technical support and legal protection of the proceeded data. Data integration tools Talend Open Studio is Talend's data integration platform that enables designing of data integration processes and their monitoring. The manufacturer claims that the tool meets needs of every enterprise regardless of the size. Talend Open Studio includes three applications: Business Modeler, Job Designer and Metadata Manager that are business-friendly tool and do not require particular technical knowledge. The tool has also a built-in function to monitor jobs performed and analyze occurring problems. Talend Integration Suite is an additional service that requires a subscribed license. This is a data integration solution that allows multiuser access and team work, and supports large volumes of data. Thank to the Shared Repository tool it enables data consolidation in one, central repository that can be accessed by all the members of a collaborating team. It also allows to manage users permissions and privileges. Talend Integration Suite MPx is a massively parallel platform designed for companies that need to proceed very large volumes of data in a short time. It is supported by FileScale technology that allows sorting and transformation of very large files thank to breaking down any operation on data into smaller independent processes. Talend Integration Suite RTx is a real-time data integration platform. It works in Web based environment. The tool enables triggering and integrating of data integration processes according to users needs and facilitates easy access to critical data. Talend Integration Suite RTx includes SOA Manager that manages incoming requests and queue system to increase the capability of the platform.

Talend on Demand is an on line service that enables consolidation of project information from Talend Open Studio in a shared repository hosted, controlled and backed up by Talend, so it does not require any configuration or administration. The application facilitates code and objects storage and reuse for local and distributed working teams. The data security is ensured by company's firewall as only the project information is stored in a shared repository. Data profiling and data quality tools Talend Open Profiler enables analyzing and monitoring of data in existing sources. It also allows to evaluate data quality and search for the defined indicators. Talend Data Quality is a tool that helps to obtain correct data and remove corrupted, bad or duplicate data. It manages various kinds of data and allows to evaluate them in a graphic and user-friendly environment. Talend Data Quality can be easily used by non-technical personnel for simple and more complicated analyses. The application also stores the history of analyses, allows batch analyzing and various reports styles and formats.

clover.ETL This project is directed by OpenSys, a based in Czech Republic company. It is Java-based, dual-licensed open source that in its commercially licensed version offers warranty and support. In its offer there is a small footprint that makes it easy to embed by system integrators and ISVs. It aims at creating a basic library of functions, including mapping and transformations. Its enterprise server edition is a commercial offering. Clover ETL is a data transformation and data integration tool (ETL) distributed as a Commercial Open Source software. As the Clover ETL framework is Java based, it is independent and resource- efficient. CloverETL is used to cleanse, standardize, transform and distribute data to applications, database and warehouses. It is a Java based program and thanks to its component based structure customization and embeddabilty are possible. It can be used standalone as well as a command- line application or server application or can be even embedded in other applications such as Java library. Clover ETL has been used not only on the most wide spread Windows platform but also on Linux, HPUX, AIX, AS/400, Solaris and OSX. It can be both used on low-cost PC as on high- end multi processors servers. Clover ETL components Clover ETL pack includes Clover ETL Engine, Clover ETL Designer and CloverETL Server. The first, Clover ETL Engine combines two functions, is both a data transformation run- time and library simultaneously. It can be a data transformer also while embedded in other applications. It is capable of pushing data back into an application. The second one, Clover ETL Designer, enhances Clover ETL, with the visual design of data transformations. Functionality of standard components can be improved by an experienced programmer who can complement visual design with classic program sections. What is more, such a

code created by a programmer could be still fully and directly transferred to any kind of supported platform. Last, but not least, part of Clover ETL pack is Clover ETL Server. It has a rich web- based administrative interface that includes: parallel executions of transformations, clustering, support for multi- user interactions and many others. Clover ETL presents flexibility that allows easy design and implementation of the data as well as data transformation applications and consolidation of data sources. Those sources can be dissimilar and heterogeneous systems. Moreover, it will work with structured data of any kind. It does not matter if it is stored in text files or kept in binary format. Clover ETL should allow users to combine, transform and move all data from any source. If you are interested in obtaining more info about Clover ETL you can visit: www.CloverETL.com KETL This project is sponsored by Kinetic Networks - a professional services company. It started as a tool for customer engagements as commercial tools were too expensive. The Kinetic employees are currently developing the code but there are outside contributions that are expected in the future. Additional modules like data quality and profilifng component, were also developed by Kinetic and they are not placed under the licence for the open source. Initially KETL was designed as a utility to replace custom PLSQL code would move large data volumes. It is Java-based and XML-driven development environment which is of great use for skilled Java developers. KETL is currently limited ofr those users who do not have a visual development GUI. JASPER JasperETL is considered to be one of the easiest solutions for data integration, cleansing, transformation and movement on the market. It is a data integration platform-ready-to-run and high performing, that can be used by any organization. JasperETL is not a sole data integration tool, but it is a part of the Jaspersoft Business Inteligence Suite. Its capabilities can be used when there is a need for: aggregation of large volumes of data form various data sources; scaling a BI solution to include data warehouses and data marts; boosting of preformance by off-loading query and analysis form systems. JasperETL provides an impressive set of capabilities to perform any data integration task. It extracts and transforms data from multiple systems with both consistency and accuracy, and loads it into optimized store. It is called star or snowflake schema data marts and warehouses and keeps pace smoothly with the performance of the rest of ETL tools' leaders. JasperETL

Thanks to the technology of JasperETL, it is possible for database architects and data store administrators to: use the modeler of the business to get access to a non-technical view of the workflow of information; display and edit the ETL process using a graphical editing tool - Job Designer; define complex mapping and transformation using Transformation Mapper and other components; be able to generate portable Java or Perl code which can be exectued on any machine; track ETL statistics from start to finish using real-time debugging; allow simultaneous input and output to and from various sources using flat files, XML files, web services, databases and servers with a multitude of connectors; make configurations of heterogenous data sources and complex data formats (incl. positional, delimited, XML and LIDF with metadata wizards); use the AMC (Activity Monitoring Console) to monitor data volumes, execution time and job events. Since data integration is one of the biggest costs of a BI solution, JasperETL advertises its offer as the most reasonably-priced one on the market. It is said to reduce both the costs of ownership and the complexity of an IT infrastructure. What is exceptional about JasperETL is that this ETL tool allows its users to design, schedule and execute data movements graphically. If projects are however more complex, licenced customers can share metadata and their developments using the muli-user repository. JasperETL enables its users (specifically organizations) to develop, manage and document processes of data integration for more accurate and analytical online reporting and processing with JasperServer and JasperAnalysis. JasperETL can also be used as a stand-alone tool to provide comprehensible capabilities for systems and applications. Jasper ETL benefits Main benefits of using JasperETL are: affordability (available through a low-cost subscription); productivity (easy to manage and create data integration); performance (proven superior performance over many commercial ETL tools); scalability (ideal for small and medium-size businesses). Through its support of open source BI projects (e.g. JasperReports, JasperETl or JasperServer), JasperSoft enhances its open source offerings and provides a low cost on entry for any organization wishing to integrate BI solutions. Limitations of the license cost free ETL When they are used within limits, today's free ETL tools are quite suitable and do their work. In the future those limits are expected to be extended as now the limitations include: enterprise application connectivity non-RDBMS connectivity large data volumes and small batch windows

multirole collaborations complex transformation requirements

Open source ETL does not provide management capabilities that could be considered as a crossenterprise standard for data integration. They are missing advanced connectivity, techniques of realtime data integration, such as enterprise information integration (EII) or change data capture (CDC), collaboration of enterprise-level, integrated data quality management and profiling. Yet many enterprises are not looking for large and expensive data integration suite. If there is an efficient and reliable alternative available to custom code of data integration requirements, an option to use free ETL technologies should be taken into consideration. The most popular open source vendors are still not truly community-driven projects. There is and increased investment expected from a wider community to build out and encourage development, especially for connectivity modules to the unimaginable number of evolving source systems. Adeptia ETL Suite Adeptia ETL Suite (AES) is a graphical, easy-to-use data mapping solution that is ideal for aggregating data from multiple sources to populate databases and data warehouses for Business Intelligence solutions. AES is a comprehensive solution that combines data transport with powerful metadata management and data transformation capability. AES platform components Adeptia ETL consists of three distinct components. It has a web-based Design Studio that provides wizard-driven, graphical ability to document data rules as they relate to validations, mapping and edits. This tool includes a library of functions which can be pre-created and reused again and again. Data Mapper has a preview capability to see actual source and target data, while the rules are being specified, if the source data file is available. The second component is the Service Repository where all the rules and mapping objects are saved. The third component is the Run-time Execution Engine where the mapping rules and data flow transactions are executed on incoming data files and messages. The diagram represents the key components of Adeptia ETL suite in a greater detail. Key Features of Adeptia ETL Suite Data integration functionality which is perfectly suited for Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) type of data warehousing solutions for business intelligence, reporting and dashboards Process flow based and service-oriented approach for data transformation and integration Easy to use, intuitive user-friendly interface to define data mapping and data transformation rules Graphical design environment and fully featured run-time engine in one package Object-based architecture that promotes reusability of components and functionality across disparate custom packaged and legacy applications Web-based interface that enhances productivity with minimal training Complete management, reporting and auditing capabilities to track and monitor transactions

What makes Adeptia ETL Suite unique? Process-centric Integration in single package o Allows complete business process around the integration to be automated o Supports Services Orchestration o Allows Human Workflow to handle errors, exceptions and approvals Enables SOA o Flows can be exposed as Services o Includes a services repository o Metadata Driven approach, Integration components are re-usable Quick implementations in days and weeks o Allows quick projects so customers can see immediate value o Ease of Use: Graphical, No coding approach ideal for business analysts o Reduces reliance on expensive consultants Flexible pricing reduces customer risk

DB Software Laboratory ETL software DB Software Laboratory supplies wide range of ETL and business automation products. The idea is that ETL is just a part of the solution and loading the data from one database into another just not good enough. The DBSoftLabs' software is designed to help automate entire business processes and they follow the principle of What you see is what you load. At any stage the user is able to see the result of data transformation/validation without actually loading the data. DB Software Laboratory products There are 7 ETL products available to download from our web site plus 2 ETL ActiveX components. Advanced ETL Processor Enterprise works directly with most commercial and open source databases. Plus it offers full for FTP, POP3, SMTP,HTPP and File operations. It is a recommend product for complex enterprise environment. What makes Advanced ETL Processor different? What you is what you load interface Extract data from emails including googlemail Send emails using any data source File system as a data source fro example it is possible to load pictures from a folder into blob fields Complete business automation Direct connection to most databases Integrated Report Generator Export all data from the database Low resources requirement (Installation is only 23 meg compare this to most .Net applications) Visual Importer ETL Enterprise is a data transformation and business automation tool. User can design Import, Export and SQL scripts, add them to the Package and schedule it for execution on regular basis. Visual Importer ETL Enterprise stores all information in the repository. Unlike DTS, SSIS and Oracle Warehouse builder Visual Importer ETL Enterprise can send and receive emails and process attachments as well. All FTP, SMTP, POP3 and file operations also supported. By combining simple

Package Items together Visual Importer ETL Enterprise helps businesses and Fortune 100 companies to automate complicated business processes and everyday tasks. Key benefits of using Visual Importer ETL Enterprise Load data from Multiple Delimited or Fixed width Text files Multiple Excel files + Multiple Excel Spreadsheets Multiple MS Access Databases + Multiple Tables Multiple DBF Files Multiple Tables Microsoft SQL Server Oracle Database MySQL PostgreSQL Interbase/Firebird Any Ole DB or ODBC compliant database Into Oracle 7-11g database SQL server 7-2008 MySQL PostgreSQL Interbase/Firebird Any ODBC compliant database Ole DB Available data transformation and business automation tasks: Add Records Update Records Delete Records Add New and Update existing Records Apply Functions to Database Fields Apply user defined Date format Run calculations during import Run Sql script before and after loading data Filter Source Data Use Select Statement as a Data Source Export All Data from any database FTP Downloads and Uploads Create or Delete directories on FTP server Rename or delete files on FTP server Send Emails with attachments Receive Emails with attachments Save attachments Compress files Decompress zip files Copy, move, rename, merge, delete files Compare files using MD5, size or creation date

 Check if file exist Schedule packages for execution Run bat files or execute any windows application Edit and run SQL Scripts Execute Packages from the command line DB Software repository also provides other tool supporting business intelligence processes in a data warehouse environment. Those are: Data Exchange Wizard, ABI Portal, Active Table Editor, VImp X, DEWizardX, Database Browser More information in DB Software Laboratory tools: www.dbsoftlab.com Ab Initio ETL The Ab Initio software is a Business Intelligence platform containing six data processing products: Co>Operating System, The Component Library, Graphical Development Environment, Enterprise Meta>Environment, Data Profiler and Conduct>It. It is a powerful graphical user interface-based parallel processing tool for ETL data management and analysis. Co>Operating System Ab Initio Co>Operating System is a foundation for all Ab Initio applications and provides a general engine for integration of all kinds of data processing and communication between all the tools within the platform. It runs on OS/390, zOS on Mainframe, Unix, Linux, and Windows. It enables distributed and parallel execution, platform-independent data transport, estabilishing checkpoints and monitoring of the process. It implements data excution paralellism by using data paralellism, component paralellism and piepline paralellism. This tool also assures high data processing capability and provides speedups proportional to hardware resources available. Component library The Ab Initio Component Library is a reusable software module for sorting, data transformation, and high-speed database loading and unloading. This is a flexible and extensible tool which adapts at runtime to the formats of records entered and allows creation and incorporation of new components obtained from any program that permits integration and reuse of external legacy codes and storage engines. Graphical Development Environment (GDE) Graphical Development Environment provides an intuitive graphical interface for editing and executing applications. You can easily drag-and-drop components from the library onto a canvas, configure them and connect them into flowcharts. They are not only an abstract diagram but also actual architecture of various ETL functions. All the graphs contain a program function and channel data flow in one direction. This allows the graphs to run in a parallel processing environment. Then the programs can be directly executed with Co>Operating System. Ab Initio also allows monitoring of running applications, and makes it easy to quantify data volumes and execution times of the programs to investigate the opportunities for improved performance. You can also write Ab Initio programs using text editors instead of Graphical Development Environment and then execute them with Co>Operating System.

Enterprise Meta>Environment (EME) Ab Initio Enterprise Meta>Environment is a data store with additional functions of tracking changes in developed graphs and metadata used in their development. It can also provide a feedback of how the data is used and preliminary classify data. It presents in a graphic way the process of data changes in graphs and its influence on another graphs, which is called data impact analysis. Additionally, Enterprise Meta>Environment manages the configuration and changes of the code to assure immutable functions of the graphs. It also offers tools such as dependence analysis, metadata management, statistical analysis, and version controlling. Data Profiler The Data Profiler is an analytical application that can specify data range, scope, distribution, variance, and quality. It runs in a graphic environment on top of the Co>Operating system. Conduct>It Ab Initio Conduct>It is a high-volume data processing systems developing tool. It enables combining graphs from Graphical Development Environment with custom scripts and programs from other vendors. Open Source BI/DW Projects BI and Analytics BEE - http://bee.insightstrategy.cz/en/index.html BIRT - http://www.eclipse.org/birt JasperSoft http://www.jaspersoft.com MarvelIT - http://www.marvelit.com/dash.html OpenI http://openi.sourceforge.net OpenReports http://oreports.com Orange - http://www.ailab.si/orange Palo http://www.palo.net Pentaho - http://www.pentaho.com R - http://www.r-project.org SpagoBI http://spagobi.eng.it Weka - http://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~ml/index.html VitalSigns - http://vitalsigns.sourceforge.net/ Databases http://www.greenplum.com (bizgres) http://www.ingres.com http://www.mysql.com http://www.postgresql.org http://www.enterprisedb.com Integration Apatar - http://www.apatar.com CloverETL - http://cloveretl.berlios.de/

JitterBit - http://www.jitterbit.com/ KETL - http://www.ketl.org Octopus - http://www.enhydra.org/tech/octopus/index.html OSDQ - http://sourceforge.net/projects/dataquality Pentaho - http://www.pentaho.com Red Hat http://www.redhat.com Saga.M31 Galaxy - http://galaxy.sagadc.com Talend - http://www.talend.com SnapLogic http://www.snaplogic.com