ObjectStore -- a division of Progress Software Corporation which provides products and services that enable organisations to manage data in real-time -- has released ObjectCache Version 2.0, which includes integration with corporate databases through its new data source synchronisation (DSS) capability.
Rick Parry, MD of Progress Software South Africa, says ObjectCache non-invasively extends corporate databases to improve the scalability and performance of the systems that depend on them, and allows companies to add new services based on access to their existing customer data at the same time.
"ObjectCache is ideal for multi-tier architectures that require high-performance and transactionally consistent distribution of data," he says. "Its middle-tier data cache management allows rigid back-end systems to be extended. Representative scenarios include creating reference data for radio frequency identification (RFID) applications, new customer care services in telecommunications, front and middle office applications in financial services, or any new applications that need to integrate data from existing applications."
The introduction of DSS allows applications to identify part or all of an existing corporate database to be cached in the middle tier. That data is kept transactionally consistent - changes to the cache are transparently synchronised with the data source, and vice versa.
ObjectCache also features the patented Cache-Forward architecture, which allows heterogeneous, distributed middle-tier caches to share data, with full transactional support for reads, writes, updates and deletes. Cached data is accessed at in-memory speeds, resulting in real-time performance and scalability. In addition, ObjectCache allows derived data to be created and stored in the middle tier, which enables new services to be added that extend existing, stable systems.
The Orange group, a France Telecom subsidiary and one of the world`s largest mobile communications companies, is using ObjectCache as part of a real-time customer service operation that receives 60 million inquiries every year, with 750 million calls handled by its interactive voice response system. With ObjectCache, Orange has extended exponentially the utility of its customer data to support the transaction requirements of tens of millions of subscriber interactions handled by its multi-site call centre operation.
"By caching customer data from our existing system, we have quickly added new services, provided sub-second response for automated self-service, helped our systems cope with rapid subscriber growth from two million to 13.6 million and preserved existing customer care technology investments - all at the same time," says James Conroy, common integration services manager, Orange UK.
By distributing middle-tier caches, ObjectCache allows applications to scale in a predictable fashion, with no additional stress on the company`s data sources. Customers can leverage existing investments while deploying more cost-effective hardware and software, such as Linux, Windows, and JBOSS, in the middle tier. It is agnostic to application server architecture - including support for J2EE application servers like BEA and WebSphere, and CORBA application middle-tier servers. This heterogeneous architecture ensures flexibility and scalability in deployment.
ObjectCache provides a 10 to 1 000 times boost in performance over files or relational caching methods through its patented Virtual Memory Mapping Architecture (VMMA), which simplifies a developer`s need to hand-code scalable cache management functionality. The VMMA takes advantage of the fact that data can be accessed 1 000 times faster from memory than from disk, by mapping data and database locks into the application`s virtual memory, allowing database operations to occur at the speed of memory access.
ObjectCache`s DSS automatically transfers data from the back-end to the middle-tier cache, where it is managed by the VMMA; changes to cached data are transferred back to the database of record for long-term storage.
"ObjectCache is designed to help customers get more out of their existing data management investment without replacing it, while, at the same time, scaling and increasing their performance by a factor of 10, or, in some cases, 1 000 times," says Parry. "It is ideal for environments with distributed data that require real-time updates, extreme scalability, and little to no latency between tiers. With the addition of data source synchronisation, ObjectCache provides the most comprehensive, complementary caching solution available."
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