De Beers Venetia Mine has completed the roll-out of a Sybase virtual database and middleware solution that provides its end-users with a unified view of data that resides in multiple systems across the mining operation's IT environment.
Keith Della Donne, manager at De Beers Venetia Diamond Mine, says the company was looking for a product that would allow end-users to perform real-time and historical queries against a number of systems running on disparate platforms, through a single interface. These systems include a range of 20 custom-developed and packaged technical and business applications running on the IBM AS/400 and Microsoft Windows/SQL Server platforms.
The company began assessing the market for products that could meet its requirements nearly two years ago, and eventually selected Sybase as its technology partner.
"We had little doubt that it could provide the functionality we needed. However, what we had to put to the test was whether the solution would be able to handle the sheer volumes of data we wanted to push through it," says Della Donne.
"The system provides users with a unified view of the data through Crystal Reports. We have developed a front-end that allows them to access aggregated data without needing to write their own advanced queries.
"In effect, we now have 15 or 16 systems, including financials, HR, technical, and maintenance, tied together through a single portal interface. The functionality is complex: users can run queries against practically any combination of these systems."
Della Donne says Sybase also eases development and enhancement of enterprise systems by providing a middleware layer between applications and enterprise data with an open interface to each. This allows developers to write applications that access heterogeneous data without worrying about the complexities of the underlying network and data source-specific protocols.
The solution is based on the Sybase Adaptive Server enterprise database and DirectConnect middleware. It operates as a virtual database that allows applications to reference data that resides in multiple sources by creating a proxy database and tables. EnterpriseConnect interfaces, a feature of the Sybase database, allow transparent access to the multiple databases in the Venetia Mine IT environment.
The Sybase database provides a high-performance, distributed query engine for data analysis and includes a set of internal APIs, called Omni Services, that provide client applications with a single view of the data. The DirectConnect middleware translates the data from the various sources into a format that the Sybase database can use.
Rudi Bronkhurst, systems architect at Sybase SA, says: "Most businesses, even as they roll-out next-generation e-business and enterprise applications, need access to data locked up in disparate legacy systems to drive business decision-making.
"This means middleware and enterprise portal solutions that allow companies to integrate and perform analysis on data from various sources through a single interface are becoming critically important."
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