ONTOS Delivers Object Integration Server™ for Oracle; Newest VIA Component Provides Object Access to Oracle Databases

Business Wire, March 27, 1995

BURLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 27, 1995--ONTOS, Inc. announced today ONTOS OIS(TM) for Oracle, another building block of the ONTOS Virtual Information Architecture(TM) (ONTOS VIA(TM)), the company's object-oriented framework for information access and distribution.

The ONTOS Object Integration Server (ONTOS OIS) product family allows object-oriented applications to integrate transparently with disparate data stores. ONTOS OIS uses agent technology to find information wherever it resides on a network and return it to an application in object form.

Coming on the heels of OIS for Sybase, released last November, the delivery of OIS for Oracle extends VIA's back-end integration capability to access the world's leading relational databases. According to ONTOS officials, an OIS for integrating mainframe databases is also under way. ONTOS also currently provides services for building a custom OIS for accessing mainframe or proprietary databases.

"Companies want the competitive advantage of developing high-value applications with object-oriented tools. They also want to preserve their existing databases and the valuable information they contain," said Gerard Keating, ONTOS OIS Product Manager. "ONTOS OIS allows them to do both."

Aberdeen analyst Hugh Bishop commented, "Today's announcement proves that ONTOS is on target with its VIA strategy. With products like OIS for Oracle, ONTOS is delivering open, heterogeneous solutions that add tremendous value by uniting resources across an enterprise framework."

Making Life Easier for Application Developers

OIS lets developers build applications that can access a variety of disparate information sources without detailed knowledge of where or how the data is stored. This makes it faster and easier to create applications, and means that developers do not need to have expertise in data storage and retrieval but can focus on meeting the information needs of their customers.

To provide object access to a new data store for the first time, the developer translates the existing database schema into an object model. This process is supported by the graphical Schema Mapper, an easy-to-use tool that is part of OIS. The schema mappings are then stored with an object model that resides in the ONTOS OIS Object Repository.

Benefits of the ONTOS OIS Object Model

ONTOS OIS object modeling capability provides a number of benefits:

--Map once, use many times. Once created, integration mappings are reusable by multiple applications. New applications can take advantage of the stored mappings to access disparate databases.

--Accommodates change. OIS insulates applications from changes to data stores. A company can create, remove, or modify a database without having to change its applications. Users can add new applications more quickly and easily, since they write applications directly to the object model.

--A common language. The object model provides common semantics for business concepts used throughout the enterprise. Information that was visible only to those who spoke the language of a specific application or database can now be made available in a more useful form, as objects.

Managing Complexity

ONTOS OIS uses agent technology to relieve the user of some of the complexity of information access. Agents insulate the use of information from the details of where and how it is stored. No longer must application developers be concerned by technical details such as the number of joins that a particular data access operation might require. The underlying agent technology that supports the object model manages the complexity and enables applications to be designed to address the true information needs of the user.

"Software agents have the potential to dramatically simplify the use of complex, distributed information networks," said Tom Malone, Professor of Information Systems at the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management and member of the ONTOS Technical Advisory Board. "Though such agents have been part of research visions for years, it is exciting to see them now being introduced into a commercial software product."

Bringing New Value to Old Information

Daimler-Benz AG, one of ONTOS's strategic partners, has adopted ONTOS VIA and plans to use ONTOS OIS to create a next-generation product development environment. The first project with ONTOS technology within Daimler-Benz was the creation of a product object model that Mercedes-Benz will use to integrate CAD data with Bills of Material.

Dr. Gerhard Barth, Director of Information Technology, Research and Technology at Daimler-Benz commented, "To remain competitive, organizations need a unified perspective on their information resources, the flexibility to create new and innovative uses for that information, and an information architecture that preserves the massive investments in disparate systems. ONTOS VIA is our choice because it provides all of these capabilities."

Pricing and Availability

OIS for Oracle is available in Q2'95. Bundled starter packages consisting of a developer's toolkit, runtime license, consulting and training start at $70,000. Value-added reseller programs are also available.