Network Computingwww.networkcomputing.com

Best Middleware Product

EDA/SQL Owns The Middleware Market

There is a variety of middleware products, and it's probably true that no organization can standardize on just one. There are database networking products from each relational database management system (RDBMS) vendor and third parties, other RPC-based products and even message-based middleware products. Of the middleware products we've seen, one stands out as offering the most options: Information Builder's EDA/SQL.
Information Builders' EDA/SQL handles direct access to a variety of remote data sources, including the usual RDBMS suspects like Oracle, Sybase and DB/2. It also handles nonrelational data sources, even offering write access to IMS databases. It can support many of these either directly using a pass-through of RDBMS-native SQL, or it can act as a single catalog of all data throughout the enterprise supporting a single SQL dialect for access to all the various supported data sources. On many server platforms, EDA/SQL allows procedural access to other server-based applications.
But EDA/SQL isn't versatile only on the back end. EDA/SQL offers client support for any desktop you need, as well as server support on the most useful server platforms. Network protocol support is good, although sometimes a given protocol is not supported in a particular client/server combination.
Client/server computing is easier to say than it is to build for business-critical applications. You can solve the disconnect between the client and the server in many ways. But that middleware piece is absolutely essential for building enterpris ewide client/server applications. EDA/ SQL may not be the least expensive or fastest way to connect any given client to any given RDBMS, but its mix of options and scale of operation is impressive.

EDA/SQL, $175-$100,000
Information Builders, 1250 Broadway, New York, NY 10001.
(800) 969-INFO; fax (212) 629-8819.
Circle reader service #385.

EDA/SQL, $175-$100,000
Information Builders, 1250 Broadway, New York, NY 10001. (800) 969-INFO; fax (212) 629-8819.

Runners-Up
Enterprise CONNECT, MDI, A Sybase Company, 3035 Center Green Dr., Boulder, CO 80301. (800) 221-3634; fax (303) 443-2797.

SEQUELINK Client/Server
MiddleWare, TechGnosis,
5 Burlington Woods Dr., Suite 202, Burlington, MA 01803.
(617) 229-6100; fax (617) 229-0557.