Sunopsis Data Conductor
Date:
By: Philip Howard
Classification: Product Evaluation
Sunopsis Data Conductor is two things. First, it is a tool for moving data from
one place to another. Historically, these have been known as ETL (extract, transform
and load) tools but these tend to be associated with moving data into data
warehouses and Data Conductor has broader capabilities than this. Further, the
product does not typically use the ETL paradigm (though you can do so if you
wish) but usually adopts an extract, load and then transform approach (ELT).
Secondly, Data Conductor is a part of the broader Sunopsis Active Integration
Platform. This is a set of modules that, between them, aim to offer every conceivable
way that you might want to integrate data, whether in batch or real-time,
whether persistent or non-persistent, whether in an event-driven environment or
one which is data-driven, whether synchronously or asynchronously. To put that
in terms of product types, this means ETL (extract, transform and load) and its
variants, replication, event-driven application (data) integration via a service bus,
Web Services, support for federated data and more.
However, this does not tell the whole story. It is also important to appreciate that
everything in the platform is implemented just once. Thus there is one transformation
mechanism that supports all of the front-end products that the company
markets. Similarly, there is a single design tool, a single operator console, a single
set of data quality capabilities, a single set of database connectors, and a single
metadata repository that supports all of these facilities. The importance of this
integrated, platform-based approach cannot be emphasised too much.
This report focuses on Sunopsis Data Conductor but briefly describes the
remainder of the Active Integration Platform in order to put Data Conductor
into context.