Avaki blends grid with EII

Avaki will combine the emerging grid paradigm and a growing form of data integration known as EII (enterprise information integration) with the release on Tuesday of a new version of its grid software.

Avaki Data Grid 4.0 is designed to enable customers to provision, integrate, and access data that is distributed across multiple systems. New to this incarnation are support for JDBC (Java Database Connectivity), CIFS (Common Internet File System), enhanced caching with scheduling capabilities, and improved publish and subscribe. Also, bolstered XML handling enables the software to convert files and relational data to XML data and apply style sheets to that data.

Grid computing shares similar technology roots with EII, specifically the sharing of information in cross-team collaboration scenarios where the data has to be consistent, and the ability to do that in a way that is transparent, according to Tim Yeaton, president of Avaki, in Burlington, Mass.

“Both grid computing and EII depend on types of virtualization, so the fit is good, both theoretically and in practice,” said Philip Russom, an analyst at Forrester Research, in Cambridge, Mass. “EII is the integration through virtualization of distributed data, which works as a component within grid computing, which is the virtualization of numerous and far-flung computing resources.”

While Avaki’s software has been considered grid-oriented, Russom added that it is truly EII as well, in that it supports virtual views into distributed data, metadata management, distributed query with optimization, back-end database connectivity, as well as structured and unstructured data sources.

Although Avaki Data Grid 4.0 has a foot in both arenas, Yeaton said that the goal is to compliment EII products, such as those from IBM and others, rather than to replace them in customers’ networks.

“We’re solving the access and provisioning portions of the problem,” Yeaton said.

IBM, for its part, is weaving grid functionality into its WebSphere stack. Big Blue competitors, including Hewlett-Packard, Oracle and Sun Microsystems, are also offering grid software.

Avaki Data Grid 4.0 is available immediately, according to the company.