Rebranding to Websphere Transformation Extender 2

[mseedig]

With the rebranding of Ascential Datastage TX to IBM Websphere Transformation Extender, it certainly appears to me that there is some future plan for the tool. Adding the Websphere name to the product, has anyone heard of any specific plans for the product to be integrated with the Websphere product line and what that might mean?

 

[OllyC]

Mercator / WTX can already be called from Websphere Message Broker and will appear as a node in a Websphere Message Broker flow.

Integration between TX and WMB will get better (e.g. currently maps aren't cached to memory in WMB, maps have to be deployed separately).

Long term, I can't see the Event Server / Launcher being developed much - WMB will be the way to execute your maps.

WMB already has multiple mapping options - so IBM may take the parser side of Mercator and build that into WMB but still retain ESQL as the preferred mapper.

But I can't see IBM stopping support for anything and I don't think IBM has fully decided on a roadmap themselves yet.

Olly.

 

[JEMIAZ]

IBM do have a defined roadmap for the product but its not published yet. Olly's comments are all the in the ball park from what I know. Its likely to be Q1 2009 before a totally seamless solution is in place.

 

[eyetry]

I'd agree with Olly.

I'm a little concerned about it though as we will not be adding Webshpere tools/services to our environment other that what is require for this toolset. I'm also dismayed because one of the reasons Ascential bought Mercator was the event server. One of the reasons IBM like Ascential is because of the event server as well. Seems like IBM was having issues with their equiv product.

I'm also a little concerned that because they have a vested interest in DB2, DB related enhancements will be focused in that direction. There are some opportunites for improvements in non-IBM DBs. I'd like to see them happen.

 

[OllyC]

Message Broker looks like a great product - loads of advantages over the Event Server.

WMB supports JMS and JDBC, so there's no need for DB2 or Websphere MQ.

 

[h4444]

I'm a little concerned about it though as we will not be adding Webshpere tools/services to our environment other that what is require for this toolset. I'm also dismayed because one of the reasons Ascential bought Mercator was the event server. One of the reasons IBM like Ascential is because of the event server as well. Seems like IBM was having issues with their equiv product. "


Actually, Ascential was primarily picked up due to their "DataStage" product on the ETL side, as IBM didn't really have a great ETL/warehousing product.

Great marketing fit,,,,pair DataStage, qualitystage, metastage, profilestage and such with their DB products and chip away at competitors like Informatica and embed the integration engine WTX in basically everything "websphere" since it is a great platform to consolidate the myriad transformation/integration tools IBM already has and can be sold as another value add product......

 

[eyetry]

Did not mean that IBM bought Ascential specifically for TX just that TX played a significant role in IBM's decision to purchase Ascential.

From 8/4/2003 Ascential/Mercator press release...

"Ascential's customers can also benefit from Mercator's expertise in transaction-oriented data transformation and routing; innovative industry- ready integration solutions; and powerful adaptors for an extensive universe of platforms, servers and other requirements of critical business technology. "

Summary of several other online articles indicating that there was some product overlap between Ascential and IBM as it related to TX and MQ Integration Broker. In several articles it’s suggested that TX was going to shore-up short falls in the IBM product that appeared lack luster. Some people wondered if TX wold be folded into WDI or replace it.