DSXchange

Hi,

I am sorry if I am posting this (or posting this in wrong place). I didn't know where to approach for this question.

a) How different is the architecture for both ODI, OWB from Datastage.
b) Why do we have two etl tools by oracle (ODI, OWB). I have read that ODI is more used for real-time, is there any other reason for two ETL tools to still exists.





Thanks

ODI, formerly Sunopsis which was acquired by Oracle, is basically an ELTtool. In the ELT approach, the data is extracted and loaded first into the DWH and then the transformed using some knowledge modules.

OWB, on the other hand, is a traditional ETL tool similar to DataStage. For the architectural differences, the best way that I would suggest is to download some prefatorial documents from their respective sites and study.

Oracle only have two ETL tools, IBM have about 10! There are various IBM data integration tools from Ascential, Cognos, DataMirror, DB2 and SPSS. There are three versions of DataStage though they have a similar look and feel.

Both Oracle products are ELT - Extract, Load and Transforms. This means the transformation work happens inside database engines and you need to size your DB to cope with that extra load. They are usually licensed according to the target database so you have a central processing database. DataStage on the other hand is licensed according to a dedicated ETL server and the CPUs on it.

OWB was Oracle's first attempt at ELT and only ran inside Oracle databases, though recent releases let you connect and haul metadata out of other databases. ODI was an acquisition to provide a suite that ran just as well on other database platforms such as DB2 and SQL Server. Over time Oracle are kind of merging the products in that OWB can now access packages that are on ODI - but the future of Oracle is in ODI. It's part of Fusion Middleware. OWB has a higher profile and tends to get used more often as it's cheaper. OWB will remain for a long time as a cheap addon for Oracle shops while ODI will become the flagship Fusion Middleware tool for Fusion application customers who are after more than just data warehouse loads.

Oracle also bundle Informatica and DataStage with various BI tools at a cheap price.

For more information on why Oracle has two tools, read Vincent's blog:

http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/infosphere/ ... r-70-30160