WebProNews

A recently released report by ZapThink touts the ability of DataDirect's standards-based XQuery, a java component for integrating relational and XML data, to address the challenges involved in data integration and allow the user to determine runtime infrastructure.

"Zapthink's research report confirms the challenges faced by systems integrators are real, and that DataDirect XQuery offers a powerful, scalable and standards-based approach for integrating relational and XML data", said John Goodson, vice president of product operations, DataDirect Technologies.

The full report is available for download at DataDirect's website. ZapThink's report found:

* The W3C XQuery standard is well suited for common data integration needs.

* The XQuery approach uses a standards-based representation for data (XML) with a standard query and transformation language (XQuery), rather than proprietary data adapters, tightly-coupled integration middleware, or complex mapping technologies.

* A key challenge in implementing Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) comes from trying to piece together data from multiple systems in a way that makes them easy to understand and process.

* XSLT is too cumbersome and too complex to manage large-scale data integration. The XQuery language was designed to support data integration as well as native XML queries.

* XQuery's syntax simplifies data integration through XML querying and transformation. Users develop XQueries that join or aggregate data from diverse data sources, and produce XML as output.

* XQuery provides unified data access across XML and relational data, using XQuery as the primary language for data manipulation, composition, and transformation.

* XQuery is embeddable, works with most databases and application servers.

Jason L. Miller is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.