SAS extends support for open metadata with Meta Integration Technology, Inc.

SAS, Cary, N.C., February 20, 2006. Extract reproduced with acknowledgement of SAS's copyright.

SAS, the leader in business intelligence, has entered into an agreement with Meta Integration Technology Inc. (MITI) to extend support for open metadata architecture by offering customers the option of bundling the full line of Meta Integration® Model Bridges (MIMB) with SAS® Data Integration software. Through Meta Integration Technology, SAS Data Integration customers will enjoy lower implementation costs and faster implementations, as database managers, designers and warehouse administrators may now integrate and manage metadata from a wider variety of sources.

"The partnership between SAS and Meta Integration Technology Inc. brings added value and an innovative competitive advantage to customers," said Christian Bremeau, president and CEO of MITI. "The ability to import and export metadata leverages metadata for analysis, increases the value for business intelligence and enables better management decisions."

"Our alliance with MITI demonstrates SAS' ongoing commitment to open metadata," said Joe Augustine, worldwide product marketing manager for data integration at SAS. "By offering this improved foundation, SAS will help customers better address their dynamic technology environments, ultimately resulting in more flexible business intelligence solutions."

SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries.

SAS bridges the enterprise intelligence information gap with open metadata

SAS, Cary, N.C., November 4, 2002. Extract reproduced with acknowledgement of SAS's copyright.

As one of the first business intelligence vendors to announce full compliance with the Common Warehouse Metamodel (CWM) standard, SAS is pioneering the open metadata initiative through its alliance with Meta Integration Technology Inc. (MITI). Supporting an open metadata architecture allows users to exchange metadata freely between a range of products from different vendors, minimizing the risk and cost associated with maintaining a variety of software environments.

"The upcoming release of SAS' System 9 software will be CWM-compliant and will take full advantage of our alliance with MITI," said Keith Collins, SAS' chief technology officer. "Data modelers, database designers, data warehouse administrators, and corporate portal developers and managers will enjoy lower implementation costs by extending metadata interoperability across all computing platforms and environments, including the Web."

"Our alliance with MITI and the compliance with CWM enables SAS to provide an open intelligence architecture," explained Tho Nguyen, director of data management strategy at SAS. "Our customers can capture and integrate metadata from various vendors, such as Business Objects or Informatica, through MITI's Meta Integration Model Bridge (MIMB) product."

"Although the Common Warehouse Metamodel standard has not nearly achieved implementation critical mass, and like many standards, offers a least-common- denominator framework, we still believe it to be irresponsible of data warehouse vendors to ignore the standard," said Doug Laney, vice president, META Group. "CWM remains the single best hope for enterprises to interchange metadata freely among tools, leading to reduced maintenance costs and improved implementation times."

Relationship statement

The partnership between SAS and Meta Integration Technology, Inc. (MITI) brings added-value and innovative competitive advantage to customers. Managing and sharing metadata with technologies from SAS and MITI is cost effective and low risk. MITI provides the Meta Integration® Model Bridge (MIMB) to transport metadata between design tools, repositories or environments. Integrated with the SAS system, IT can easily manage and share metadata with fewer resources and time to develop complex programs.

Business overview

SAS and Meta Integration Technology Inc. have established a strategic partnership to provide an enterprise-wide metadata architecture for minimizing risk and cost of best of breed warehousing solutions. The partnership is designed to overcome the largest barriers that exist to the design, implementation, management and maintenance of robust warehouses, by allowing metadata to move easily between best of breed tools.