Osmose: SmartMaps

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Osmose Utilities Services, Inc. took over our original customer, Coherent Networks, in June, 2002. Their web site says: "Over the past 70 years utility and telecommunication customers have relied on us to help reduce costs and extend the life of their outside plant. We provide inspection, repair, maintenance, data acquisition and data management services including pole inspection and treatment, pole restoration, overhead line and attachment surveys, field data collection and a full line of utility products. Our workforce is mobile, scalable, technically-skilled and serves more than 800 customers in all 50 states."

[edit] Objectivity Case History

[edit] Important

This information is an archive, so any use of the present sense in the text should be taken in the historical context, generally determinable from the Status section below.

[edit] Customer Information

• Customer: Osmose Utilities Services, Inc.
• Project: SmartMaps
• Location: Buffalo, NY
• Territory: Eastern Region
• Industry Verticals:
  • Metadata Management
  • Utilities
  • Telecom
  • Configuration Management
• Technologies: Workgroup Computing
• Application Domain: Telecom, Network Configuration/Provisioning Management
• Market Characterization:
  • Metadata and Knowledge Management
• Number of developer licenses: 2
• Runtime license volume and type:

[edit] Status

• First Contact:
• Lead came from: Jim Brule, ex-employee.
• Evaluation Start Date:
• Evaluation Finish Date:
• First Purchase Date:
• Deployment Date:
• Current Status: Deployed
• Can we talk about this customer and the product/project? Yes
• Referenceable?: Check with the Sales Rep.

[edit] Environment

• Hardware: Intel
• Operating System: Microsoft NT  
• Precision: 32-bit
• Development language: C++
• Compiler: Microsoft
• Third Party vendor tools: Visual Basic, Sting Ray, Enable, BoundChecker, Microsoft Foundation Classes
• Open Source tools:

[edit] The Project/Product

[edit] Project Background

The original customer was Coherent Networks (formerly Coherent Research), founded by Jim and Mark Brule, located in Syracuse NY. Both founders had 20 years experience, working in database retrieval, pattern recognition, graphics conversion and artificial intelligence, primarily in the telco and utilities space. Jim worked on our Sales team before joining his brother and starting the company. Their web site said:

"Coherent Networks helps energy and telecommunications service providers achieve operational excellence and gain a competitive edge. To help their customers achieve these objectives, they deliver next-generation operational support systems (OSSs) that allow organizations to be successful in today’s increasingly competitive global marketplace. Their software products and related services are designed to meet the needs of customers who depend heavily on geospatial data.

Coherent's flagship product is called the SmartMaps Solutions Framework, with an extension called SmartModel. Both products are designed to bring "coherence" to the many "islands of data" often found in the enterprises of large telcos and power companies.

The plain fact is, most large utilities are working from bad information. It is not uncommon for a large power company or telco to have their customer files such as billing, entirely independent of (and uncoordinated from) the service maps that display those customer sites along the service lines. In the end, these islands of disparate data owned and controlled by non-integrated, incompatible systems are the main reason why the information displayed on "network maps" is often out of date and woefully inadequate. The ultimate goal of the SmartMaps Solution Framework is to provide "information integration" over this disparate enterprise data. The SmartMap Framework brings accuracy and currency to your network maps and diagrams; making these CAD like drawings "coherent."

Thus, the business problems that Coherent Networks can solve are many:

Consider the costs: if a telco or power company is functioning with disjointed non-integrated systems, it can not truly understand "where" its customers reside. Nor can it understand what service is already available to them. Thus, it must invest more heavily in extensive, often redundant manual field inspections and interventions, just to determine if a new service can be provided, and at what cost.

As an example, imagine you are a small business wishing to order an ISDN line through your local phone company. Your RBOC is under extreme competitive pressures nowadays. Many new Competitive Local Exchanges (CLEGS) are moving into their domain, thus your local RBOC must deliver service quickly and at the right price. Once delivered, service must be reliable.

So you call your local telco provider, expecting fast friendly service and rapid fulfillment of your request. But the provisioning your new high-capacity digital service is problematic. The customer rep can't give you an accurate estimate of your wait time. You didn't like the way he/she waffled back and forth. You get that sinking feeling, as you feel your new order slipping into a black hole. In other words, provisioning is slow.

One (major) reason for this delay is found in the fact that most phone companies do not have current, accurate maps of their own networks! It's hard to give a realistic installation estimate when the service rep does not have the information required to know if your location can be serviced at all, not to mention in what timeframe.

With the SmartMap Solution Framework your local telco would have an accurate visual image of the customer's location, that location's distance from the central switch, and the cable and wire (fiber and copper) already installed in the area. Field Technicians instantly see a graphical representation of this cable and wire information, making it easier for them to add service. This integrated and "coherent" view not only allows your RBOC to provide a solid estimate of installation time, it also allows them to lessen that installation time, thus fulfilling more orders with greater customer satisfaction.

Beyond the obvious benefits to engineering and service, groups such as sales and marketing benefit from this information. For example, they can now accurately answer the question: "where do we have excess capacity and how can we exploit this capacity through better sales and marketing efforts?"

The SmartMap Framework runs on Windows and/or NT at the desktop. The product is unique. It extracts, scrubs, links and integrates disparate data from multiple incompatible databases, including older legacy systems. The result is a single coherent (graphical) view. Using the SmartMap Framework, telco and power company engineers and service technicians can instantly see an ACCURATE visual representation of their network, including the medium (copper, fiber, etc). If there is a service delay, technicians can quickly pinpoint the cause. Imagine the benefits of SmartMaps when used by power and phone companies after a series of violent storms. SmartMaps gives technicians the information they need to get your city's most important power and phone dependant services back up and running quickly! SmartModel even allows telco and power companies to model their Outage Management response, by "simulating" the effects of a natural disaster and performing contingency analysis/planning, based on the chosen scenario.

Additionally, using SmartModel, the service provider can "simulate" the effects benefits, and provisioning time of adding additional lines to an already existing installation. One of Coherent's demos displays the process of installing a second high-capacity line at a middle school. One unique feature of SmartModel is that it "starts" with a "spatial database," one built on top the map initially created by SmartMaps. With SmartModel, you can dynamically change topology in realtime, and instantly see results. Again, the spatial component of SmartMaps makes this possible. And that spatial representation is built on Objectivity."

[edit] Project/Product Description

The application is called SmartMaps. It is intended to provide a single, unified interface to a company’s critical data, including integration of data from disparate legacy systems. An example deployment of SmartMaps would be in monitoring/provisioning a telecommunication network, or an electrical power distribution system. SmartMaps can bring together the data elements from different databases, i.e., geo-spatial maps of routes, and provisioned copper or high-capacity lines, to present one cohesive view into managing the business’s assets. Coherent has demonstrated that with SmartMaps in place, they can reduce some activities such as provisioning a new line from hours down to minutes.

SmartMaps. SmartMaps creates an "Intelligent Object Database" that stores all the infrastructure information required to manage a complex network (telephone, power distribution, and others) in a format that directly models the network itself, its components and their relationships to each other, and the customer.

CRi assists energy and telecommunications service providers in the management of information through implementation of its SmartMaps Solutions Framework. CRi delivers software solutions that contribute directly to strategic corporate objectives. To assure success and cost benefits in achieving those objectives, CRi provides clients with phased implementation that includes: technical consulting; data conversion, integration, and management; data modeling; project management; application development; training; and customer support.

The SmartMaps Solutions Framework is a total solution to infrastructure information management that enables companies to develop, integrate, manage and maintain applications in a unified software environment. SmartMaps is particularly well suited to the development of applications for the power utility and telecommunications industry because it handles the graphic and domain information found in CAD/GIS systems using object-oriented technology

CRl provides products and services for data integration and knowledge management to the telecommunications and utility industries. A typical task performed at a Telco is the provisioning of a hi-capacity service such as ISDN over a standard copper line. This involves tying together CAD drawings, inventories and schedules stored on everything from paper to 20 year-old databases. CNI cuts the time for this processing from hours to minutes.

The SmartMap Solutions Framework tools provide a single consolidated view of the many pieces of disparate, often incompatible data most organizations possess. Data sources such as maps, CAD drawings, ODBC databases and live connections to legacy applications are supported. Correlation of this data was previously a resource intensive manual operation fraught with errors.

Once imported this data is manipulated with sophisticated AI techniques and integrated into a seamless whole. Any incompatibilities beyond the ability of the software to correct are captured and stored for resolution by an operator. Objectivity is used as an object cache to capture the artifacts generated by this process. Round trip engineering is supported, allowing changes made in SmartMaps and SmartEdit to flow back into the source systems.

The “Smartmaps” solution framework allows telecommunications and power companies the ability to merge key data from different sources into one central and smart repository. This solution links CAD system data from the customer (maps), with copper network data, spatial data, and finally high capacity data derived from different data sources and databases. These various key data points from different databases and information sources are integrated together into one logical view of all the data.

In essence, the Smartmaps solution delivers less outage time for its power and telecommunications customers. Hence, retaining more profits and keeping continual network operation levels high. In addition, Smartmaps allows the provider the ability to estimate deliver of capacity to its new customers and existing customers in a timely fashion. This keeps the providers customer satisfaction and responsiveness levels high.

The goal is help the power and telecommunication provider to meet the customer’s expectations of continual 24X7 service levels. For instance, when there is a power outage or a network telecommunication outage, the provider cannot charge for its services. Of equal importance, the customer may become very frustrated during a lengthy outage and may decide to go to a competitive provider. By merging complex data points and databases into one common repository, Smartmaps allows the operators and engineers to identify and rectify the problem quickly and effectively. Hence, retaining profits from continual operations, and retaining and increasing the number of customers using service.

SmartMaps Solutions Framework™ Objectivity/DB is the heart of the SmartMaps Solutions Framework that maximizes system performance and streamlines system administration activities. Objectivity/DB is the highly scalable SmartMaps database designed specifically for use in operations, large and small, that require robust processing, editing, and display of geospatial data.

Through the SmartMaps Solutions Framework™ and its advanced data-integration and display technology, Coherent Networks delivers solutions that contribute directly to strategic corporate objectives and to organizational success by enabling their customers to expand their capabilities for using geospatial data.

The SmartMaps Solutions Framework allows client organizations to rapidly access, migrate, integrate, and reconcile geospatial data with other data stored in a variety of formats to create a seamless graphic view. Data retrieved from diverse sources is continuously synchronized to assure up-to-the-moment accuracy for all applications that rely on that data. The result: information that originates in standalone systems is now available for integration in new, more meaningful ways. This innovative data-access technology extends the life of legacy systems and allows custom integration of data regardless of its platform, making new applications and customized software solutions possible for the enterprise. Through such data-integration strategies, Coherent Networks makes information "do more." Combining the latest in technology, data integration, and innovative application development, Coherent Networks preserves customers investment in existing data sources, and provides a state-of-the-art platform for running, integrating, and enhancing the performance of applications currently in use.

Customer Care For energy service providers, who are facing new challenges due to deregulation, the key to retaining and gaining market share is exemplary customer service. Coherent Networks delivers the competitive edge that allows their utility customers to provide more accurate service delivery combined with excellent customer care. Their customers are able to achieve these critical goals by maximizing the flow of information throughout their organizations, placing it in the hands of the people who need it the most.

Their telecommunications customers, who have dealt with deregulation for some time now, are faced with a new challenge: faster provisioning of digital services. Coherent Networks software is designed to integrate critical data from disparate sources and present it to management to enhance and accelerate broadband provisioning capabilities that are vital to business and marketing decisions—even to survival.

Coherent Networks is moving network engineering from an operations process to a business process, enabling their customers to compete more effectively.

Service Provisioning

Coherent Networks is committed to helping its clients’ meet tough challenges. For some, the challenge is to keep customers. For others, the goal is to increase market share. For all, Coherent Networks provides an important strategy for meeting critical objectives. To enhance their value and effectiveness in this regard, Coherent Networks has developed strategic alliances with industry leaders such as Objectivity, Inc., Object/FX Corporation, ESRI, and Autodesk, Inc. Their service offering is geared toward providing effective solutions to customers worldwide, yet their solutions are customized to meet specific needs. To better serve their customers worldwide, they work with their European Affiliate, Network Management Group of Lyon, France. Through alliances with strong business partners, and through the focus and organization of their own internal capabilities, Coherent Networks offers its customers a high level of commitment to quality products and responsive service."

[edit] Buying Criteria

The process of creating an internal order for the provisioning of new network services is very similar in the Energy Utility and Local Telecommunications markets. This process is very manual intensive by knowledge worker with years of experience working with a myriad of different Operations Support Systems, each with their own database. Because of the complexity of the ever changing networks and its network configuration, these support systems and the CAD maps that are used to determine facility availability are not synchronized.

The background of CNI was working in the area of Computerized Automated Design (CAD) areas in the power utility sector. This led to a product, SmartMaps. It provides customers with a framework to integrate the various OSS applications, such as facility’s database, inventory management, CAD Map drawing management. It also provides an integrated rules based information engine which can be used with the information that was resident in the Network Engineering Organizations to speed the process of provisioning new services, as well to flag discrepancies in the various data bases or systems being previously used. The SmartMaps product needed to be a platform that could be adapted to many different processes in the Network enviroment.

Flexibility of the embedded database was an important criterion for buying Objectivity/DB. CNI did not want their framework to be not quickly adaptable to their customers OSS’s and processes.

CNI’s tools were originally built on a proprietary object cache. This object cache was found to fall short in terms of scalability, and provided no multi-user access. Performance was an important criterion because of the need for real-time rendering of graphical elements in SmartMap. Language independence was also a key concern.

[edit] Business Priorities

• Scalability - SmartMaps may be called upon to integrate databases containing up to millions of dynamic records. The object-database it was built upon had to be able to handle that level of scalability and maintain performance.

• Language Independent - Coherent did not want to limit their development access to one language. Although the initial development was in C++, Objectivity’s language heterogeneity provides a protection of that development investment should additional development/interface be required in other languages.

• Platform Independent - Although the first release of the SmartMaps product was intended for NT, Coherent saw the business need of also being able to deploy upon Unix based workstations for some environments. The platform heterogeneity of Objectivity provided them with the assurance of being able to accomplish this directly.

[edit] Technical Priorities

The following were priorities during Coherent's decision process.

• Scalability: - [Originally] Coherent had their own persistence layer; basically, a memory-based transaction system. As Coherent rolled the SmartMaps Framework out into the WINDOWS market they found their homegrown persistence layer lacking in several areas:
  • Scalability (in terms of number of users and amount of data) was one. As SmartMaps takes data from multiple unrelated sources, the number of users and sheer data volume increases exponentially.

• • Performance:- Was another key criteria. Network topology maps are HUGE. The information changes at least daily, and sometimes on a minute by minute - or second by second - basis. OBJY provides Coherent the ability to draw "up to the second" maps, without a performance overload. This was especially important when Coherent began its move away from UNIX, and toward WINDOWS and NT on the desktops. For the new platform to be accepted it was of important that users experience no response time degradations.

• • Fast navigation: - SmartMaps takes completely different and disparate information sources, such as legacy databases, CAD drawings, and converted map drawings and integrates them into a dynamic up-dateable model that performs without delay. The DB supporting Coherent's CAD like drawings in this resource intensive environment must load and traverse objects rapidly; there is no room for error.

• • No relational database can handle this task. Coherent is pleased to be working with the only commercially available database capable of scaling to these levels. Beyond the initial object load, the DB supporting a product such as SmartModel - which interactively recreates and re-plots graphical representations - must respond. In the new competitive arena, provisioning questions must be answered quickly and consistently, or the new opportunity could be lost. The DB must support user interaction in a live environment. Providing this service with excellent performance is key.

• Architecture: - Was another key requirement. SmartMaps works with spatial information, but it is just this spatial information that is most often lacking from the customer's current environment. Thus, spatial mapping is the component of SmartMaps that (most often) drives home the value in a customer's mind. Yet, typically, these customers have an extensive geographical distribution, with engineers and service technicians working from data that's dispersed across many geographical boundaries. Objectivity's architectural design of using federated databases to create one single, logical view of many physically separate files fits perfectly into Coherent's customer environments.

• Versioning - is another key feature. Telcos and power companies experience service interruptions caused by a myriad of factors, including equipment failures and weather-related outages. Seamless recovery without delay or loss is required. Objectivity's versioning capabilities allow Coherent customers to recover quickly with no loss of mission critical information.

• Language independence was another key priority. Coherent's homegrown persistence layer was limited to C++. It would need continuous updating and service to support all major languages in use at Coherent's customer sites.

• Transparency was important. Coherent calls their OODBMS an Intelligent Object Cache, thus lessening their customer's potential fear of having mission critical systems dependent upon a technology (OODBMS) that they don't understand. The fact that OBJY is transparently embedded into the SmartMaps Framework gives Coherent the ability to offer state of the art technology without encountering unnecessary objections during the sales process.
  • Distribution
  • Page server architecture
  • Support of complex data types
  • Performance (relational would not cut the intensive processing needed)
  • Scalability

Several Objectivity features were useful for CNI

• Container Based Architecture: Like most object data, each CNI project consists of a hierarchy of related objects. CNI developed an object model that grouped meta-data, state information, geospatial data and results of data validation in logical clusters. These mapped directly to Objectivity’s container based storage hierarchy.

• Performance: SmartMap allows an operator to manipulate complex graphical views of resources in the field. Zooming and panning require fast geospatial queries. Objectivity’s advanced clustering capabilities deliver high performance by placing related data close together on disk.

• Object Versioning:SmartMaps support sophisticated Undo/Redo operations. An operator can retrace his steps and perform what-if analysis. Objectivity’s support for object versioning is used to store intermediate states of an object. By traversing the genealogy of an object SmartMap can instantaneously perform multiple undos and redos.

• Distribution: Objectivity’s distributed architecture provides good multi-user performance for the SmartMap Solutions Framework. Project data can be dynamically placed near the operator using, delivering higher performance and system throughput.

• Scalability: Objectivity is the most scalable database available today. This scalability expresses itself in terms of capacity and performance. Objectivity can support multi-terabyte databases, and these databases have linear performance scaling as they grow.

• Application Requirements:
  • The ability to merge different, complex data types into one logical view of all the data.
  • Performance in terms of system responsiveness to the users interaction with the system. The old system from CRI was Unix based with excellent performance. This new system being NT needed the same if not better performance levels.
  • Must have an excellent implementation of the operator’s graphic user interface.
  • Scalability is key in terms of number of users using the system as well as the variety of platforms from which data is taken as the system grows.

• Database Requirements / Key Issues for Objectivity’s Selection:
  • Objectivity/DB federated database scheme allows CRI to merge complex data types from different sources into one logical view.
  • Objy/DB enables CRI to maintain a live database in the midst of heavy user interaction with the system. Hence, their performance levels are met in terms of responsiveness during peak user times.
  • The use of Objy/DB container strategy allows CRI system to enjoy impressive graphic performance.
  • Objectivity’s scalability allows CRI’s system to meet the challenge of integrating databases containing millions of dynamic records quickly. Specifically, these records change at least daily if not by minute or second. Therefore, Objy’s architecture allows the CRI to scale as the number of users increase and handle this amount of records in the system.

Near real time performance of working with the large amounts of information for the visual representation of the network was most important. Objectivity/DB provided object data types with a caching framework that allowed large amount of data to be brought in, via Objectivity/DB’s containerization or Page data transfer approach. This capability allows the user of the system to zoom in and out of the network image on the computer screen with little or no delay in the image reconfiguration.

Performance of the application is directly attributable to Objectivity’s attention to handling scaleable data bases, caching algorithms and providing rock solid:

• Reliability
• Performance
• System resilience
• Schema evolution
• Object versioning

[edit] Competitors/Alternatives

Coherent evaluated OBJY, ODI, Versant, Gemstone and O2. Our distributed architecture was key, and a unique architectural advantage over competitive offerings. Our page mechanism and containerization fit very well into the Coherent model for SmartMaps capabilities. SmartMap must support one coherent logical view, as a representation of the physical inventory that comprises a large utility's network. SmartMap extracts and scrubs data from a myriad of proprietary telco and power company legacy apps. These systems use disparate databases such as IMS, DB2, Oracle, MS Access and flat files. Objectivity is the engine that powers Coherent's revolutionary product!

[edit] Why They Chose Objectivity

“Of all of its elegant attributes Objectivity/DB’s scalability and ease of use enable our product to excel in this highly competitive marketplace”. Mark really likes our Distributed architecture because their application is based on a distributed implementation. Furthermore, he really likes our Page mechanism versus finer level locking. In addition, their application maps well into the Objectivity/DB container strategy.

Issues and Resolutions 1. Scalability Size of lock server, AMS server, data server machine. NT configuration, ram, other settings. Benchmarking performance. Use of ooRunStatus and ooLockmon.

The ools process is about 75Kb binary, 780Kb when running. It has the trannsaction table and lock table. The ooams is about 44Kb binary, 480Kb when running. The ooams is only needed when remote Objectivity clients are accessing the database on a data server machine. The ooams needs to run on the data server machine(s). The lock server can run on any node in the network. The ooams is merely a database page server. The client asks for a database page from an offset in the database file. In this respect the ooams is I/O bound rather than cpu. On the other hand the lock server does very little I/O (all rpc calls) but can have some bursts of intensive cpu activity checking dependency graphs etc. Now the Objectivity clients will either be doing local I/O to a local database and/or RPC to a remote data server, RPC calls to the lock server and any computation on behalf of the application.

Putting all this together, the Coherent Networks database server should be a file server and the hosts where the Objectivity clients run should be cpu/ram heavy. If the lock server runs on a different node to the clients this node should be a fast cpu rather than I/O machine. If it runs on the client machine(s) it will be competing with the clients for CPU resources.

Wrap ooRunStatus() calls around specific pieces of code to understand what is going on. Use oospace to inspect database space usage. Analyze oospace output from the production system for container initial sizes and extensions. Use oospace for container size. oospace will also give highest container id.

Profiling and Quantify have proven as useful tools with Objectivity.

2. Indexing/Versioning Are we using this optimally? What are the tradeoffs?

Looked at the different index update modes, Insensitive, Sensitive, and ExplicitUpdate and the pros and cons of each, for Coherent Networks, the ExplicitUpdate encapsulated in the objects non const set methods was the right place to do this.

Details of Application:

· Number of Developers: 2 · Is it complex data (or using lots of inheritance)? 50-60 classes, at most 2-3 levels deep · Size of Database: This application will store gigabytes of data. Each map will be 30k to 50k. Number of Concurrent Users: The system is scalable to be as high as 100 clients simultaneously accessing the database. · Growth Potentials for SmartMaps:

    Unknown. The market is responding favorable to this product.

- Would like to understand how version 5 will address performance in SmartMaps.

Scalability Language independent Performance Our concept of a federated database (one logical view) fit perfectly into their application domain. Our container strategy fit perfectly into their application domain. Thus allowing a perfect clustering scheme for their data and helping with high throughput.

High Performance One of the goals of SmartMaps is to provide quick access to important and relevant company information. Much of the information is presented and manipulated graphically, triggering fast-response time complex queries to the database for simple mouse clicks. Objectivity’s high-performance allows SmartMaps to deliver on that design goal. Distributed Architecture The Coherent team concluded that Objectivity’s architecture was the most distributed database on the market. This capability fit well with meeting their scalability requirements in general, and in specific help address managing some of their customers extensive geographic distribution of resources efficiently and transparently. Flexibility The ability to flexibly to model their customers data and integrate various representations of that data in existing and often disparate databases was critical to SmartMaps success. Objectivity provided the modeling flexibility required to store not only the elements of the data sources, but also the geometric and graphical data, which typically vary tremendously in size.

Coherent Networks selected Objectivity for its support of true object-oriented development and its ability to manage large, complex databases with high performance characteristics. Coherent Networks collaborate with Objectivity on customer solutions, as well as in sales and marketing opportunities.

Coherent Networks states five strategic advantages for using Objectivity: 1. Optimal Performance 2. Outstanding Scalability 3. Better All-Around Efficiency 4. Flexible Storage & Data Access 5. Fast Application Development

SmartMaps Advantage #1: Optimal Performance When it comes to handling spatial information of any volume or complexity, the Objectivity/DB provided by the SmartMaps Solutions Framework is a high-achiever. The reason: the efficient way this database manages data. The difference with Objectivity is in the way Objectivity stores and handles the information.

Objectivity offers the advantage of object-oriented technology—a critical advantage when the goal is to display complex geospatial information. In the SmartMaps Objectivity database, each object is self-contained. It stores, within itself, all information related to attributes, associations, and the graphic styles needed to render the object as desired to the end user. Each object is an "intelligent" object that can store (and quickly access) large amounts of information. In addition, related objects are stored near each other on the disk, further speeding access, display, and update operations. This core architecture of object-oriented technology makes the SmartMaps Objectivity database a fast, productive option for rendering spatial data—and for providing timely access to it.

SmartMaps Advantage #2: Outstanding Scalability The SmartMaps Objectivity database is highly scalable. Its object-oriented technology is designed to provide a responsive network environment that accommodates anything from modest 10-gigabyte storage arrangements to tera- and petabyte-sized databases with a high degree of efficiency. In fact, in geospatial applications, the larger the database, the more pronounced the performance advantages of the SmartMaps Objectivity database becomes. Database size has a far less significant impact on the SmartMaps Objectivity database. The SmartMaps Objectivity database remains responsive as your information needs evolve and grow.

SmartMaps Advantage #3: Better All-Around Efficiency But by storing all pertinent information in objects themselves—including attributes, associations, and graphic display instructions—SmartMaps Objectivity object-oriented storage technology minimizes such system inefficiency. It also eliminates the manual maintenance that goes along with that inefficiency. The SmartMaps Objectivity database consequently "runs cleaner" and requires far less system administration—constant monitoring of disk usage, for example—when the goal is to display geospatial data. The result is a system architecture that minimizes maintenance expenses at the same time that it speeds access to critical data.

SmartMaps Advantage #4: Flexible Storage & Data Access For working effectively with geospatial data, the SmartMaps Objectivity object-oriented database offers a key architectural benefit: it operates as a federated database. The SmartMaps federated database is a networked grouping of individual databases. This grouping provides flexible options for data storage and data access, with individual databases operating independently but in harmony with one another. Instead of the typical database/server arrangement, which concentrates all data on one disk, a SmartMaps Objectivity database can reside on any network PC, not just on a designated server. Users communicate directly with the database—and therefore have direct access to the intelligent objects it stores—with no special interfacing software required. The SmartMaps Objectivity database can be centralized in one machine, as in a conventional storage arrangement. But components of the database can reside on any number of individual network machines, which together comprise a federated database. Furthermore, any PC on the network can be both client and server.

This architecture provides more flexible options for storing and segmenting information—by project, for example, or by geographic region—and consequently provides more direct access to that information. Though physically separate, the individual databases operate as a unified, single database that performs at a higher level. Object-oriented technology makes the SmartMaps database fast and efficient. The federated database structure augments this speed and efficiency.

SmartMaps Advantage #5: Fast Application Development Application development—and application maintenance—is simpler and faster with SmartMaps Objectivity object-oriented methodology. This simplicity and speed stem from three factors:

• The SmartMaps Objectivity database environment requires no transaction management—none. It therefore eliminates one of the primary sources of errors in programming.
• SmartMaps objects contain all of their own data and all of their own methods, making applications easier to design, develop, and maintain. Programmers are relieved of many of the unnecessary intricacies and convolutions that are native to programming code.
• Object-oriented development in SmartMaps produces units of codes (objects) that can be "plugged in” easily to a wide range of programming projects and used again and again.

These factors promote a highly efficient, highly productive environment for application development—one in which developers excel. To promote this environment even further, the SmartMaps Solutions Framework provides a robust Application Programming Interface (API) that offers established classes and methods to enhance and simplify development initiatives.

Data Complexity 50-60 classes at most 2-3 levels deep. Database Size Gigabytes of data. Each map will be 30k to 50k. Containers Currently 1500 (3 containers per document). Concurrent Users Scalable to 100 simultaneous clients. Domain object everything that is on the map Attribute value relates to the domain Relationship a VArrray Platform NT Language C++ Objectivity key features Distribution, container based architecture, performance, object versioning, language interoperability, scalability, transparency, platform independence.

Osmose selected Objectivity/DB as the foundation for all its products because of Objectivity/DB’s scalability, performance, platform heterogeneity, distribution and federated qualities, flexibility, ease of use, and Objectivity/DB’s on-line versioning. With Objectivity/DB, Osmose can also transparently cache its integrated information, and reduce the need to maintain additional databases.

[edit] Partners

• None

[edit] Collateral

1. Press Releases:
2. Fliers:
3. White Papers:
4. Case Study:
5. Other: Osmose talk at WorldView 2005

[edit] Contact Information

• Objectivity Rep:
• Customer Contact:
• Customer Phone:
• Customer Email:
• URL:

[edit] External Links

• Customer web site

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