Red Hat targets stovepiped data

Red Hat is to buy MetaMatrix for an undisclosed sum

Linux firm Red Hat has agreed to acquire data integration specialist MetaMatrix. 

Privately held MetaMatrix develops software that unlocks data from legacy applications, allowing the information to be used in a service oriented architectures (SOA).

The software takes data stored in legacy applications and standalone or so-called 'stovepiped' databases and adds metadata. Other applications can then use that data as part of a regular SOA.

"MetaMatrix decouples that very tight dependency between the database and the application and provides a strong layer of federation capabilities," Shaun Connolly, vice president of product management at JBoss, told vnunet.com. 

The alternative to tagging the data with metadata through MetaMatrix would be to migrate the information to a new database and change the overall application, Connolly added, but such migrations are costly and arduous.

Red Hat touted the technology as a way to migrate legacy applications running on Unix platforms such as Solaris, AIX or HPUX to its Linux platform and to integrate the data with the JBoss middleware and SOA software.

On completion of the transaction, MetaMatrix will be added to the federated data services SOA layer for JBoss.

The software is currently governed by a proprietary licence, but JBoss plans to release the software under the open source LGPL, GPL or Apache licences.

Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.