- Mythbuster busts his own tale
- 10 open source companies to watch
- Sony recalls 73,000 Vaio laptops
- Tool to evade China's Web censorship
- Chrome and Firefox and add-ons
Newsletters | Podcasts | Chats | Opinions | RSS Feeds | This Week In Print | IT Careers | Community | Reports | Downloads | Slideshows | New Data Center
Partner Sites:App Performance | On Demand Security | Networking Solution | SOA | Value of WDS
Cast Iron Systems, maker of an appliance for integrating SaaS and on-premise applications, is introducing a new version that adds data cleansing and migration tools, along with a library of prebuilt integration templates for connecting many commercial software-as-a-service products.
The iA4000 series is also available in hosted form. Customers are "starting to demand more out of the processes associated with a SaaS application, and integration is the key to that," said CEO Ken Comée. For example, a user of a hosted CRM (customer relationship management) system may want to plug their help-desk system into it, he said.
Cast Iron developed the data-profiling and conversion functionality on its own. But the company is not looking to compete head-to-head with heavy-duty data-cleansing tools sold by the likes of Informatica, and instead is trying to provide a one-stop shop for a typical SaaS customer's or independent software vendor's integration requirements.
"Could you always bring in an extra tool? The answer is yes," Comée said. "But we bring it all in one appliance."
Beyond the templates, Cast Iron also provides a separate visual designer for mapping data to business processes.
Cast Iron, located in Mountain View, California, was formed in 2001 and claims to have hundreds of customers, including British American Tobacco, Peet's Coffee & Tea and the Sports Authority.
The company generally targets the midmarket, where companies have limited IT resources. It views its competition largely as in-house developers, as opposed to other data integration vendors, said Chandar Pattabhiram, vice president of product marketing.
One Cast Iron customer, the location-based mobile business application provider Gearworks, beta-tested the iA4000 product and is currently using it, said CTO Rob Juncker.
He called the templates "extremely useful" and said new data-cleansing functions help the Eagan, Minnesota, company ''make sure data coming into our system is meeting requirements."
Pricing for Cast Iron's starts at US$1,500 per month. The iA4000 sells for $4,500.

In this whitepaper learn how Retrospective Network Analysis (RNA) has proved a different type of...
SNMP Monitorin One Critical Component to Network ManagementSNMP is a valuable tool to any network administrator who requires complete visibility into the...
Monitoring and Managing App PerformanceThis paper defines application analysis, discusses the different categories of tools on the market,...

Double-Take (r) Software and Microsoft are teaming up on September 9, 2008 for a webinar focusing...
Transforming the Enterprise WAN Edge: Video from CiscoLife on the edge of your WAN has changed dramatically. With the need to deliver advanced services,...
PoE Plus: Impact on the PoE MarketThe standard for Power over Ethernet (PoE), IEEE Std. 802.3af(tm)-2003, advanced networking,...

Archiving, backup and data protection take on ever more critical roles in the enterprise. Data...
The New Network/System Management ChallengesIncreasingly popular technologies such as virtualization, wireless networking and data center...
Virtualization Reality CheckFind out why analysts say approaching virtualization with an ounce of caution is wise. And also why...
Partner Content
Explore the Ultrium Edge
The powerful tape technology can address data security with tape encryption as well as long term data protection.
Find out more
Disk and Tape Square Off
Discover what disk and tape really cost -- and which solution provides lower total cost of ownership and optimizes energy use for your organization
Download the White Paper
Don't Fall For The Myths
The Clipper Group explores the truth behind the myths of tape, digging into the misconceptions in the disk vs. tape debate.
Download the White Paper
Will You Add Tape Too?
Over two thirds of disk-only users look to add tape back into storage infrastructure according to recent survey.
Download Survey Information
Comment