Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ: PRGS), a global software company that simplifies and enables the development and deployment of business applications, today announced the release of DataDirect Connect® for ODBC 7.1 and DataDirect Connect® XE for ODBC 7.1. The new releases deliver fast, reliable, secure, and highly scalable connectivity for Apache Hive™, a key big data source. This type of connectivity exemplifies Progress Software’s goal to help companies better access their data whether on premise, or in the cloud.

The DataDirect Connect for ODBC 7.1 and DataDirect Connect XE for ODBC 7.1 drivers also offer expanded support for cloud databases to include Microsoft SQL Azure™, and additional premium features for an expanded spectrum of databases, including IBM DB2 10.1, IBM DB2 pureScale 9.8, Teradata 14, and Microsoft SQL Server 2012.

In today’s world of Big Data, organizations are increasingly using Apache Hadoop open source software to store and process huge amounts of data. Many organizations are also using Apache Hive data warehouse for data summarization, query and analysis. However, data comes in many forms and organizations need the ability to perform additional analysis in real-time using their existing SQL-based business intelligence and data analytics tools. This means they need a highly flexible and solid connection to these tools. Without such connectivity, companies’ analysts and decision makers are locked out of the insights contained in the Hadoop-based data warehouse.

The new DataDirect Connect ODBC driver for Apache Hive will deliver the same breadth, quality, and efficiency that more than 300 OEM partners and hundreds of thousands of users of the comprehensive DataDirect data connectivity portfolio already enjoy today. For the corporate user, this driver will unlock reams of business intelligence and provide business analysts with the information they need to make accurate decisions quickly and easily. For ISVs and OEMs, this connectivity now means that they can have one driver with DataDirect quality and performance to enable their applications to connect to all major distributions of Hadoop, including Apache Hadoop, MapR Apache Hadoop, Amazon EMR and Cloudera’s distribution of Apache Hadoop.

In addition to Big Data connectivity for Apache Hive, the newly released DataDirect Connect drivers include the following features:

• Cloud database connectivity, with high-performance support for the Microsoft SQL Azure database, enabling efficient SQL access to Microsoft’s relational database service in the cloud.
• Expanded database coverage, with advanced support and certification:
  • IBM DB2 10.1 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows, including SQL enhancements and support for Time Travel Queries
  • IBM DB2 pureScale 9.8
  • Teradata 14
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2012, including SQL enhancements and protocol upgrade.
• Expanded native database security for Oracle Advanced Security (OAS), including support for ten additional encryption algorithms.

Progress Software is the industry’s leading comprehensive provider of software for connecting the world’s most critical business applications to data and services, running on any platform, using proven and emerging standards. Developers worldwide depend on DataDirect products to connect their applications to an unparalleled range of data sources using standards-based interfaces such as ODBC, JDBC and ADO.NET, and SOAP. More than 300 leading independent software vendors and thousands of enterprises rely on Progress Software to simplify and streamline data connectivity for distributed systems and to reduce the complexity of mainframe integration.

Quotes:

“As part of the Progress DataDirect beta program, we got early access to their ODBC-driver for Hive and benchmarked it against other solutions. The DataDirect driver was significantly faster at transferring the large datasets we typically get," said Johan Pettersson, founder and consultant, Big Data AB.

“We’re pleased to be able to apply the same in-database techniques used with traditional data sources and massively parallel processing (MPP) data warehouses to Hadoop clusters using DataDirect,” said Erik Markade, CTO of KXEN. “This allows KXEN customers to introduce new levels of predictive insight by analyzing vast quantities of data from their customer-facing channels and across the business.”

“A key focus at Progress is to enable enterprises to act on data in real-time. We are excited to provide our vast end user community with a solution to more effectively consume data with their existing BI and analytics platforms and to enable our OEM partners to support different distributions of Hadoop across all their supported platforms,” said Michael Benedict, vice president and business line manager, Progress DataDirect. “There’s a critical need for a premium driver that will support all major distributions of Apache Hadoop Hive cost effectively, and with this release we are addressing this need for our partners and customers.”

About Progress Software Corporation

Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ: PRGS) simplifies the development, deployment and management of business applications on-premise or on any Cloud, on any platform and on any device with minimal IT complexity and low total cost of ownership. Progress Software can be reached at www.progress.com or 1-781-280-4000.

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Progress and DataDirect are trademarks or registered trademarks of Progress Software Corporation or one of its subsidiaries or affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Any other names contained herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.