Who is actually using native XML?
Question of the day #2
Who is actually using native XML?
Mark Logic is having a fine time using its native XML engine for custom publishing. One outfit I know of is using a native XML for something like web analytics, but is driving me crazy by never coming through on permission to divulge details. There’s a bit of native XML use out there supporting the insurance industry’s ACORD standard.
And after that I quickly run out of examples of native XML use. Frankly, I expected Microsoft and IBM to have proved more by now in that regard than they seemingly have, to the point that it would be a competitive problem for Oracle. (Oops — can’t get ’em all right.)
Am I overlooking anything?
Logistical comments as per Question of the day #1.
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3 Responses to “Who is actually using native XML?”
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The point is that main software vendors have no interest to use XML, it would allow people to leave them once converted everything into XML. Small vendors, at the contrary, do use XML as it allows people to join them.
This is the reason why we use XML, with this source documents, we can produce whatever we want as an output for our client. Just write the correct XSL and the “heavy integration job” with the client system is done.
Yup, I’ve also seen industry standards-based adoption: ACORD, FIXML, FpML, HL7, MISMO, NIEM, TAX1120, UNIFI, and more. Some interesting uses I’ve come across include:
– Transactional XML. We’ve come across quite a few cases of systems that are dedicated to storing transactions (often with XML standard-based data). For instance, a very large financial services institution uses DB2 to store FIXML messages for their foreign exchange trade application (DB2 won a fairly rigorous bake-off for this deployment).
– Service bus acceleration. SOA adoption is a hot topic these days. With XML being the de facto data format for SOA environments, there are many potential uses for an native XML repository in a SOA environment. For instance, Storebrand Group uses DB2 to provide accelerated access to integrated business data.
– XML Forms. One of the advantages of XML is the relative low cost of schema updates. This can be particularly important in environments where schema changes are common. For example, tax forms. The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance use DB2 to store forms as-is, eliminating the need to perform complex and costly data transformations. However, the big saving here is the the time and labor needed to update the schema from year-to-year.
– Event-driven warehouse feeds. Again, this is a scenario we see quite often. For instance, Douglas Holding AG uses DB2 to integrate XML data from Point Of Sales systems, which then feeds other applications.
Native XML storage is big for IBM. We have had numerous customers speak about their native XML experiences over the past couple of years. This year, at the Information on Demand Conference in Las Vegas, we have 7 sessions being delivered by customers where they talk about their native XML experiences. We also have a Birds of a Feather session that allows interested people to get together for an informal discussion of native XML storage experiences.
I’ve consciously kept this comment on the short side. If you’d like to know more, just let me know.
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