Verano Adds Flexibility To Real-Time Data System

Verano Inc. is making its system more flexible and easier to access by developers. The company, which provides software for monitoring, analyzing, and displaying real-time data collected from equipment used by utilities, transportation, energy, and manufacturing, will ship a new version of its platform April 8. The new version, Real-Time Application Platform/i, will expose the database management system through a Java application programming interface and include a set of library tags for reusing data objects.

The enhancements will make it possible for developers to access Verano's DBMS through a Web application running on a Java 2-compliant application server, delivering graphical depictions of data through a browser, Verano CEO Pan Kamal says. Using the new set of library tags, developers will be able to more easily segment data in Verano's database to deliver separate information to different users. (A business manager may not want the same data viewed by an engineer.) RTAP/i, which will sell for a starting price of between $60,000 and $100,000, will be particularly helpful to systems integrators, such as Verano partner Aston Dane plc, based in the United Kingdom, Kamal says.

Building support for the Java platform in RTAP/i lets customers deliver information to any terminal or thin client with a browser, says Zeus Kerravala, an analyst for the Yankee Group. In addition, customers can integrate other software, such as applications for creating reports to engineers or business managers. Java support "gives the customer a lot more flexibility with the information," Kerravala says.

Verano's platform includes drivers and interfaces that gather real-time data from industrial devices monitoring, for example, crude oil flowing through a pipeline. The data is stored in memory within Verano's database management system, which includes a layer of analytical software. Besides monitoring data from pipelines, rail lines, or other industrial equipment, engineers can take action through Verano's software console, such as switching trains from one track to another. A lot of the technology used in RTAP was obtained through Verano's acquisition in 2000 of the automation integration software division of Agilent Technologies Inc., formerly a unit of Hewlett-Packard.