Object Design To Relaunch, Refocus On XML

Object databases are getting a new lease on life thanks to the demandsgenerated by E-commerce systems. This week, Object Design Inc., one of the original object-oriented database vendors, will unveil plans to focus on its Excelon line of Extensible Markup Language server software.

Object Design's ObjectStore database provides the underlying technology for the Excelon line. The 12-year-old company will also change its name to Excelon Corp. Such moves might appear to be a death knell for object databases. But industry observers say the market for E-commerce software is giving sales of object database technology a boost.

While object databases never took off as expected, they are finding their way into new applications. They are more effective than relational databases for storing complex data types, such as video and graphics, and they're better than relational databases at handling the huge numbers of simultaneous users E-commerce Web sites can attract.

This week, Excelon will unveil its Excelon B2B Integration Server, which will let companies with information systems using different versions of XML communicate and conduct business electronically. The software will ship later this quarter, starting at $75,000. The company will also unveil XML software targeting vertical markets such as the insurance, banking, and health-care industries that run on top of the other Excelon products