Camstar: Improving Product Performance with Fast DataDirect Connect for ODBC

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Goal:

Improve the performance of InSite, Camstar's manufacturing application.

Why they Embed DataDirect:

DataDirect Connect for ODBC provided Camstar with one solution from one vendor, making deployment and maintenance simple.

Business Benefits:

Using Connect for ODBC, customers have seen a 13 percent increase in production. Standardizing on a single suite of ODBC drivers also enabled Camstar to reap significant savings in development and support costs.

Technical Benefits:

Development process has been simplified, QA testing has been streamlined, and the application performance has improved.

Technical Details:

DataDirect Connect for ODBC scaled to support Camstar customer needs – like processing speeds of up to 110,000 transactions per second. Memory leaks seen with database vendor drivers were no longer a problem.

Poor ODBC Performance from Database Vendor Drivers

Camstar, Inc. specializes in helping global manufacturing enterprises manage their business data in truly distributed environments. Their InSite product allows Camstar customers, including Kodak and IBM, to track and gather information all the way from the shop floor to the home offices and even vendor sites. This includes everything from customer product requirements to personnel information, to delivery schedules. Camstar's modular product suite, InSite, is the key to this system – providing real-time access to all the information truly distributed manufacturing corporations require.

Before working with DataDirect, Camstar's InSite applications relied on ODBC drivers from the various database vendors – Oracle, IBM DB2, and Microsoft SQL Server. Eventually, however, they grew impatient with performance issues and memory leaks these drivers at times introduced. They also realized that they were exercising undue burden on their customers by asking them to attain, download, and install the drivers themselves. There was too much room for unnecessary error that could reflect badly – and unfairly – on Camstar products.

"Our customers are the largest international manufacturers, including IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Kodak, and Philips – processing up to 110,000 transactions per second. So continuous system uptime is essential," said Scott Jones, vice president of technical support and development at Camstar.

Solution: Premium Drivers from a Single Vendor Source

With DataDirect Technologies, Camstar now receives all of its data connectivity components from a single vendor, simplifying their development and QA processes. Even more importantly, the InSite product suite is enjoying better performance results as a function of using faster ODBC middleware.

"DataDirect Connect for ODBC meets our needs, and it runs seamlessly across all of the databases we support - saving us valuable time and money. It also meets the complex automation needs of our customers, who require continuous tracking of the entire manufacturing process from start to finish," Scott Jones said.

Great news! Camstar's customers have seen up to a 13 percent increase in production yields, part of which is attributed to using faster data connectivity components.

DataDirect Technologies provides significant business value to software vendors like Camstar, because they can easily support all the databases their customers use. Camstar can now focus its R&D efforts on improving their own products instead of worrying about data connectivity issues. And Camstar's customers get everything they need directly from Camstar - they don't need to buy a separate product to connect to their databases.