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New York State runs the nation’s first statewide amateur sports program. The Empire State Games is the largest of its kind and a recognized program of the US Olympic Committee.
The annual event of 2,400 games has been supported by applications developed on the UniVerse DBMS platform. The applications consist of a collection of BASIC programs, dictionary definitions, paragraphs and sentences. The system has been fine-tuned over the years and supports the Games functionally very well. In this information age, however, real-time access to the Games data is imperative.
NY State, with the help of ONgroup, www.ongroup.com, recently moved the Games database to SQL Server. Why move from UniVerse to SQL Server? The State has been providing Games data on the Internet for years. "I’ve been accomplishing this with ODBC", stated Pepper Rayfield of NY State, "but it is difficult. I first have to export the data and then make it available on the Web. The main benefit of this move," said Rayfield "is that we now can view real-time Game results in Active Server Pages (ASP) on the net; my data is now directly available."
SQL Server gives the NY State IT team the tools they need to accomplish their IT goals easily and effectively. "We’ve put so much work into this system over the years," states Rayfield. "We couldn’t justify tossing it aside and starting over. ONgroup offered us an interesting alternative, the best of both worlds. We keep our applications, but move our data to standard relational technology.:
NY State made the choice many organizations are making when they consider the value of their legacy MultiValue applications. Mature applications are the heart of the organization. Re-engineering them or replacing with an off-the-shelf package can take years, upwards of millions of dollars and introduce risk. NY State chose to continue to use their legacy systems and incorporate the new technology needed to succeed.
According to Denise Buttrey of ONgroup, "The first step in a project like this is to copy the data files to SQL Server using the ONware Enterprise suite of products. File pointers are configured. The BASIC programs and dictionary objects are then compiled in ONware, and the QA process begins."
"ONgroup put together an effective team, and we enjoyed working together," said Rayfield, "and as a result we learned how to find our way in the new SQL Server environment. We were able to continue to get value out of our UniVerse staff while learning new technology."
ONgroup specializes in helping organizations with MultiValue technology, such as UniVerse, UniData, Prime and PICK, migrate to or integrate with standard relational technology such as Oracle and SQL Server. Visit www.ongroup.com for more information
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