INDUSTRY

SAND Technology, an innovator in analytic application infrastructure, today announced that Atos Origin, an international information technology services company, will deploy SAND Searchable Archive software in a critical data warehouse management application for the Rail Settlement Plan (RSP) , which is part of the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC), in the United Kingdom. SAND Searchable Archive software will enable Atos Origin to extend its hosted UK rail ticketing analytics service. The high-profile project for RSP requires that in order to meet compliance regulations, 401 days of data on transactional sales from all of the UK's train operating companies should be kept accessible and available to users, at varying levels of aggregation. This online data is platformed on a SAND Analytic Server. After 401 days the data must be archived, but must also be available to be restored at any time for analysis – which is a vital deliverable of the contract. It is anticipated that over the 15-year contract, in excess of 65 terabytes of data will be accumulated. To provide the equivalent speed and accessibility of data restoration that the SAND Searchable Archive will achieve at the end of the 15-year contract, it would have required 12.4 terabytes of disk storage, instead of the 620 gigabytes of storage that the SAND solution will require, using a current compression ratio of 95%. Atos Origin selected SAND Searchable Archive for the mission-critical project because of the software's ability to reduce the overall cost of data management. This is achieved through efficiently partitioning the active data accumulated by ATOC into an online server and a nearline archive where it can be restored quickly and easily for fraud detection or marketing purposes. Atos Origin chose SAND as its partner for the high-profile contract because it already used SAND's application platform, SAND Analytic Server, which is designed to work as an online complement to SAND Searchable Archive. SAND Searchable Archive was selected because of its ability to achieve unrivalled compression rates for data storage – 95 % – without compromising users' requirements to access the data. “ RSP is a major strategic customer for Atos Origin and SAND Searchable Archive was the natural choice for us on this project,” said Mark Spear, Lennon Programme Director, Atos Origin. “Not only is it a complement to the SAND Analytic Server technology already in place, but it will also enable us to deliver an efficient solution that is perfectly suited to the data archiving challenges faced by RSP . We are pleased to be working with SAND and are excited about the possibilities of the relationship moving forward.” “Atos Origin has successfully deployed SAND Analytic Server as an online analytic application platform for an extended period," said Arthur Ritchie, SAND's Chief Executive Officer. "SAND Searchable Archive is a natural evolution of this project and we are very pleased to be working with a forward-thinking organization like Atos Origin on its complex information management and data warehousing challenges.” SAND Searchable Archive is a highly compact analytic repository that typically stores data in less than 10% of the space required by an equivalent relational data warehouse. Early production installations have yielded 80% - 90% compression of input data, which translates to at least 95% compression in comparison to a similar indexed relational database. SAND Searchable Archive's read-only archive files can be searched using standard Business Intelligence tools and methods without the need to decompress the data first. In nearline applications, the selected data can be efficiently restored to the online warehouse or analytic server. In offline configurations, the selected data is queried in place without the need to restore it. Users can configure the speed of data selection by adjusting the available server and storage resources, using less expensive media when storage cost is the underlying driver, and higher-performance resources, disc and servers when speed of data access is critical. Because the data access rate corresponds linearly with CPU usage, query speeds against the compressed files can approach or even exceed those achieved against the source warehouse. SAND Searchable Archive can be deployed on Windows, Linux or UNIX servers. Product pricing varies based on the amount of data being stored in the archive. SAND Analytic Server is a high-performance multi-user platform that facilitates the development and deployment of complex online analytic applications. It is typically a third of the size of an indexed relational data warehouse or data mart, but offers greater flexibility and more efficient analytic performance. It does not require specialized indexing, so it is faster to set up, faster to accommodate changes in the business environment and faster to respond to user requests for data. SAND Analytic Server works with industry-standard business intelligence tools and runs on standard hardware, optimizing the performance of both. Atos Origin is an international information technology services company. Its business is turning client vision into results through the application of consulting, systems integration and managed operations. The company's annual revenues are more than EUR 5 billion and it employs 45,000 people in 50 countries. Atos Origin is the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic Games and its clients include ABN AMRO, Akzo Nobel, Alstom, BNP Paribas, BP, Ericsson, EDF, Euronext, Fiat, France Telecom, ICI, ING, KPN, Lucent, Philips, Renault, Royal Bank of Scotland, Saudi Aramco, Schlumberger, Shell, Telecom Italia, UBS, UK Department for Work and Pensions, Unilever, Vivendi Universal and Vodafone. Rail Settlement Plan (RSP) is a subsidiary of the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) and is responsible for: running outsourced IT service contracts for all rail tickets, ticket issuing systems, reservations, fares, information services, timetables, revenue allocation, revenue settlement between train companies, ticket on departure schemes, credit card automation, gathering sales data and redistributing the revenue collected from ticket sales. The Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) is the official voice for the passenger rail industry – representing train companies to the government and other opinion formers on transport policy issues. Britain's train operators are working together to change rail travel for the better. ATOC manages many joint activities for train operators including revenue allocation and settlement, impartial retailing, National Rail Enquiries, railcard marketing, staff travel arrangements, international products and travel agent licensing. SAND Technology provides organizations worldwide with a unique vantage point from which to survey the competitive landscape. SAND's advanced analytic data management products empower users with a better understanding of their business environment through better access to their business data. SAND Technology-based solutions include CRM analytics, web analytics, financial analysis and specialized Business Intelligence applications for government and security, healthcare, telecommunications, financial services, retail and other business sectors. SAND Technology has offices in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Central Europe, and is traded on NASDAQ under the symbol SNDT. For more information, visit www.sand.com.