Next-generation data transformation tool

Year 2006
Project team Michael Stonebraker

A repository and tool

A fundamental problem for large enterprises revolves around converting data from various representations inside the logic of business units to one common representation in the enterprises central data warehouse. Business analysts subsequently query this warehouse to improve business processes. While tools do exist to extract data from various locations and transform them into a common format, such exercises are usually complex and expensive. Moreover, today’s business environment necessitates frequent changes in the data structures of business units. This makes such transformation exercises an ongoing issue. The goal of this project is to create a next-generation data transformation tool to facilitate these conversions. The core technology is called Morpheus, and consists of a transformation tool and a repository that holds a large number of transformations. Morpheus would be used as a browser tool, finding a repository transformation that is “close” to the required one. Then, the transformation tool is used to manipulate the identified starting point in a drag-and-drop fashion quickly and easily into the desired result.