StrikeIron Launches Super Data Pack
New Web services provide 10,000 free hits per month and a single access point to multiple external data sources
Research Triangle Park, NC – September 26, 2006 – StrikeIron Inc., provider
of the Web Services Marketplace, today announced the launch of the StrikeIron
Super Data Pack. Designed to ease the development of composite applications, Web
applications, mashups, and other data-driven applications, the Super Data Pack
provides risk-free access to dozens of different data sources all under a single
registered account. As part of the package available now, StrikeIron is
providing access to the first 10,000 hits per month across all of the various
data sources at no cost or commitment from the user.
Leveraging external data sources help an organization reduce the costs
associated with fragmented, redundant, and out-dated data, including the
maintenance and hardware costs of storing and updating data internally. As an
example, the Web services within the Super Data Pack can quickly be integrated
into a service oriented architecture (SOA) in order to expand the breadth and
depth of data available throughout the enterprise while decreasing the cost of
maintaining the same data internally.
“StrikeIron offers a compelling solution for users who are looking for agile,
resilient access to multiple external data sources," said Jason Bloomberg,
Senior Analyst, ZapThink LLC. "When you combine StrikeIron’s Super Data Pack
with the StrikeIron Web Services Marketplace, users can start with simple data
mashups, and quickly build sophisticated service-oriented composite applications
that solve dynamic business challenges.”
One of the challenges for SOA projects integrating with external Web services
is the ability to handle authentication and transaction tracking across
disparate sets of data. The Super Data Pack provides a consistent mechanism and
interface for developers and end-users, regardless of the Web service being
integrated, to quickly and easily create robust composite applications without
having to juggle multiple authentications and dealing with inconsistent Web
services implementations. These free Web services can be combined with any of
the StrikeIron Marketplace commercial Web services to create CRM, e-commerce,
data quality applications and much more.
The Super Data Pack currently has 20 services, with plans to be at over 100
services by the end of 2006. This includes Web services that provide city,
county, and state information across the US, healthcare-related data,
governmental data, international data, business data, communications related
data, transportation data, financial data, statistics, and more. In addition,
StrikeIron is seeking partners who want to list their Web services or publicly
available data for use with the Super Data Pack (e.g. a list of all the major
golf courses or a directory of locations for a restaurant chain). Visit
www.strikeiron.com/SDP for more information.
“The Super Data Pack really helps to open the flood gates of what is possible
with Web services, service oriented architecture, and the Programmable Web,”
said Bob Brauer, ceo and president of StrikeIron. “We are excited about
providing the platform that brings all of this live data together and makes it
consistent and easy to use for delivery into a broad range of real-time
applications.”
About StrikeIron
StrikeIron is the leader in providing innovative solutions for delivering data over
the emerging Internet. The company’s innovative Web Services Catalog provides
a technology platform, micro-transaction management and a consistent interface across
many XML-based Web services from multiple, diverse sources. This allows business
users, application developers and enterprise IT professionals to customize and integrate
external data sources and additional external functionality into enterprise, Web,
and composite applications. Currently, StrikeIron provides over 100 live data sources
and business functions from organizations such as Cortera, Gale, MapQuest,
Midnight Trader, Tax Data Systems, and Zacks.
StrikeIron also offers IronCloud™, the only comprehensive Web services delivery
platform that opens up new channels for data distribution and consumption through
Web Services. Enterprises of all sizes can now reduce the cost and complexity of
managing the challenges of data distribution which include leveraging an existing
external hardware and software architecture, controlling and metering access and
usage, external monitoring for 24x7 reliability, full usage analytics, as well as
multiple authentication scenarios and instead concentrate their focus on making
information easier for partners, customers, and distributed business units to access
and use. StrikeIron delivers value to over 1,500 customers and partners such as
Avaya, BEA, Delivery.com, IBM, Honda Europe, Siemens, Nike, Swarovski,
ShoeBuy, and Exclusive Resorts. For more information, visit
www.strikeiron.com.
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