Traditional ETL is accepted as the de facto method for data integration, data mart and data warehouse loading, and very important for business functions such as business intelligence. Application and data integration teams have found no other acceptable alternatives. Yet there remain very significant challenges with legacy ETL tools. Misaligned expectations, missed project implementation dates, and misfired budgets are the high price many organizations pay due to the considerable complexities and operational problems associated with today's ETL. Perhaps front and center, is the notion that the use of ETL is more about professional services than anything else. Most of the cost is in the set-up and ongoing maintenance.

ETL as a legacy technology, is focused solely on SQL. New applications such as Salesforce.com, Netsuite, Taleo, RightNow and many others are cloud based and object oriented and do not fit easily into the legacy paradigm. So bridging the gap to cloud applications is difficult and time consuming. It is perhaps even worse to connect to major legacy applications such as SAP - the complexity of the API requires special consulting resources to support the ETL programming that must be done. Finally, most IT executives and CFOs have always been concerned that ETL is very much a "black box" technology - you cannot easily understand or audit the internal workings.

On Friday, March 4th, Queplix Corp. (www.queplix.com) will host a webinar exploring advanced data virtualization technologies that eliminate these complexities and offer an alternative approach to the legacy ETL model that is holding today's enterprises hostage. The webinar will examine advanced data virtualization and automation processes that can supercharge ETL efforts and cut implementation time by 75% or more. ETL teams find advanced data virtualization in products such as VirtualETL and CloudETL can reduce implementation time by 75% or more and easily bridge the gap to the object and XML world.