# Versant in Government Solutions

Versant Corporation has led the industry in highly scalable, reliable
object management solutions for complex mission-critical applications
since its founding in 1988. The company\'s Object Database Management
System (ODBMS) serves as the core database for high-performance products
and large-scale applications and is embedded in hundreds of products and
applications in telecommunications, financial services, transportation
and government. Versant's products help accelerate both the development
cycle and the transaction speed for complex, distributed, data intensive
applications.

At its highest level Versant provides power, scalability and access
where Oracle and other tools fail. Versant saves significant time in
development and support of systems by eliminating unnecessary coding,
mapping, and code execution caused in many traditional environments that
require retrofitting a Java/C++ Object environment into a relational
model (rows and columns). Using Versant's software allows you to utilize
the navigational and inheritance capabilities that have made OO
programming so popular today. This allows applications to perform
functions, including intelligence mapping and data correlation analysis,
that can not be done effectively with traditional technologies.
Architects often recognize Versant as a solution for object caching,
persistence, session state management, and object data management.
Versant also provides support for XML data, allowing storage of the DOM
as objects to help with memory management and eliminate excessive XML
parsing. Versant was founded by technologists looking for a better,
faster way to collect, store, and process distributed data efficiently.

### Military and Intelligence Driving Force

Intelligence agencies require rapid assimilation of relationships
between disjointed data points and objects so that analysts can make
informed decisions. Military forces are using more intelligent systems
in areas including command and control, battlefield simulation, weapons
guidance, and communications. The new generation systems must support
fast, accurate decision-making based on data models and business rules
that are vastly more complex and more interrelated than ever before.
This trend necessitates the use of advanced computing methods, rich data
models, and object-oriented architectures.

Much more "work" is required inside real-time performance environments.
These systems must swiftly process dynamic business rules, complex data
models / data types, and large volumes of distributed data. Then they
must assimilate relationships between data or objects to support
decisions. Limiting technologies such as flat-file or in-memory systems
are no longer acceptable, but often are incorporated in the design.
Software engineers cannot afford the performance hit of retrofitting
their object/data model and business logic to accommodate conventional
relational databases.

Because of Versant's unique capabilities delivering high performance
across complex data, our object database technology has been deployed in
many classified military and intelligence applications. While we cannot
disclose the application details nor the specific usage of our
technology in these classified applications, we have made a general
reference below to certain applications.

### 

### Distributed Data Collection 

New defense requirements dictate real-time access to information shared
across military and intelligence divisions. Legacy architectures are
unable to correlate data that is distributed, non-uniform, and large.
Nor can those relational technologies handle the relationships and
associations between data points and events because architecturally they
must operate by breaking these objects into inefficient rows and
columns. Over 15 years ago, government and Fortune 500 commercial
customers began to recognize object-based development as the next
generation of technology. Our solution focus is, and always has been,
centered on object-based technologies.

Versant established an independent business unit specifically focused on
real-time data processing. This division brings the ability for clients
to collect, analyze and move data instantaneously as it is derived from
collection devises such as sensors, PLCs, access readers, and security
devices. This data can be aggregated from large numbers of collection
devises distributed across various locations and sources.
Machine-to-machine (M2M) communication of this data provides real-time
decision making capabilities and provides efficiency across the
environment. Partnerships with companies such as Rockwell Automation
expand the scope of Versant's real-time capabilities.

#### Example Solutions

-   **WorldCom** uses Versant for real-time Fraud Detection across its
    network. Versant's technical capabilities with process-to-process
    communications, rules-based pattern recognition and intelligence
    algorithms allow WorldCom fraud analysts to spend time only
    analyzing situations where specific business rules flag suspected
    fraud activity. Some SHERIFF applications process over 200 million
    events per day, too much for human evaluation. This ability to focus
    has saved WorldCom millions of dollars.

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-   **BellSouth** built an application model framework for accommodating
    wholesales service offerings. Feeds from inbound data sources of
    various types and formats (flat files, data streams, etc.) are read
    into object form. Business rules are then be applied to these
    objects before passing them on to downstream applications and data
    warehouses.

-   **Natexis Capital** relies on the Versant object database for its
    Straight Through Processing (STP) application called AROM. AROM is
    an order management system for routing orders to several financial
    markets in real-time. Natexis Capital customers, including fund
    managers, financial institutions, e-brokers and banks, are able to
    complete their order transactions in near real-time even during peak
    loads.

-   **TRW** embeds Versant in its Satellite Intelligence as well as
    Command and Control Systems

-   **BBN** built a Versant-based Cyber Command System (CCS) which
    monitors network traffic looking for potential cyber-based crime
    activity. Versant acts as a repository for storing data and
    listening for events in the Network Security Space.

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-   **General Dynamics** uses Versant as the foundation for decision
    support in requirements such as Battlespace Information Management
    Systems and their **DARPA** Ship Systems Automation (SSA) program.

### Knowledge Management

As a data management solution, Versant has been incorporated into
various knowledge management, workflow, and business process management
solutions. Often Versant provides core database capabilities receiving
streams and feeds of information via flat file, real-time systems,
machine-to-machine interfaces, or end user inputs. These repositories
include both structured and unstructured data where the objective is the
organization, acquisition, and presentation of only relevant information
to the end user. This serves the requirements for collaborative work
environments enabling data analysts to make timely and accurate
decisions based on their core knowledge function.

#### Example Solutions

-   **US State Department** uses Versant as the basis for its
    **Tracker** application. Tracker is a cross-platform export control
    and communication system developed by **FGM** to track near
    real-time movement of strategic, dual-use and sensitive materials
    for countries around the world. (See accompanying Fusion Whitepaper)

-   **National Library of Medicine** -- NLM uses Versant to host a
    web-based resource of full-text documents that provides health
    information and supports health care decision making for health care
    providers, researchers and policy makers. The site uses Versant to
    store millions of searchable objects allowing full text searches
    against documents and rapid navigation through a Table of Contents
    using objects.

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-   Versant technology is embedded in **J.D. Edwards** next generation,
    collaborative-based, consensus forecasting application to improve
    the profitability of trading partners. Demand Consensus reconciles
    multi-forecasting models for one-number planning, creating an
    enterprise-wide forecast using both quantitative and qualitative
    measures.

### Geospatial Information Services

Many commercial and government organizations have leveraged Versant
technology in building Geospatial and Visualization systems. For
commercial customers, our ability to rapidly process uncorrelated data
has allowed companies developing products such as video games to
significantly enhance the capabilities and authenticity of their
offerings. Because Versant is object-based, applications have been built
that can manage relationships between multiple data sources and match
that with Geospatial information. As such, numerous military
organizations have utilized our capabilities as they built systems such
as helicopter pilot training, missile guidance systems, weather tracking
systems, "War Games" simulations, and battlefield simulation systems.

\"We were originally looking for comparable performance to our leading
brand relational database. Versant actually uses far fewer server
resources, however, and is several orders of magnitude faster at
handling transactions than the relational database." Says Steven Voller
CEO of TVCompass, Ltd., a subscriber based interactive TV listing
service provider.

Associative data visualization is also another area where Versant's
technologies have greatly enhanced our customers' ability to make
decisions from complex data sets. One of the most compelling
capabilities of object-based computing is that objects have a natural,
inherent advantage for business requirements mandating hierarchical,
navigational, and relationship-oriented decision making. Many
organizations have failed in this task with traditional relational
technologies because they are extremely limited in traversing such
complex data. Versant's architecture naturally transcends vertically and
horizontally across data based on the associated relationships. This
extends analysts' ability to collect, score, associate and evaluate
relationships, documents, and events that cross boundaries of data types
and data sources. Thus, critical decisions can be made in real time
based on the true relevance of relationships of unassociated data
collections.

#### Example Solutions

-   The **National Missile Defense (NMD)** Program utilizes Versant in
    missile simulation applications

-   **Sagem Morpho's** Versant-based fingerprint recognition system is
    the most advanced in the world. Customers include the **FBI, New
    York Dept. of Criminal Justice, US Postal Inspection Service, US
    Secret Service,** and other law enforcement and civil organizations

-   **Northrop Grumman** recently deployed Versant for its **Air Force**
    Weather Forecasting System

-   **Lockheed Martin** leverages Versant technology for **US Navy**
    based on-board missile guidance systems, LAMPS flight simulation
    applications, integrated warfare systems, and the War Games 2000
    warfare simulation systems

### 

### Search and Discovery

Because of its navigational and rapid data processing capabilities,
Versant's technology has often been used to store directory, reference,
and meta-data information. Often these solutions are fit into small
footprint, embedded applications and provide a method for data
persistence. Versant's object database and its underlying patented
application caching capabilities have become fundamental parts of many
solutions. The strength of the technology to handle complex data,
relationships, performance, scalability, and data distribution is
exemplified by these applications.

To address these issues and meet the information sharing challenge,
engineers have introduced object technologies in the middle tier.
Specifically, the ability to transparently utilize inheritance and
navigation capabilities of objects allows your applications to deliver
solutions to integration challenges. Versant's object-oriented solution
has been used in systems to act as a common repository that brings
together both object and non object-based (legacy) applications.

As stated by Michael Morehouse regarding FGM's use of Versant in an
application for the US State Department, \"Its (Versant's)
object-oriented model allows us to rapidly traverse complex
relationships. Versant also provides transparent access to our domain
model from Java \[through the middle tier\], simplifying development and
enhancing reuse.\"

IBM and Versant recently released details of a benchmark proving how
Versant technology vastly improves the performance of applications
serving web-based customers and app servers (such as IBM's WebSphere or
BEA's WebLogic). The benchmark measured the impact of storing
application data closer to the processing of the business logic and the
results surprised even IBM and Versant. A whitepaper of the benchmark is
available at www.versant.com.

#### Example Solutions

-   **Nexor**, whose Versant-powered LDAP/X.500 Directory systems are
    world-class, and deployed in the communications systems for US,
    Canada and UK defense systems

-   **Neustar**, who serves as the Local Number Portability
    Administrator (LNPA) for the North America. NeuStar's Versant-based
    system operates the call and signaling/routing registry that
    coordinates the porting of telephone numbers between carriers and
    downloads routing information to carriers\' local systems. NeuStar
    processes over 3 million NPAC transactions each month, serving more
    than 450 wireless and wireline service providers.

-   Versant is the underlying object database for the 500,000 physicians
    profiled in "Doctor's Yellow Pages" and **MedNa's** "Practice
    Destinations" which automates operational and financial services for
    physicians' offices. In this way, Versant helps with HIPAA
    compliance.

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-   **Factiva**, a joint venture between Dow Jones and Reuters, is an
    XML-based document search and retrieval service consolidating
    documents from 8,000 sources. Versant's ODBMS hosts the document
    repository for one of the key back-end servers for Factiva.com to
    enable delivery of documents in near real-time. This encompasses
    over 2 Terabytes of data and 190 million documents.

**Versant Value Add**

Versant's capabilities cross the borders of the US Government's key
areas of focus. The listed areas that will be natural benefactors of
Versant technology are: Distributed Data Collection, Knowledge
Management, Geospatial Information Services, and Search and Discovery.
As a component technology, the possibilities for applying Versant to
your complex data challenges are numerous. Listed below are just some
specific areas where Versant has been used in defense and intelligence
across these

-   Intelligence Gathering and Analysis Systems

-   Joint War Fighting Initiatives

-   Land Command/Control Systems

-   Weapon Guidance

-   Battlefield Simulations

-   Portal Access

-   Missile Guidance Systems

-   Data Management Security Initiatives

-   Secure Access Systems

-   Workflow Management

-   Satellite Reconnaissance

-   Battlefield Command and Control Systems

-   Cyber Command

-   Geospatial Imaging

-   Secure Messaging Systems

-   Fraud Detection

-   Defense Training Systems

-   Weapons Information Applications

-   Knowledge Management

-   War Games Applications

-   Document Management

-   Secure Directory Services

-   Weather Forecasting

-   Equipment (e.g. Helicopter) Simulation Training

-   Wiretapping Applications

-   Integrated Warfare Systems

-   Biometric ID Systems