The first fruits of IBM's much-vaunted Xperanto project to harness disparate data sources have gone into beta testing. IBM's DB2 Information Integrator software, intended to integrate and analyse data in different file formats on multiple platforms, is scheduled for commercial availability by July.

Experts regard Xperanto as one of the most serious efforts yet at so-called data federation - the ability to control the sea of structured and unstructured information passing through enterprises by presenting a virtual, unified view of content. Information Integrator is pitched as a way to assemble XML files, office documents, email, multimedia, Web services and databases into a single view, reducing the need for integration coding and speeding up data analysis and other business tasks.

Information Integrator could be used, for example, in a call centre to collate information about users, or in a data warehousing project to accelerate trend analysis. Another application might be to evaluate a firm's performance by bringing together company reports from an information provider, an Internet-based stock ticker and internally-sourced information.

The software will be released in two forms - the DB2 Information Integrator software for SQL developers; and the DB2 Information Integrator for Content, based on a content management programming model. Testers include Indiana University and Cytogen, both of which plan to create single data stores for life-sciences studies.

"All the chief information officer knows is that he has this spaghetti that he's trying to link together, and the business is demanding a more coherent view," said IBM marketing manager Angus Falconer. "This is a comprehensive toolset that lets them extend the data warehouse and customer relationship management system through federated capabilities. It's trying to automate [data collation] and make it more intuitive, so you have one point of entry."

IBM is working with Crystal Decisions, SAS Institute and other leading software firms on adapters for DB2 Information Integrator. Despite its name, IBM said the tool would not require its DB2 Universal Database software, noting that it would also be able to work with other databases such as Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server or Informix.

Other vendors are also focusing on data federation. BEA Systems recently released its Liquid Data technology, and Microsoft is working on a project called Yukon, to be included in a future version of SQL Server.

Many analysts see federation as a key trend. "Clients needing real-time integration with minimal data movement should consider platforms based on federated or virtual databases," wrote Philip Russom of Giga Information Group in a recent report.

IBM already offers a data federation product called Discovery Link that is primarily aimed at life-sciences applications, and comes with a large element of consulting services. Discovery Link will eventually become a pre-packaged service based on Xperanto, according to IBM.

The vendor plans to announce specific pricing and licensing details this spring.

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