ERwin News Archive
Product Review: Designing Databases with ERwin Data Modeler 7.3
December 01, 2010
Product Review of CA ERwin Data Modeler r7.3 in Visual Studio Magazine
This complete package takes care of modeling data and managing the resulting designs -- provided you're using entity-relationship modeling to design your databases.
Quick Facts: A comprehensive tool for data modeling and managing database designs
Pros: Provides end-to-end support in one package for both operational databases and data warehouses
Cons: Expensive; may be more tool than you need
This month we're looking at two related tools for data modeling: CA ERwin Data Modeler for designing your database schema and Red Gate SQL Source Control for keeping track of the changes that you make to your schema as you add and modify applications. It's easy to see why ERwin earned Merit Award distinction in the Databases and Data Development and Modeling category of this year's VSM Readers Choice Awards. The tool may be expensive, but it's hard to think of anything ERwin doesn't do in the data-modeling field.
ERwin lets you graphically develop a logical data model and generate a database schema from your design, which you can implement in your relational database management system. ERwin likely supports your relational database engine -- the latest version adds support for Teradata, for instance. The ERwin design interface makes it easy to lay out and refine your initial designs. But only two notations are supported: IDEF1X and Information Engineering.
You can also reverse engineer existing databases to create a data model. ERwin goes beyond data structures to include modeling triggers and stored procedures. As you make changes in development, ERwin can generate alter scripts that will upgrade your production database to match the changes you've made in your dev database.
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