What is Alchemy?

What is Alchemy? Alchemy is a repository for unstructured data Designed for high performance access to information from any source Resembles a database, but provides significant functionality a database cannot deliver

Alchemy Repository vs. Relational Databases Alchemy stores files in their native format; file types remain untouched Alchemy text files are automatically compressed between 8:1 and 10:1 Index compressions are significant, resulting in faster search response times Alchemy does not require an additional database license Alchemy can handle over 250 file types

Alchemy Repository vs. Relational Databases (continued) Alchemy can build portable repositories Alchemy provides for annotations on images via sticky notes Alchemy allows for customized template designs and indexing methods Alchemy provides for read only clients on LANs/WANs as well as CD/DVD Alchemy can split the ‘document’ repository into logical and physical pieces Alchemy provides OCR capabilities

Alchemy Repository vs. Relational Databases (continued) Full text indexing would kill performance on a relational database Relational databases are tuned for transaction processing, not documents If a relational database index fails, the entire application becomes unavailable