TimeXtender Classic is now available, and it formalizes something many SQL-centric teams have been asking for: a clear, first-class path for building and automating data integration workflows inside your own secure IT environment.
TimeXtender Classic runs on on-prem SQL Server or Azure SQL Database and is designed for organizations that want their data solution to stay secure and SQL-centric, including environments where internet connectivity is limited or not allowed.
If your organization is standardizing on SQL Server or Azure SQL Database and you want to operate fully inside your own secure environment, TimeXtender Classic is built for exactly that reality.
SQL-centric teams often run into the same set of bottlenecks as their data solution grows. What starts as a manageable set of tables and transformations turns into a widening surface area of hand-written SQL, ad hoc job ordering, and fragile dependencies between objects. Over time, small changes take longer because it becomes harder to predict impact, harder to keep environments consistent, and harder to troubleshoot when something downstream breaks.
There is also a governance problem that shows up in parallel. When multiple teams build reporting logic in different places, definitions drift. “Revenue” means one thing in finance, another in sales, and something else in a dashboard that was built quickly to meet a deadline.
TimeXtender Classic is built for teams that want to keep delivery SQL-centric while still maintaining consistent models that support trustworthy analytics and AI-ready data work across the organization.
Finally, some organizations have a hard infrastructure constraint: the data solution must run inside their own environment, without relying on public internet connectivity. This is common in highly regulated industries where an "air-gapped" data environment is required. TimeXtender Classic reinforces that direction by focusing on on-prem Microsoft SQL.
In TimeXtender Classic, you build the data pipeline in clearly separated steps, so ingestion, integration, and delivery do not get tangled together. In Classic, that starts with the Business Unit as the ingestion foundation.
The Business Unit is the centralized landing layer for raw data across the organization. It is designed to bring source data in while keeping it traceable and intact, so downstream work starts from a stable, auditable foundation.
If you are upgrading from 20.10 and previously relied on ODX, the guidance is: move your data sources into the Business Unit before upgrading, because ODX objects are removed during the upgrade.
The Modern Data Warehouse layer is where teams turn landed source data into integrated, analysis-ready relational structures. This is the layer for standardizing fields across systems, applying integration rules, and shaping data into tables that analysts can query efficiently at scale. It is intentionally separated from raw ingestion so you can evolve integration logic without blurring what came from the source versus what was derived.
The Semantic Layer is the curated delivery layer, built to keep definitions consistent as data is consumed across teams and tools.
The result is a practical operating model for SQL-centric teams: a consistent place to land source data, a controlled way to evolve downstream structures as requirements change, and a governed layer for delivering consistent definitions to analytics and AI-ready data use cases.
Compared to TimeXtender 20.10, the main changes in TimeXtender Classic are as follows:
If you are on TimeXtender 20.10, the most important step is to decide whether you want to move your data solution toward a cloud operating model or keep it SQL-based inside your own environment. There are two clear paths: migrate to TimeXtender Data Integration if you want cloud flexibility and choice of storage types as you scale, or move to TimeXtender Classic if you prefer to keep your SQL-based solution and do not plan to move to the cloud in the near future.
TimeXtender Data Integration is designed for teams that want flexible storage options and modern cloud architectures, including warehouses, data lakes, and lakehouses. If you plan to transition from TimeXtender 20.10 to TimeXtender Data Integration, an improved migration tool is intended to simplify the process by enabling and automating the transfer of projects, while still requiring planning and time due to differences between the technologies.
If you are using ODX Server, the guidance is to upgrade to Data Integration before 2027, because ODX cloud functionality will no longer function after February 2027. The migration tool is intended to help migrate your existing ODX configuration into the Data Integration ingest instance.
TimeXtender Classic is focused on on-prem solutions based on Microsoft SQL databases.
If you use ODX today, plan your transition carefully. TimeXtender Classic removes ODX in favor of Business Units. On upgrade, all ODX objects and any data warehouse mappings that derive directly from an ODX will be deleted.
The practical recommendation is to implement your data sources in the Business Unit before you upgrade.
If your current solution uses CData data sources, you have two supported options when moving to TimeXtender Classic: add CData access to your Classic license as a paid add-on, or convert CData data sources to free TimeXtender Enhanced data connectors.
More broadly, TimeXtender will continue to offer support for CData providers on a paid basis, and we encourage customers to start moving from CData to the corresponding TimeXtender provider if they want to avoid the CData fee.
For more detailed information about the changes and the upgrade process, please see Upgrade from TimeXtender 20.10 to TimeXtender Classic.
If you are planning to move to TimeXtender Classic, read the full release notes, reach out to a TimeXtender partner or contact TimeXtender directly to get started.