This tool is very scalable (excellent performance) with relatively low footprint. It may not be the best starting point for a newbie, but experienced developer will definitely find a lots of stuff he will like.
It is also embeddable(pure Java) - in case you need to develop some kind of exporting/import capability and don't want to code it from scratch.
Use it for any kind of DB-> file/XML or viceversa. Will also work on much more complex projects - like full DW implementation.