Computerworld: IBM Ups Its BI Ante with Third-Generation Strategy

Computerworld: IBM ups its BI ante with third-generation strategy

Heather Havenstein

March 13, 2007 -- IBM today announced a new business intelligence strategy that makes the analysis of data stored in its data warehouse part of a business process.

Along with the new strategy, dubbed dynamic warehousing, the company brought out a new version of its DB2 Warehouse, a new data analysis tool and new data warehouse appliances aimed at small and midsize businesses.

IBM officials described the new strategy as the "third generation" of data warehousing -- query and reporting represented the first phase, and online analytical processing the second. The tools built during first two generations of data warehousing focused mainly on analyzing historical company data, while dynamic warehousing aims to bring that analysis into the business process in real time, said Marc Andrews, IBM's director of data warehousing.

Core to IBM's dynamic warehousing effort is a new version of the DB2 Warehouse based on the DB2 9 database, code-named Viper,which came out last June. The new OmniFind Analytic Edition tool can be used to mine and analyze data in the DB2 Warehouse, Andrews said. The new OmniFind tool can tool can analyze unstructured data in the warehouse, such as call center and field technician notes, which has historically been a very difficult task for analysis tools, according to Andrews.

"Data warehouses provide a store for information, and organizations have focused on making that store faster, more reliable and easier to use," Andrews said. "They haven't provided the actual analytics to generate new business insight directly from within the warehouse. This third generation is really about leveraging information on demand to optimize every transaction to make real-time business decisions."

The updated DB2 Warehouse can also be used with IBM's Information Server to add data quality and transformation, and with its Rational Data Architect to embed data modeling, the company said.

IBM also introduced two new configurations of its Balanced Configuration Unit data warehousing appliance, which includes prebundled hardware, software and storage. One new configuration is aimed at midsize businesses, while the other is aimed at small businesses. Earlier ones were configured for large customers.

For small businesses, the new C-Class configuration includes Business Objects SA's Crystal Reports reporting tool, IBM said.

The new appliances are aimed at easing configuration problems, which IBM contends are at the root of 80% of enterprise problems related to data warehouses.

All of the new products will be available by the end of the month.

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InformationWeek: IBM Overhauls Data Warehouse Strategy

The comprehensive 'Dynamic Warehousing' strategy was unveiled at the Gartner Business Intelligence Summit in Chicago.

By Antone Gonsalves,InformationWeek

March 13, 2007

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IBM on Tuesday unleashed a tsunami of data warehousing software, appliances and services, countering the competitive pressure it has felt in the enterprise market, while also covering small and midsize businesses.

IBM introduced its comprehensive Dynamic Warehousing strategy at the Gartner Business IntelligenceSummit in Chicago. The initiative is built around the company's DB2 Warehouse 9.1.2, which is based on the DB2 9 database management system, and incorporates the company's Information Server for data integration. In addition, the software integrates the Rational Data Architect for data modeling and mapping, and includes DB2 Alphablox for embedded analytics.

Prevviously only available for the enterprise, IBM has introduced three scaled-down versions of DB2 Warehouse for SMBs and departments in large organizations, and also launched two new warehouse appliances that offer a combined software and hardware package for the same market segments. In addition, IBM enhanced its enterprise offerings.

"IBM with these announcements becomes the premiere data warehousing appliance vendor, in terms of the range of targeted solutions they provide," James Kobielus, data management analyst for Current Analysis, said. "IBM has significantly improved the packaging, pricing, scalability, professional services and channel partner programs for its data warehousing and master data management solutions."

In terms of new technology, IBM introduced the OmniFind Analytics Edition, which attacks the problem of extracting business intelligence from unstructured data. The new software, an optional add-on module for the DB2 Warehouse, consolidates and analyzes data from unstructured and structured sources, regardless of the format.

The new versions of DB2 Warehouse are scheduled to be available by the end of the month, along with all the other warehousing products from IBM. The three new editions are Advanced, Intermediate and Starter, and have storage capacities limited to 2 terabytes, 1 terabyte and 400 GB, respectively. Pricing starts at $48,000 for the Advanced Edition, $24,000 for the Intermediate, and $10,000 for the Starter, according to figures supplied by Current Analysis. The two existing Enterprise and Enterprise Base editions have been enhanced, and pricing starts at $105,000 and $60,000, respectively.

On the appliance side, IBM renamed its data warehouse appliance, formerly called Balanced Configuration Units, to Balanced Warehouse. To complement the existing enterprise version, now called E Class, IBM introduced two new offerings. The D Class has a capacity from 1 terabyte to 5 terabytes, and can be configured with the DB2 Warehouse Enterprise, Enterprise Base or Advanced Editions. Pricing starts at $275,000. The C Class scales to 1 terabyte, supports 200 users, and can be preconfigured with DB2 Warehouse Intermediate and Starter editions, and with the Crystal Reports Server from Business Objects. Pricing starts at $15,000.

In releasing new pricing and enhancements for the E Class appliance, IBM had its sights on rivals, Kobielus said. "The E Class is built to be comparable in pricing and performance to Netezza and DataLlegro." The E Class has a capacity of 4 terabytes and up, with pricing starting at $500,000.

To help customers deal with the complexity of designing and implementing a data warehouse, IBM launched new services from its Global Business Services division. The services include implementation of an IBM data warehouse, and helping to integrate the technology with business intelligence and other systems to gain access to all enterprise data.

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iT News (Australia): IBM Overhauls Data Warehouse Strategy

internetnews.com: IBM's Data-Warehouse Dust Off

By Clint Boulton

March 13, 2007

The concept of the data warehouse has been a simple one -- create data and then sock some of it away in a software vault. IBM (Quote)is offering a new approach to this business intelligence (BI) process, introducing its Dynamic Warehousing strategy for using advanced analytics to support business transactions.

Unveiled today at the Gartner Business Intelligence Summit in Chicago, Dynamic Warehousing seeks to yank knowledge that may directly impact customers or transactions from text, e-mail, audio files and Web pages.

The strategy is designed to support BI applications from IBM partners and BI market leaders Business Objects (Quote), Cognos (Quote)and MicroStrategy (Quote). Dynamic Warehouse also competes with infrastructure offerings from Informatica (Quote)and Oracle (Quote).

Bernie Spang, director of IBM Data Servers, said the point of Dynamic Warehousing is to provide customers with the "right insight at the right time for managers at the point of transaction with customers."

Spang said that while the first data warehousing technologies focused on query and reporting and the second wave used online analytical processing (OLAP) and data mining for historical analysis to dictate business planning, Dynamic Warehousing analyzes information on demand to help customers improve business transaction.

For example, Spang said Dynamic Warehousing is a key cog in the New York Police Department's crime information warehouse, which uses IBM software to identify possible suspects before detectives get to the crime scene.

Dynamic Warehousing, one of the fruits of IBM's information-on-demand strategy, also helps insurance companies identify potentially fraudulent claims prior to approval and payment.

IBM is introducing a raft of new and upgraded software products under the Dynamic Warehousing umbrella.

Spang said IBM's DB2 9 database serves as the rock for the initiative because it employs features such as deep compression to boost performance for analytics and BI.

New flavors of DB2 Warehouse, including a starter, intermediate and advanced edition, use technology from IMB's Ascential buy to provide data movement and transformation capabilities, as well as advanced data partitioning and workload management, to ensure that applications are adequately serviced.

For customers who need to get a data warehouse up in a hurry, Spang said IBM is also rolling out the IBM Balanced Warehouse, which enables developers to create a warehouse with pre-configured software, hardware and storage.

IBM is also offering new data models to help organizations get started with dynamic warehousing. These include a new Health Plan data model for claims, medical management and provider and network care, as well as an enhanced Insurance data model, which focuses more on compliance and risk management.

Computer Business Review: IBM gears data management tools for dynamic warehousing

14th March 2007

By Madan Sheina

IBM Corp has unveiled its new 'dynamic data warehousing' strategy by rolling out new and integrated versions of its On Demand data management offerings and new vertical data models backed by services from its consulting division.

In IBM parlance "dynamic warehousing" refers to an overarching product strategy to deliver end-to-end, and real-time data warehousing and BI capabilities that incorporate a set of integrated technologies sourced from its DB2 data management products melded with other IBM information management products in its portfolio such as search, content management, text analytics, data modeling, and master data management.

The strategy also attempts to pull together structured and unstructured data analysis in a data warehouse environment, driven by the launch of IBM's Information On Demand initiative a couple of years ago which attempts to help companies transform their information into strategic business assets.

A central part of dynamic warehousing rests on the new Viper release of DB2 that enables companies to store unstructured data (in XML format) alongside structured relational data. IBM has introduced several enhancements to the mainframe version of Viper for z/OS including SQL enhancements for real-time query and reporting and new graphical analytics and reporting tools for use on System z.

Viper is also included as part of a revamped DB2 Warehouse suite which IBM is now offered in Starter, Intermediate and Advanced Editions. Previously IBM only offered Base and Enterprise Editions.

IBM has also unveiled a new series of Balanced Warehouse appliance products that are an upgrade of its Balanced Configuration Unit that comes as a pre-configured hardware, software and storage appliance system.

The Balanced Warehouses are offered in three separate Editions that scale up from departmental data mart applications up to enterprise-class data warehousing. These editions are branded as "C", "D", and "E" classes respectively.

The primary focus of the enter-level C-class appliance is on the small to medium sized business firms dipping their toes into data warehousing and BI. It also delivers pre-integration with DB2 Warehouse Starter Edition, Novel SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and Business Objects SA's Crystal Reports business reporting server and is targeted at SMBs bundled offering is slated for general release at the end of March.

Business Objects also plans to integrate its recently announced Business Objects Crystal Decisions mid-market reporting software into IBM's C3000 appliance as well.

The new DB2 Warehouse Starter and Intermediate Editions also ship with the C-class appliance.

IBM said that over 30 channel partners have already signed up to make its simplified mid-market products offerings available to SMBs.

The D-class appliance is positioned as a "growth solution" that is intended to help companies ramp up their data warehouse deployments without the complexity and cost of a traditional enterprise data warehousing project.

To pull in unstructured data IBM has also combined search, text analytics and visualization capabilities into its latest OmniFind Analytics Edition for Customer Care software that mines customer data for patterns and trends.

IBM has also developed a new heath-plan and insurance analytic data models to give dynamic warehousing customers in these sectors a jump start on their data warehousing and BI deployments. The health-plan model is for claims, medical management and provider and network care. The insurance model focuses on compliance and risk management. Both are supported by new planning and design services from IBM's Global Business and Technology Services divisions.

Datamonitor: IBM gears data management tools for dynamic warehousing

585 words

14 March 2007

05:27

Datamonitor News and Comment

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Viper is also included as part of a revamped DB2 Warehouse suite which IBM is now offered in Starter, Intermediate and Advanced Editions. Previously IBM only offered Base and Enterprise Editions.

Business Objects also plans to integrate its recently announced Business Objects Crystal Decisions mid-market reporting software into IBM's C3000 appliance as well.

The new DB2 Warehouse Starter and Intermediate Editions also ship with the C-class appliance.

IBM said that over 30 channel partners have already signed up to make its simplified mid-market products offerings available to SMBs.