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 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
, Cognos
and MicroStrategy
. Dynamic Warehouse also competes with infrastructure
offerings from Informatica and Oracle
.
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)
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.
IBM’s Data-Warehouse Dust Off
