IBM InfoSphere Warehouse on System z

Features in the InfoSphere Warehouse on System z offering include:

• Eclipse-based Design Studio
• Physical Modeling from Rational Data Architect
• Browser-based Administration Console
• Simplified SQL-based data movement and transformation with SQL Warehousing Tool (SQW)
• Access to multidimensional data with no-copy OLAP analytics

Design Studio makes it easier to model, design, and implement analytic structures in the warehouse, and also helps populate and maintain them. This workbench can be extended with simple-to-build Eclipse-based plug-ins. Design Studio provides the plug-in for physical database design and provides an easy-to-use environment supporting the following capabilities:

• Flexible, extensible (plug-ins), easy-to-use eclipse environment

• Design: Logical Entity Relationship design with Rational Data Architect plug-in (optionally available from Rational); Physical design

• Extract, load, and transform

• Data movement and transformation

• Scripting

• Cube and Materialized Query Table

• Debugging and testing

IBM InfoSphere Warehouse on System z now enables DB2 for z/OS customers to leverage the powerful physical database modeling and implementation capabilities of Rational Data Architect (RDA), a rich extensible Eclipse-based design and modeling environment. Packed with graphical modeling, collaborative teaming and model metadata synchronization and sharing features, RDA physical modeling provides the solid foundation on which more advanced data warehousing features are delivered within the complete InfoSphere Warehouse on System z solution.

Also included as a foundation of the offering is the browser-based Administration Console which provides a common browser interface to manage data warehouse resources, schedule and monitor data warehouse processing jobs and to configure and manage multidimensional cubes and cube servers. The Administration Console also provides troubleshooting, statistics, and logs and traces.

Customers can build and transform their physical data structures with the SQL Warehousing tool (SQW) provided in IBM InfoSphere Warehouse on System z. Designed as an extension to the Rational Data Architect Physical Modeling environment, SQW provides data flow, data transformation and control flow operations required to load the data warehouse or data mart. SQW features include:

SQL-based data movement and transformation features

• Load datasets from server

• Staging table tuning: creating indexes, range partition, runstats

• Order by 'get first n rows'

• Flow debugging and execution visual enhancements

• Online and offline modes of flow designing

• Virtual columns, expressions sorting, filtering enhancements

SQW Runtime features

• Parallel execution in control flows

• Sub process modularizations

• Sub process modularizations

• Variable enhancements, reserved system variables

• Activity skip during execution

• Enhanced diagnostics (user control with file write operator), logging

InfoSphere Warehouse on System z customers can also build and deploy multidimensional analytics with Cubing Services. It empowers users to ask intuitive and complex ad hoc questions about their enterprise, such as, "What is my product's profitability for this quarter across my territory?" This type of business query requires the grouping, aggregation and calculation of information across various business dimensions, such as time, product, customer, and supplier. Cubing Services is designed to resolve just this type of multidimensional query, known as Online Analytical Processing (OLAP).

Cubing Services can lead to substantial cost savings and time-to-value reduction over traditional outboard cubing technologies. Leveraging data directly from the warehouse, Cubing Services does not require the overhead of copying data into a third-party technology. Fully integrated into the InfoSphere Warehouse on System z design and administrative warehouse tools, Cubing Services provides the ability to achieve lower design and maintenance costs over external cubing solutions.

Cubing Services supports the industry standard multidimensional (MDX) query language as well as industry standard OLAP client APIs that immediately enable the following industry leading BI tools:

• OLE DB for OLAP (ODBO): Microsoft Excel, Third party vendors

• XML for Analysis (XMLA): Cognos 8 BI, Third party vendors

Cubing Services provides OLE DB for OLAP (ODBO) support that enables third-party BI tools to access multidimensional cubes. In addition, Excel Pivot Table Services support allows any Excel user to access the same cubes through a familiar tool. Because the cubes are accessed through Excel, this is available to users without requiring the installation of additional BI tools.

XMLA enablement allows Cognos 8 BI tools and applications to more fully leverage the power of the InfoSphere Warehouse on System z through first class access to Cubing Services cubes. Cognos 8.4 BI for Linux on System z can now query Cubing Services cubes, so you can now use these cubes to:

• Execute simple ad hoc queries with Query Studio

• Do advanced ad hoc analysis with Analysis Studio

• Deliver standard reports with Report Studio

• Use the results to build and deploy dashboards with Go! Dashboards

• Integrate with Cognos Go! Office