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CURRY: I'm Michael Curry from IBM Information Integration Solutions Market Management, and this is an IBM Podcast. As companies evolve towards an information on demand model, the role of their data warehouse changes dramatically.
Instead of being an end point for offline reporting and analytics, the information warehouse is becoming an operational source of trusted and authoritative information that is inextricably linked into the fabric of applications and processes.
Joining us today to discuss these changes is Keith Kohl, Program Director of Product Management in IBM Information Integration Solutions. Welcome, Keith. So tell us about what kinds of changes you're seeing in the market.
KOHL: We're seeing four major changes. First, companies are making data warehouses more real time by loading them throughout the day. Second, companies are making their warehouse more accessible through SOA services.
Companies are also paying more attention to the data quality and the metadata to ensure the data is trusted and auditable. And finally, companies are designing a scalable infrastructure capable of meeting their growing data volume requirements.
CURRY: Can you provide any examples?
KOHL: Sure. In the retail space, we see a lot of our customers moving to a demand driven supply model, taking demand signals from their retail locations and using it to drive their supply chain through intra day analysis.
CURRY: That sounds pretty impressive. What needs to change in the data warehouse to support this?
COLE: Well, first the warehouse must be more flexible and adaptable to change. The data must also be trustworthy and auditable.
You must also have and provide a business view. And finally, the warehouse must be capable of scaling to meet the ever growing information volumes.
CURRY: This sounds like a new type of infrastructure is required.
KOHL: In a way, it does require a new infrastructure. It requires an infrastructure capable of integrating disparate data and delivering trusted information wherever and whenever needed to specific people, application and processes.
The IBM Information Server provides all of these functions in a unified platform. It helps businesses and IT personnel to collaborate to understand the meaning, structure and content of any type of information across any data sources.
It provides breakthrough productivity and performance for cleansing, transforming and delivering this information consistently and securely throughout the enterprise so it can be accessed and used in new ways to drive innovation, increase operational efficiencies and lower risk.
CURRY: So, does this require that companies rip and replace their existing data warehouse environments?
KOHL: The IBM Information Server is designed to fit into a company's existing infrastructure. It creates a layer of information services that can be reused throughout the business.
In this way, new projects can begin building on top of it, leveraging its capabilities and delivering value while interoperating with IT assets that are already in place.
CURRY: So if a company does this, what are the benefits?
KOHL: The real benefits are time to market, business flexibility and getting value out of the information. The IBM Information Server platform enables the best information to be available at all times, and since flexibility and reuse are built into the core, it makes dealing with change much easier and less expensive.
CURRY: Thanks for sharing those insights, Keith. It sounds like the role of the data warehouse is really expanding, so I can see how information architecture is more important than ever before. Thanks for joining us.
Be sure to join us next week for the next issue of this podcast series focused on the role of data quality in information architectures. For IBM Information Integration Solutions Market Management, this is Michael Curry. We look forward to hearing from you again soon.