INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

IBM Information Server: Where BI meets enterprise information

November 29, 2006

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On October 16, Cognos, an IBM company, announced support for IBM Information Server, the result of the global strategic alliance between Cognos and IBM to help joint customers access and leverage strategic information across heterogeneous environments to make more informed and effective business decisions.

Below, Cognos Senior Director of Product Marketing Harriet Fryman talks to Michael Curry, Program Director, Information Integration Solutions at IBM, about the ways that IBM Information Server helps organizations adapt to complex and growing data volumes.

A "tipping point" for trusted information

HF: "Can you give us a quick overview of the IBM Information Server?"

MC: "IBM Information Server is all about delivering information that people can trust. It's a new kind of software platform for information and it helps organizations to derive more value from all the complex heterogeneous data that tends to be spread across fragmented systems in their organizations.

What we're finding is more and more organizations need consistent and trustworthy enterprise-level information And today, they really need to assemble that using a range of technologies. It takes a long time and tends to be very expensive.

"What we've created with IBM Information Server is one, unified platform for customers to understand all the data that exists across their heterogeneous systems; to cleanse it, to transform it, and then to deliver it consistently across the organization."

So we believe that we're at a tipping point for the need for enterprise information. In fact, a recent IBM CEO survey found that over 60 percent of CEOs believe their organizations need to do a better job of leveraging their information.

What we've created with IBM Information Server is one, unified platform for customers to understand all the data that exists across their heterogeneous systems; to cleanse it, to transform it, and then to deliver it consistently across the organization. This one platform has a unified metadata management layer, common connectivity to all applications and data and content, and a unified deployment mechanism so you can really shrink the time it takes to build."

Sweeping changes in information architecture

HF: "With IBM Cognos 8 Business Intelligence, it's all about delivering consistent and complete information to business users. it would be interesting to hear about the business issues that IBM Information Server tackles for organizations."

MC: "The corporate view of information architecture is changing dramatically. Companies are moving from a departmental view, an application-centric view, to a more strategic, enterprise-wide view. And that's really changing the way companies go about building solutions. What it requires is a platform that can address a large number of needs [that are] much broader than data warehousing or business intelligence.

"There's a massive change going on in requirements, along with the changes in the types of information that are available. These are the challenges we address with IBM Information Server."

Companies are also dealing with a lack of agility because the information architecture itself is simply too inflexible. it's based on a lot of fragmented technologies and these things are held together with string and baling wire in a way that makes it very difficult to adjust quickly to new business opportunities.

At the same time, data volumes are rising dramatically, and the tolerance for latency is actually dropping. So we're in a very difficult environment to deal with. There's a massive change going on in requirements, along with the changes in the types of information that are available. These are the types of challenges that we address with IBM Information Server."

Where business intelligence and information management meet

HF: "When you're asked about business intelligence capabilities within the framework of information management, what does IBM say?"

"Partnering with Cognos for BI ensures that performance management is linked into information management, providing the best possible information all the way out to the end user."

MC: "The goal of enterprise information management is ultimately to have a consistent information infrastructure that acts as a layer that goes across the IT ecosystems and serves up consistent information across the enterprise and that's what IBM is focused on.

Partnering with Cognos for business intelligence ensures that performance management is linked into that layer, providing the best possible information all the way out to the end user."

Successful projects simultaneously tactical and strategic

HF: "As you look at the two organizations working closely together, I was wondering if you see any patterns emerging in customers that have deployed both solutions together. Can you describe any success factors that lead to long-term success?"

"I would say the key characteristic is that they're both tactical and strategic at the same time. So they can effectively balance the needs of their immediate initiatives, and yet do so while looking forward to the broader architectural needs of downstream projects.

In that way, their first project is actually the cornerstone of their architectural direction, so that as new requirements come along like services-oriented architectures or expanding from business intelligence to performance management they're continuing to be addressed. Not only do these customers gain a return on that first initiative, but they continue to reap the value downstream – in re-use, in experience, and the value of this common platform."