System Administration and Management

Cognos 8 platform for performance management

Technology snags can sap buy-in for new applications such as business intelligence. IT and business users need tools that support and build trust.

IT administrators in particular, must:

  • See a clear picture of what is happening in the system.
  • Address potential issues before support calls start.
  • Identify patterns to make proactive adjustments to their environments, and have enough insight and control to predict issues before they occur.

Once systems are up and running, IT must manage constant changes that include:

  • Users request new capabilities.
  • IT pursues different hardware or environment options.
  • Data professionals upgrade to new versions of vendors' databases.

The Cognos 8 platform gives IT administrators a streamlined way to manage today, and adapt for tomorrow.

FAQs

  1. How does the Cognos 8 platform provide reliable performance?

    • A 100% zero-footprint solution. No downloads, plug-ins, or PC configuration changes, so you can deploy to large numbers of users with minimal effort.
    • Linear scalability. Services scale up or out, to provide predictable linear response to workloads.
    • Single sign on for user authentication. Integrate with one or more third-party or custom security providers for seamless single sign on.
    • Comprehensive security. Data-level security, full encryption, and an application firewall ensure data is accessed by only authorized users.

  2. How will the Cognos 8 platform help me meet and exceed my service level agreements?

    • Task-oriented system monitoring. Provides administrators with a consolidated view of all system activity, from scheduled and interactive reports to servers and dispatchers, reducing the time and effort needed to monitor the system.
    • Proactive administration. Provides administrators with detailed metrics, thresholds that identify anomalies, and intuitive ongoing monitoring capabilities that spot issues before they are problems.
    • Queue prioritization. Provides administrators with the ability to change priority of a scheduled report based on a user request.
    • Report execution rerun. Provides administrators with the ability to rerun a failed report on a user's behalf and restart from the point of failure.
    • Integration with third-party EMS. Provides administrators with the ability to leverage the metrics within enterprise management systems (EMS) solutions, such as IBM Tivoli.

      White Paper: Five Steps for Better BI System Management

  3. How will the Cognos 8 platform help me manage environment change?

    • Visual Upgrade Manager. Administrators can test, compare, and record results between two versions of Cognos, an IBM company, to identify and quantify issues during the upgrade process, ensuring faster, more streamlined upgrades.
    • Automated environment validation. Provides the ability to test, compare, and record results between Cognos environments for faster rollout of environment changes.
    • Simultaneous shipment on Windows, UNIX, and Linux. Cognos is available at time of release on Windows, UNIX, and Linux, supporting deployments in heterogeneous environments.

 
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Additional Resources:


IBM Cognos 8 Business Intelligence - Full Overview
Online Demo
Complete capabilities in one product, on a single architecture. See key features for both business and IT users, including Framework Manager, the Adminstration Console, and integration with Microsoft Excel.
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The Right Architecture for Business Intelligence: The Foundation for Effective Enterprise BI
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Read why the right architecture is a key factor in successful BI deployments and how the single, open IBM Cognos 8 BI architecture can reduce IT workload, improve productivity, and make better use of your IT budget.
Value from the Cognos 8 Platform
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The Cognos 8 platform provides an open, enterprise-class platform as the foundation required to address performance management needs across the organization. Underpinning Cognos performance management products, it delivers complete, consistent access to information; broad system management; and is built on a modern, service-oriented architecture.
Service-oriented Architecture (SOA): the foundation for enterprise business intelligence White Paper
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Learn how the SOA underlying the IBM Cognos 8 platform has helped customers achieve their business goals.
Five Steps to Better BI System Management
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IBM Cognos 8 BI version 8.3 provides additional capabilities for IT professionals to manage their BI systems proactively. See metrics and how-to’s from these system administration capabilities that help IT address the five important considerations to surpass commitments within tight budgets.
A Broad Information Reach - The Gateway to Information Management
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Learn how to access all of your data, in any format and location.
Integrating, Modeling, and Managing Data to Drive Performance
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Describes the capabilities of the Cognos 8 Platform that provide business with consistent access to information that they understand, own, and can trust to drive higher performance.
A Real-World Financial Performance Management Solution for Midsize Organizations
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Learn how IBM Cognos TM1 MidMarket Edition can drive better decision-making for your organization—from the storeroom to the boardroom.
Operational Business Intelligence: Providing decision-makers with up-to-date visibility into operations
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Learn: Use cases for operational BI; The difference between enterprise BI and operational BI; Criteria for a successful operational BI deployment.