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The many databases in any enterprise IT environment have added a level of complexity not only to their management but also to finding, collecting, and distributing key information from them. The problem is made more difficult in that most enterprise data integration solutions currently available require careful choices in terms of the servers that will best accommodate the enterprise data integration software and meet the required service levels, and also require knowledgeable installation and configuration of the servers, the software, and the network connections. Challenges include the following:
- Choosing and configuring the right hardware environment for data integration
- Assembling and setting up data integration software, which is often a complex, error-prone process
- Tuning and managing the data integration server for performance
IBM Information Server Blade in a grid computing environment represents an important approach to solving all of these problems and to providing a unified view to data that is located within many business units across the enterprise. IBM Information Server Blade is a preconfigured "appliance"-style offering with components that are configured based on customer best practices and deployed in a grid computing environment to deliver both ease of setup and highly scalable performance.
Importantly, it is also extensible, allowing customers to add server nodes, thereby providing more computing resources, as needed.
This white paper was developed using information from three discrete sources: background knowledge from years of IDC research in the area of information management technology, detailed briefings and materials provided by IBM regarding Information Server and the Information Server Blade, and interviews with IBM customers who use the Information Server technology.
Specifically, IDC has relied on information gathered over the years from market analysis and technical evaluations of information management software that is used for data integration to provide overall commentary and background information regarding the problem space that Information Server Blade addresses. This is important, as the IBM offering is new and still in the early adoption stage. Detailed briefings and supporting materials from IBM have provided the information necessary to describe the Information Server Blade. The analysts also conducted a series of interviews with key users of this technology in order to understand how it is used in actual practice.
This white paper explores the problems confronting IT organizations today as they seek to bring data together from disparate sources in order to achieve better information coherence, operational efficiency, and more effective overall governance. Specifically, this paper considers the problems posed by the complexity of enterprise data integration technology in terms of its configuration and maintenance. It looks at the utility of a grid approach in providing scalability and manageability for enterprise data integration and considers how the appliance approach, with its preconfigured hardware and software, can further reduce cost and risk for customers by taking the effort and guesswork out of setting up an enterprise data integration server. This paper considers the solution offered by IBM, first with respect to the Information Server technology and then with its appliance offering, the Information Server Blade. It examines IBM’s renewed commitment to the IBM Information Server and how the blade offering, inspired by customer examples, has reduced the risk and complexity of deployment. This paper also offers concrete examples of how the IBM Information Server is delivering real value to customers.
Enterprises are increasingly challenged by business requirements that demand timely access to key information. These requirements include both decision support and better, more nimble automated processes. Yet at the same time, most large enterprises have found that as their application portfolios grow, adding to their inventory of potentially valuable business information, value-rich information is locked up with the data that is managed by individual application databases. This means that data that could potentially enable applications to run more efficiently, avoid errors, and provide business users with timely information for critical business decisions is scattered about a broken maze of unconnected application databases.
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