The IBM team made another announcement and juggled product names again. Oh no! Except…this time it’s all beginning to make sense. The rationale behind the products developed and acquired by IBM is coming into focus and the picture that’s formed defines the IBM Information Management strategy.

Holly Hayes is the Program Director, Optim Solutions, at IBM, and she has a new article on Developerworks that really pulls it all together. The first paragraph is below; for the entire article go to:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/db2/library/techarticle/dm-0807hayes/

From Holly: “With the June 2009 announcements, IBM is consolidating many of its Data Studio offerings under the Optim name. The Optim portfolio will focus on realizing integrated data management with innovative delivery of application-aware solutions for managing data and data-driven applications across the lifecycle, from requirements to retirement. This overview article explains both the vision and reality of Integrated Data Management and how you — whether a data architect, developer or tester, DBA, or data steward — can use IBM solutions today to respond quickly to emerging opportunities, improve quality of service, mitigate risk, and reduce costs.”

The next scheduled Baltimore/Washington DB2 for LUW Track meeting is scheduled for Friday, June 19th at the IBM Technical Exploration Center in McLean, Virginia. Coming in from IBM’s Silicon Valley Lab to present on Data Studio are George Lapis and Anjul Bhambhri. If you will be in town, please join us. The meeting will run from 10am – 2pm; please email kim.may@thefillmoregroup.com to register.

Session 1: Integrated Data Management
This presentation will cover each of the components of Data Studio and how each fits into IBM’s data lifecycle management vision. The presentation includes an overview of the functionality included in Data Studio to support Web Services, Stored Procedures, InfoSphere Data Architect, Data Studio Administrator, Performance Expert, end-to-end monitoring, pureQuery for new and existing applications, and administration capabilities, as well as introduces some new features in the upcoming 2.2 Data Studio release.

Session 2: A Demo of the Data Studio Portfolio
This demo will cover all areas of Data Studio Portfolio which are applicable to DB2 on LUW. The presenter will use Infosphere Data Architect to reverse engineer a database, create logical and physical models, demonstrate SQL Editor and Stored Procedure debugging, will create and deploy a Web Service, create Java Beans from Data Objects, and explore DBA functionality. Attendees will be shown how they can monitor performance with Performance Expert and how the Extended Insight feature helps with end-to-end problem determination.

Presenting will be George Lapis, a technical manager at IBM’s Silicon Valley Lab. He has worked in database software for more than 30 years. For the past several years George led the compiler development team at IBM’s Silicon Valley Lab, working on SQL, XML, and XQuery for DB2, as his primary expertise is in compiler technology and implementation. Currently he is working as an architect with the Data Studio enablement team. George was a member of the R* and Starburst research projects at IBM’s Almaden Research Center.

Co-presenting with George is Anjul Bhambhri, Director of Development for Database Tools at IBM. Anjul is a 20-year veteran of the database industry. Anjul spearheaded the development of XML capabilities in IBM’s database offerings. Prior to her role at IBM, she held various engineering and management positions at Sybase and Informix. Anjul holds a degree in Electrical Engineering.

2009 Integrated Data Management

We were honored to have Curt Cotner join us in Baltimore for a customer luncheon in early April. Curt presented on IBM’s 2009 strategy and impressed everyone in the room. Curt generously sent me a copy of the presentation the next day, and I’ve been back and forth with our hosting company trying to figure out how to enable sharing a file of this size. It’s working now, so I want to share it.

It’s not only a big file – there are some huge ideas and concepts. Please review it when you get a chance – I hope you get the same “wow!” we got during the live presentation back in April.

Two new articles and a great demo –

Oops! Restoring your Database with Data Studio Administrator
New capabilities in IBM Data Studio Administrator enable point-in-time recovery
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/library/techarticle/dm-0904datastudiorecovery/
by Sailaja Bandlamoori and Tawanna Harris
As a DBA, it is crucial that you perform regularly scheduled database system backups as part of your backup and recovery strategy. In the event of an application or hardware failure, you can use these backups to restore your database. This article follows a day in the life scenario for a DBA named Erik, who works at a fictitious company. On this particular day, problems arise when Erik discovers that bad application logic has deleted rows from multiple tables of the company’s GOSALES database. However, because Erik used Data Studio Administrator 2.1 to back up the database, he is able to restore the database to its original state.

Migrating from CA ERWIN to InfoSphere Data Architect
by Norma Mullin
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/library/long/dm-0904erwin2infosphere/
If you’ve had experience with CA ERwin Data Modeler and now are starting to learn InfoSphere™ Data Architect, this paper will speed up your model migration process and ease your learning process of the new environment. You will learn the differences between the two design environments, and you’ll also learn a set of best practices for using features of InfoSphere Data Architect that will put you on the fast track of working productively in InfoSphere Data Architect.

And, by the way, if you haven’t seen the InfoSphere Data Architect demo, you really should check it out:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/offers/lp/demos/summary/im-idaintro.html

We mentioned a few weeks back that Bryan Smith, from the IBM Data Studio team, is working with a group of developers and marketing folks on IBM’s Data Studio go-to-market strategy.  Based on the quality of feedback Bryan received from the user community after his last request, he’s back for more.  If you can spare them time, please help.

Here is what he has posted on this blog:

“I need your help again. Read More…

Ron Reuben, IBM’s Data Studio “Enabling Architect”, Frank and I had a discussion a couple weeks ago about developing some specific offerings around Data Studio that will introduce the product – and provide immediate benefit – to existing DB2 customers.  We came up with three offerings and sent them to Ron; this Friday we are scheduled to circle back with him and discuss how these were welcomed by his team.  These ideas reflect, naturally, where we see Data Studio’s capabilities providing the most immediate impact to customers we’ve worked with.  These are ideas – not limitations!

1.  Data Studio Administration Console (DSAC) is a free download with many capabilities, and can be used extensively for Q-Replication real-time monitoring.  We suggested contacting all current Q-Replication customers and offering assistance with the implementation of DSAC.  This should take only a few days and will introduce Q-Rep customers to the Data Studio product family and get them familiar with the look-and-feel of the components.  For more information on DSAC, check out:  http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27007070

2.  Data Studio Developer (DSD) and pureQuery, which, by the way, was recently enhanced with v2.1 last week.  Read More…