For those of you planning to attend this year’s Information on Demand (IOD) conference in Las Vegas, starting November 3rd, please join us for Frank Fillmore’s session, IPT-2150-B, “IBM Data Retrieval Technologies: RDBMS, BLU, IBM Netezza, and Hadoop“.  The session is scheduled for Tuesday, November 5th, from 1:45-2:45pm.

The session abstract is below.  In the session Frank will share his experience with IBM’s solutions to help determine which is best to meet your organization’s unique needs.

Abstract:  IBM offers four distinct data retrieval technologies: the traditional RDBMS, which primarily relies on indexes to speed access; the new BLU Acceleration columnar compression database; IBM PureData System for Analytics (IBM Netezza), which deploys racks of Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) processors to parse the data; and IBM InfoSphere BigInsights, which is the IBM distribution of Hadoop. Choices are good to have, but how do you choose which technology to apply to a particular business use case? In this session, you learn how these techniques differ, including their relative strengths and weaknesses, to help you make an informed choice.

A bit of self-promotion – my apologies!

Crysta Anderson and David Pittman of the Information Management Social Media team are doing a range of activities to promote interaction at IOD this year.  One of which is hosting a guest blog at www.ibmiodblog.com.

I submitted a post and it’s on the site today!  A bit fluffy compared to the other posts, but if you are looking for some great recommendations from other conference attendees, I suggest you read through some of the posts.  There are some great ideas and suggestions.

And check out my post, too:  http://www.ibmiodblog.com/the-six-days-and-treats-of-iod/

If you haven’t registered for this year’s Information on Demand (IOD) conference yet, Friday is the last day for the $300 early bird discount.  To register go to IOD. 

One note on this year’s conference:  I heard a rumor that certification testing would not be offered at this year’s conference.  I called the registration folks earlier today and was told that there WILL be testing available, but that the website with the testing details won’t be up for 3 to 5 more days.  Hmmmm….

The Fillmore Group will be hosting three sessions of what we are calling, “DB2 101” – sessions that provide an executive overview of the IBM Information Management product portfolio, one each month, in February, March and April.  We have selected three restaurants close to our Baltimore headquarters – 2 in Baltimore and 1 in Columbia, Maryland (about halfway between Baltimore and Washington, DC).  The purpose of each session is to bring attendees up to date on IBM’s Information Management product portfolio (an expanding target), and strategy. Read More…

I had intended to do this earlier, but catch-up from being away and the sheer volume of follow-up items after the conference have just permitted me to pen this summary.

Rob Thomas, IBM VP of Information Management Business Development, said that Information On Demand (IOD) 2010 – with over 10,000 attendees – was not only the largest IOD, but probably the largest IBM conference ever.  If you tried to get a Mandalay Bay elevator as sessions were ending, you won’t argue.

There are a few resources for those who weren’t able to attend.  Steaming video from various sessions and perspectives can be found at:

• LiveStream
• YouTube
• ChannelDB2

I had the opportunity to contribute my views here.

My colleague, Kim May, delivered a technical survey of IBM replication technologies “Putting Data Where You Need it: The Options”.

iod-2010-2708-putting-data-where-you-need-it-the-options

I am back from IOD in Las Vegas.  It was a great conference, but clearly priced beyond the budget of many Information Management software users.  For those of you in the Mid-Atlantic area, here’s another option that will give you a better understanding of IBM’s Information Agenda and where it can benefit your organization.  If nothing else, it will help you understand the products subgroups -Optim-InfoSphere-Filenet-Cognos-Data Servers.

The session is titled, “Unlocking the Business Value of Information“, and will be held Tuesday, November 17th at the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel in DC.  It’s *free* but you must register on the IBM site here.    Hope I will see you.