IBM Unleashes Hawk and Serrano Information Integration Tools (
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IBM open-betas the fruits of its Ascential acquisition, and analysts are finally happy with the once-murky metadata story those products tell.IBM on Thursday will reveal the first fruits of its
acquisition of Ascential Software as it opens a beta for Project Hawk and Project Serrano, the two new stars of its information integration portfolio.
This covers two new products: IBM Rational Data Architect and IBM WebSphere Information Analyzer. Big Blue is also rolling out updates to four of its WebSphere Information Integration products for integrating unstructured and structured information.
Rational Data Architect is a set of tools for data modeling and database design based on structure and content discovery and mapping.
Built on the open-source Eclipse development platform, the tool provides discovery, mapping and analysis of multiple sources, which IBM is promising will simplify and automate information integration in complex environments.
Practically everybody in the Java world is supporting Eclipse, but Sun has vowed to continue to innovate around NetBeans. Click here to read more.
Ascential previously referred to the second new product, WebSphere Information Analyzer, as "Project Sorcerer."
The tool, designed for use by business and data analysts, provides end-to-end data profiling, auditing and analysis.
It shares a central repository with WebSphere DataStage and WebSphere QualityStage, allowing immediate metadata sharing and traceability across those products.
WebSphere Information Analyzer also introduces a new user interface that IBM calls "revolutionary."
Soon to be rolled out across the entire information integration platform, the new interface includes more than 100 new software inventions and features a task-driven design along with best practices to streamline processes.
It also has the ability to dynamically adapt to user interactions, offering a methodology-driven user experience.
Nelson Mattos, vice president of information integration for IBM, said that the two new products, together with updates to four other information integration offerings, will "dramatically" simplify information interaction tasks.
"Were delivering a foundation for a unified user experience," he said, "with the same interface and the same tooling, and the customer will be able to use all the components of the portfolio."
IBM is also working to deliver the foundation for a common master data infrastructure, Mattos said—one that gives customers the ability to better understand what information they have and to take advantage of it across the Information Integrator platform.
"The consequence … is a breakthrough in terms of productivity benefits for individuals who are managing the information … and who are modeling it or administering Information Integrator solutions," he said. As such, he said, IBM is delivering benefits to all levels: the business user, the application developer, the data architect and the administrator.
Next Page: Updates to other Information Integrator tools.
