eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
IBMs intent to purchase Venetica Corp., which it announced on Thursday, is the latest gambit to prove that the Armonk, N.Y., company is dead serious about ruling the content integration market.
Venetica is a leader in content integration, and, as a current IBM partner, its technology already runs in IBMs DB2 Information Integrator, giving it the ability to handle both unstructured and structured data and to reach within a host of content management platforms, including those from EMC Corp.s Documentum division, FileNet Corp., Hummingbird Ltd., Interwoven Inc., Open Text Corp. and Stellent Inc.
eWEEK.com Database Editor Lisa Vaas caught up with Nelson Mattos, Distinguished Engineer for IBM in charge of information integration efforts in data management and the man whos driving force behind the acquisition, to talk about what the integration of Venetica technology will mean to IBM users.
When you say that Venetica technology will boost DB2 Information Integrators ability to handle unstructured and structured data, what do you mean, exactly? What features will it bring that are now lacking?
Today, Information Integrator cannot access the FileNet repository. It cant access Hummingbird. We rely on Venetica, which is a partner, to provide that capability. Their technology has enabled Information Integrator since the beginning of the year, and we have customers in production with DB2 Information Integrator.
The difference for our customers is they now have to buy two products; to call two product support lines; and to deploy, install and manage two different environments. Well be integrating these two capabilities a lot better, so customers have one single platform that will address those needs.
Whats it going to be like as a user of one of the content management packages to have these new capabilities? Again, What will I be able to do that I couldnt before?
If you are a customer that has, say, loan applications in FileNet or Hummingbird, and you now want to do a better job with regulatory compliance, you need to combine loans with credit rating information thats clearly in a different system, and with loan default records in a relational system, [so as to] to justify any actions youve taken in your business.
You can leverage Hummingbird capabilities and combine [all that data] to access credit ratings, loan information, etc.
[Another example would be] in the law enforcement area, where criminal records are in databases, and immigration records are in a different system. You may have files about certain cases in a content management system: Documentum or DB2 Content Manager or something else. IBM , by having Information Integrator and Veneticas capabilities, I can give law enforcement agencies the ability to combine all this information to assist in criminal investigations.
Then in the financial sector, they have a lot of financial data in relational systems. Customer data, stocks, prices or stocks, etc. Theres tremendous demand to combine the data in the relational databases with news feeds. Theyre usually persistent in a content repository. The reason they want to combine is so they can quickly analyze any news that may affect the stock value of companies, so they can better advise customers whether to buy or sell.
IBM has said that Veneticas enterprise content integration capabilities will be built into “Masala,” the next version of DB2 Information Integrator. What will Masala be able to do that Information Integrator now cant do?
Venetica has a series of extensions that are very strategic as a part of the Masala release. Masala will have enterprise search capability that will allow any human to find relevant information across the enterprise by searching with plain text. Venetica will extend the capabilities of Masala so I can find information in documents and in file maps.
Be sure to add our eWEEK.com database news feed to your RSS newsreader or My Yahoo page