| Architects, project planners, and sponsors are always dealing with multiple technologies, conflicting techniques, and competing business agendas. This combination of issues gives rise to many challenges facing business intelligence (BI) and data warehouse (DW) initiatives. The question you need to ask yourself is this: “Do I have the information needed to make the right decisions about what technology and technique to use in order to address a business requirement at hand?”
We can certainly label the technologies into big classes like data acquisition software, data management software, data access software, and even hardware. But these classes often mislead the decision maker into thinking the choices are simple, when in fact the technology offered under any one of the classes can be overwhelming, with a confusing array of product features and functionality. The myriad of choices is only exacerbated when you add the notion of technique to the decision-making process.
The numerous choices created by the combination of technologies and techniques leave many decision makers looking like a deer caught in the headlights.
This book helps you answer these types of questions within the domain of IBM technology, which in itself is considerable. IBM offers a broad array of mature technologies designed to support enterprise-level BI environments and warehouse initiatives. From SMP and MPP technical architectures to DB2 Universal Database and DB2 OLAP Server data management technology to Intelligent Miner and Spatial Extender, IBM’s suite of products are the pylons necessary on which to build your BI environments and establish your enterprise warehousing needs. |
