DSXchange

Hi Everyone,

I have heard rumors that the new Blueprint Director product will be a free product included in the release of IBM InfoSphere Information Server 8.5 as a part of the foundation tools. Can anyone confirm this rumor or provide comments?

Thanks,

Josh

Indeed. It is included on the media. You install it locally...only takes a half minute..... I've only just started playing with it, but it already offers a great way to get the "big picture" of what you are doing in your data integration domain. At its simplest, it's a drawing tool with arrows representing "flow" between objects of all kinds (databases, tables, processes, message queues, reports, people, etc.).

You can do things like conceptually outline your "domains" of concern (legacy systems, processes for collection and transformation, staging areas, and BI systems), and have sub-diagrams that let you drill down and illustrate more detail.

...but you can then "tie" those objects into Information Server, associating DS Jobs to a particular process icon, view all your BG Terms, associate a Table or Column to an object in the diagram, etc. That makes it like a "dashboard" since you can launch the tooling (for example, DataStage) from within your Blueprint.

The Blueprint can also be tied pretty tightly to text and even HTML organized methodology info from tools like Rational Method Composer so that your Blueprint can also lead to guidelines for "where to begin" in your project. It includes templates to get started, and of course, can be a base to "grow your own" methodologies.

Ernie

Nice, sounds a bit like Business Lineage in Metadata Workbench but with more freedom.

...sorta....except you build it, and it is (or can be) at a vastly higher level.

Thanks for the feedback Ernie, definitely appreciate the insight.

Josh

There is another new product in Information Server 8.5 - the Exception Manager for Information Analyzer. Formerly part of Discovery and now an add on licensed module for Information Analyzer data exception handling.

Nah, Exception Manager for Information Analyzer installed with Foundation Tools (8.1.2) - one of the fix packs if I recall correctly.