Wherever is an IT need, there is IBM with its leading in the market products. Data warehousing market isn't any different - that's a niche which InfoSphere Warehouse seems to be one of the most meaningful solutions in.

Formerly, information was treated only like an addition to all these important things which no business could survive without. Nowadays, information is considered one of the most meaningful values. There are special systems created just for information management, thereupon it's not surprising that also the most popular vendors have focused on the aspect. The result of such focus is InfoShpere Warehouse by IBM, the state-of-art data warehouse solution which provides all the capabilities which are anyhow connected with data and focused on turning the information into noticeable return.

InfoSphere Warehouse Departmental Base Edition (called shortly DB2) is an edition prepared for uses in medium-sized business organizations and departments. Both these areas, even though illusorily hardly connected, have a lot in common, especially in case of warehousing needs, therefore the DB2 edition address their requirements very well. The fact that it's called "base" does not mean that its functionalities are anyhow restrained. It offers enough much in areas of performance, sophisticated analytics, and flexibility. And works within two environments - Microsoft Windows and Linux.

Departmental Base Edition in short

There are different releases and versions of IBM InfoSphere Warehouse currently accessible in the market. Departmental Base Edition is only one of them, but there are only few points which the editions differ in. Performance of DB2 (the title edition) is ensured with Massively Parallel Processing architecture. Additionally, it's supplied with multidimensional clustering and materialized query tables - these all together ensure that business user don't need to wait any longer than it's absolutely indispensable to get the results of their queries.

Cubing Services with in database analytics are responsible for keeping an eye on the timeliness of data which is used for analytics. As a consequence, users always are provided with data as fresh as possible.

Finally, a lot of attention has been paid to edition's flexibility. What it resulted in is simplified development process which lasts shorter and turns easier. Simultaneously, all the tools that are included in InfoSphere Warehouse DB2 are prepared for working on different and extremely large sources of data at once. That's another step further into letting the solution follow and - finally - take over the business.

IBM InfoSphere Warehouse DB2 in details

The aspect of performance is crucial to every data warehouse, regardless actually of the version it is currently provided in. Thereupon, InfoSphere Warehouse includes:

• MPP capabilities. Massively Parallel Processing is a significant step in performance boosting direction. With MPP, the system works within different servers and CPUs at the same time what results in shortening the time needed for every operation. Once different types of data are processed at the same time, it's possible to process more of them in a shorter time.
• Partitioning and table partitioning capabilities which can be used for slicing the largest amounts of data into different, separate elements. The result is processing that lasts shorter.
• Compression system. Even though today's hard disk have almost unrestrained space which is larger and larger every day, loading large amounts of data often is time consuming. Thereupon, IBM InfoSphere Warehouse is supplied with quite an efficient system for data compression which allows to save even up to more than 80 percent of disk space. That's meaningful!
• MDC capabilities. The multidimensional clustering is another method for improving the warehouse performance.
• Aggregation options. They are surprisingly useful in case of the tasks which should often be repeated. That's quite a common in today's business to ask the same questions to check whether the situation - for instance, of course - changes or not. Aggregation capabilities facilitate this process.
• Performance Management tool. The PM tool is provided to allow users control the performance of the warehouse, quickly identify any problems and solve them as soon as possible. Additionally, PM tool works not only within the warehouse itself, but also within all collateral applications.

Inseparable part of data warehousing is data analytics. IBM InfoSphere Warehouse in its Departmental Base Edition is prepared for:

• Online Analytic Processing which is one of the standards in data analytics which results in multidimensional access to analyzed data.
• Strengthened Data Mining which is an addition to default data mining capabilities, including associating, clustering, classifying, and predicting).
• Seamless integration to Cognos Business Intelligence what results in possibility to use the capabilities of Cognos within their data warehouse.
• Rapid integration of numerous separate information sources with an efficient mash-up platform.
• providing geographical information. GeoSpatial ensures that users are provided with information about weather, defense, and other conditions. What it results in is gathering the world of business as a set of useful and real information rather than a flat map of separate locations.

Almost every organization is focused on constant evolving and business growth. Thereupon, they look for the solutions which are easily flexible and scalable. What IBM InfoSphere Warehouse ensure are:

• Terabyte pricing which helps in reducing the cost of innovations with significant data compression.
• Virtual image which helps accelerating and facilitating the deployment process by enabling a virtual image for DB2 on Intel or AMD originated platforms.
• Efficient protection of data impacts the security. For instance, by giving each types of users appropriate levels of access.
• Autonomics - the warehouse can be administrated automatically what increases the efficiency and reduces the cost.
• High availability, high throughput, and continuity.
• Integration of different content and data sources with InfoSphere Federation Server technology.
• Support for XML files. The built in technology ensures no problem with storing, processing, and XML data management.
• SQL compatibility what results in no problems with implementing Oracle and Sybase features in the data warehouse by IBM.
• Graphical user interface which can be used for design and modeling.
• Database management support with included Optim Database Administrator - the tool which helps reducing the risk of any errors occurring while introducing complex changes to databases.

The ones above are the things which every user praise. In some cases, though, he doesn't even realize they're included, but uses them and consider indispensable. But the fact is that IBM InfoSphere Warehouse, regardless actually of the edition it's provided in, is a comprehensive data warehousing solution which advantages make it definitely a worth considering choice.

IBM InfoSphere Warehouse resources

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/infosphere/warehouse/departmental-base.html - there is quite a lot of information about Departmental Base edition of InfoSphere Warehouse on the IBM website. The chosen link leads to general information about the edition, nonetheless there also are hyperlinks attached which lead to other subpages. Especially, one should check the "Learn more" section where features and benefits are listed and explain as well as system requirements. Additionally, there (http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/infosphere/warehouse/edition-comparison.html) is also a comparison of the solution all editions so that one could quickly discover the difference between each and every of them.

https://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/iwm/web/signup.do?source=sw-infomgt&S_PKG=dwwp20&S_CMP=web_ibm_im_iis-dwa_fmd - there is quite an interesting white paper hidden behind the link, nonetheless to access it a registration is needed. It doesn't take a lot of time but definitely is worth considering - the white paper called IBM DB2 9.7 and Smart Analytics Systems explains the complexity of IBM Infosphere Warehouse from the data warehousing needs point of view.

http://www.efytimes.com/e1/fullnews.asp?edid=34250 - the newer a release is, the more it is probable that it meets customers' requirements well enough. The article behind the link is devoted to the newest release of IBM InfoSphere Warehouse with a special attention paid to its Departmental Base edition. However, the article was published on May 2, 2009, therefore it's written from a point of view of the one who is still looking forward to testing the new software.