IBM Packages Data Integration and Quality Suite as Appliance

| August 8, 2007 | Data Management | Competitive Intelligence Report

| Analyst: James Kobielus

Current Perspective: Positive
Vendor Importance: High
Market Impact: High

Event Summary

On August 6th IBM announced IBM Information Server Blade, an integrated, grid-enabled, blade server-based data integration appliance comprised of IBM blade hardware, the IBM Information Server data integration software platform, and implementation services including financing. Due for general availability in October, IBM Information Server Blade will leverage grid computing, blade computing, and virtualization technologies to support scalable, high-performance extract transform load (ETL) and data cleansing. The entry-level level configuration will have an approximate list price of $330,000 for hardware, software, and one-year maintenance, with incremental pricing at $90,000 per blade.

Analytical Summary

• Current Perspective: Positive on IBM’s announcement of the forthcoming grid-enabled, blade-based version of IBM Information Server. In rolling out IBM Information Server Blade, which will be generally available in October, the vendor is significantly advancing its comprehensive appliance strategy by packaging its best-of-breed data integration (DI) and data quality (DQ) functionality as a modular hardware/software solution for quick deployment and scalable growth.

• Vendor Importance: High to IBM, because it needs to continue differentiating its best-of-breed DI/DQ suite through continuing feature enhancements, and also through new go-to-market, packaging, and delivery approaches such as integrated hardware/software appliances, complementing and extending its recently revamped, comprehensive data warehousing (DW) appliance product family.

• Market Impact: High on the database technology and data integration markets, because IBM is the best-of-breed market-leading provider of enterprise DW, DI, and DQ solutions, and this forthcoming appliance-based version of IBM Information Server will help the vendor push deeper into the small-to-midsized business (SMB) market and also provide scalable, high-performance, low-cost, low-footprint, energy-efficient, “green” computing platforms for companies of all sizes.

Recommended Competitor Actions

• Rival DI and DQ vendors should consider implementing their solutions in appliance form factors to match the performance, scalability, flexibility, ease of deployment, and low TCO of the forthcoming IBM Information Server Blade. DI/DQ rivals that already have appliance products or strategies for DW and/or BI (e.g., Oracle, Business Objects, Cognos) should expedite development of DI/DQ solutions on those platforms. Rivals that lack any appliance strategy (i.e., everybody else) should partner with and/or acquire hardware vendors to accelerate development of such solutions.

• Appliance-based packaging addresses scalability, performance, quick deployment, and TCO, and should be as much a part of every DI/DQ vendor’s go-to-market strategy as licensed software and software-as-a-service (SaaS) subscription offerings. Rival DW appliance vendors should partner with DI and DQ software vendors to explore the possibility of developing modular, grid-based DI/DQ appliances to compete with the forthcoming IBM Information Server. In particular, Teradata, Netezza, DATAllegro, Sun/Greenplum, Dataupia, and others should partner with DI/DQ best-of-breeds (e.g., Business Objects, Informatica, SAS/DataFlux, Pitney Bowes Group 1, Harte-Hanks Trillium Software).

• Vendors of content-aware network appliances should approach IBM’s DI and DQ rivals to discuss the possibility of licensing their technology and/or co-developing appliances to compete with IBM Information Server Blade. In particular, ActivNetworks, Cast Iron Systems, Cisco, Intel, Forum Systems, Layer 7, and Solace Systems should team with DI/DQ vendors to add ETL, data cleansing, and other DW-oriented DI functionality to their product families (many of which currently focus on WAN acceleration, XML transformation and routing, and Web services security).

• IBM’s current ISV partners on its Balanced Warehouse solutions should approach the vendor to discuss the possibility of providing value-added applications and tools for IBM Information Server Blade.

Recommended End User / Customer Actions

• Customers of the current licensed-software version of IBM Information Server should greet the forthcoming appliance version as promising supplement, accelerator, and/or replacement for their existing deployments. Coming soon after the launch of IBM’s Balanced Warehouses, the new blade-based versions of IBM’s DI/DQ suite shows that the vendor is committed to rolling out low-cost, modular, scalable, grid-enabled, quick-deployment versions of its core enterprise DM offerings.

• IBM customers and prospects looking for a scalable, modular, quick-deployment DI/DQ offerings for their DW environments should begin to evaluate the forthcoming IBM Information Server Blade in earnest, and should ask the vendor to provide an evaluation beta as soon as possible, bearing in mind that the product will not become generally available till production version.

• Customers of rival DI/DQ software solutions should ask their vendors to indicate whether, when, and how they plan to release appliance-based versions of those solutions. Appliance-based deployments should figure into enterprises’ DI, DQ, and DW deployments as a key approach for scaling, virtualization, quick-deployment, and data-center consolidation.

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