IBM Releases Tools To Boost Data Warehouse PerformanceIBM Releases Tools To Boost Data Warehouse Performance

IBM on Wednesday introduced a set of tools for improving data warehouse performance as companies expand the use of business intelligence across an increasing number of applications in an organization.

The DB2 Warehouse Performance Management Suite is an add-on to IBM's DB2 database management system. The new suite leverages the workload management features in the recently released DB2 Warehouse 9.5.

The warehouse performance suite addresses the increasing workload of data warehouses, which are storing greater amounts of data for business intelligence applications. BI is among the fastest growing software categories as companies look to deliver reports and analytics to more employees. Once used almost exclusively by business analysts and upper-level executives, BI is being used more broadly by mid-management and other employees, such as customer service reps and sales and marketing people.

With an increasing number of BI applications hitting data warehouses, better performance tools are needed. IBM's latest suite analyzes the underlying system resources of a DB2 Warehouse, and then balances those resources with the incoming data requests. Prioritized applications get information before systems performing tasks which need a less immediate response.

In addition, IBM said it has partnered with Appfluent Technology to distribute the latter company's monitoring and workload analysis software. In essence, the partnership makes it possible for IBM to offer query monitoring and workload analysis features within DB2 Warehouse.

"The new Performance Management Suite will further enhance our dynamic warehousing initiative, providing our clients with the industry's most comprehensive tools for maximizing the performance of their data warehouse," Arvind Krishna, VP of IBM Data Services, said in a statement.

Customers of the combined Appfluent and IBM products include Ingenix, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, IBM said. More information on the Warehouse Performance Management Suite is available on IBM's Web site. Pricing was not released.

The increasing demand for business intelligence and related applications, along with consolidation in the market that has left fewer potential partners, were the driving forces behind IBM's recent decision to buy BI vendor Cognos for $5 billion. IBM announced plans for the acquisition this month.