Chapter 5. Service delivery model for virtualized business intelligence
5.3 Cloud services catalog using InfoSphere Warehouse
services catalog
. This services catalog itemizes the types of services that the cloud can offer and establishes delivery procedures. To make it easier tonavigate and find BI services, you can organize the catalog into the following key areas:
Development and testing on a PaaS model to consume the following services: – Data modeling
– Data warehousing – ETL development
– Business Intelligence development
Production on a SaaS model to consume the following services: – ELT running
– Data warehousing – Business intelligence – Performance management
5.3.1 Services catalog in an InfoSphere Warehouse virtualized
environment
Figure 5-19 shows the type of services that you can deliver on PaaS and SaaS models using InfoSphere Warehouse and InfoSphere Warehouse companion solutions.
Figure 5-19 Types of services a virtualized BI cloud using InfoSphere Warehouse can deliver
The cloud consumer can access virtual desktops with the most familiar operating system, whether that is the Linux or Windows operating system. This virtual desktop can have an installation of Design Studio to provide the BI capabilities to cloud users. The cloud provider sets up the appropriate VMs to run the services and provide access details.
The following example service catalog illustrates the capabilities that InfoSphere Warehouse can provide within a virtualized environment:
Development and testing services (PaaS)
Your view and definition of business analytics varies from the view of other people in the enterprise depending upon your role within the enterprise. If your position requires you to work with getting the data in shape for BI, the issues you face differ from those of the individuals trying to use the data that you have created.
BI success is measured in business impact and by the improvements in critical areas that can be attributed to its development and customization. Table 5-2 is an example of the development and testing services that you can provide to the cloud consumers so that they can create customized
applications for BI.
Table 5-2 Development and testing services catalog using InfoSphere Warehouse
Service Service description Service technology
Data modeling Design data models to meet specific business analytics requirements.
Includes Design Studio access.
Data warehouse (DevTest) Store data into a DB2 database ready for development and testing.
Includes Data Studio and user database access to store data on an InfoSphere Warehouse database server environment.
ETL development Develop SQL extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) data flows for development and testing.
Includes Design Studio and SQL execution database access for basic ETL processing on an InfoSphere Warehouse database server environment.
OLAP modeling Develop OLAP metadata objects like cube models, measures, dimensions, hierarchies, level and cubes. You can validate OLAP modeling, create role security models, and run the optimization advisor.
Includes Design Studio and predefined star schemas access stored on an InfoSphere Warehouse database server.
Production services (SaaS)
Cloud services for SaaS are built and standardized so that cloud consumers can subscribe from a self-service catalog, pay-per-use, and consume services over the Internet using web front-end tools. SaaS users have access only to applications that are hosted over the SaaS infrastructure. They are not allowed to make changes to the applications, unless they have access to development tools from a PaaS infrastructure.
Data mining modeling Develop mining flows for modeling, scoring, and
visualizing data mining models, such as Clustering,
Associations, Sequential Rules, Classification, Time Series Forecasting, and Regression.
Includes Design Studio and an SQL execution database enabled for mining access stored on an InfoSphere Warehouse database server.
Unstructured text modeling Develop mining flows for text analysis such as dictionary lookup, regular expressions, and frequent terms.
Includes Design Studio and an SQL execution database enabled for mining access stored on an InfoSphere Warehouse database server.
Model packages publishing Develop Cognos packages that can be consumed by Cognos Connection.
Includes Cognos Framework Manager access and Cognos Business Intelligence environment.
Data Warehouse and BI application testing
Test the models created in Design Studio and Cognos Framework Manager.
Includes administration tools (Administration Console and Cognos Connection portal) access on an InfoSphere Warehouse application server environment and a Cognos Business Intelligence environment.
Table 5-3 is an example of the production services that you can provide to cloud consumers to create and run applications for BI.
Table 5-3 Production services catalog using InfoSphere Warehouse
Service Service description Service technology
Data warehouse (Production) Store data into a DB2 database ready for production reporting and analysis. Monitor database health and availability, and run jobs against the database, such as SQL, DB2 CLP, and
executable or shell scripts.
Includes Data Studio Web Console access and an InfoSphere Warehouse
database server environment to store the user database and metadata repository to store control access and user privileges.
ETL processing Connect to data sources and run predefined InfoSphere
Warehouse applications with control flows to extract, transform, and load (ETL) data into the data warehouse. Execute control flows for initial data load and schedule loads when needed to update warehouse data.
Includes Administration Console access, an InfoSphere
Warehouse database server tier component to store an SQL Execution Database, and an InfoSphere Warehouse
metadata database for basic ETL processing.
ETL advanced processing Connect to DataStage jobs and run them along with InfoSphere Warehouse applications.
Includes Administration Console access, predefined DataStage jobs from DataStage server, and an InfoSphere Warehouse application server to store a metadata control database for advanced ETL processing.
Production BI administration Create cube servers that can support data cubes ready for multidimensional analysis (MDX), administer mining models, deploy predefined InfoSphere Warehouse
applications, and publish Cognos packages.
Includes Administration Console and Cognos Administration access, an InfoSphere
Warehouse database server to store the user database, and the InfoSphere Warehouse control database to store the predefined cube models and databases enabled for mining.
Ad-hoc reporting Access self-service reporting to create ad-hoc reports and quickly get answers to business questions.
Includes Query Studio access, predefined Cognos Packages, and a connection to a DB2 warehouse database.
For more information about InfoSphere Warehouse capabilities, see InfoSphere
Warehouse: A Robust Infrastructure for Business Intelligence, SG24-7813.
Analytical reporting Perform multidimensional exploration with the capability to drill down, drill up, and slice and dice data.
Includes Analysis Studio access, a Cognos package, and a connection to InfoSphere Warehouse database server and InfoSphere Warehouse
application server to access cubing services.
Advanced reporting Access professional authoring environment with great flexibility, to create professional looking reports.
Includes Report Studio access, a predefined Cognos package, and a connection to an InfoSphere Warehouse database server.
Assembling reporting Assemble content on a dashboard with reports in an intuitive authoring experience. Allows the user to drag objects into the report authoring window.
Includes Business Insight access, predefined Cognos reports, and a connection to an InfoSphere Warehouse database server.
Mobile reporting Access Cognos content from a mobile device.
Includes the mobile applications and predefined Cognos reports and Cognos Mobile server.
Data warehouse performance management
Improve database and application performance, and view reports for data capacity planning and growth.
Includes a web tool (Optim Performance Manager), a DB2 database repository to store historical performance metrics, and tracking information for a data warehouse.
Data warehouse advanced performance management
Delivers end-to-end database and application monitoring for Java and IBM DB2 Call Level Interface applications, with configurations for IBM Cognos, IBM InfoSphere DataStage, and IBM InfoSphere SQL Warehouse applications.
Includes Optim Performance Manager extended edition access, DB2 database repository to store historical performance metrics, and tracking information.