IBM Upgrades InfoSphere Line With Globalization, Web Services
InfoSphere is popular among large and regional systems integrators and partner sales of the software have been growing at a rate of 25 to 30 percent, said Michael Curry, InfoSphere product marketing director.
InfoSphere products are part of IBM's broader Information Management line of software, which includes the vendor's database, content management and business intelligence products. Along with the Information Server and MDM products, the line includes IBM's data warehousing software and a number of industry-specific products.
The new version of InfoSphere Information Server offers more support for globalization, including tools and documents in eight languages. It includes multi-cultural name resolution technology to help businesses improve name matching, standardization and analysis, and for linking records in multiple IT systems. The software also provides address verification for 244 countries -- twice the number of the previous release of the software.
Expanded SOA support lets users share information across SOA projects and the product includes improved grid management capabilities and security features that support Web services standards. And users now have direct access to VSAM mainframe data files through Web services. Mainframe metadata management is easier and the software supports VSAM-to-VSAM replication and IMS change data capture.
MDM for PIM, previously known as IBM WebSphere Product Center, helps companies maintain a single view of product information throughout the organization. The MDM for PIM 6.0 release offers new task flow capabilities, new Java- and SOA-based interfaces, and enhancements that make the software easier to deploy and use.
The new release of InfoSphere Information Server will be generally available in September while MDM for PIM 6.0 will ship later this month.