Database Reference
In-Depth Information
projects, discover data in its source systems, manage enterprise metadata,
and to represent that metadata in business-friendly terms via a glossary, and
to define governance policies, among other capabilities.
IBM InfoSphere Discovery
InfoSphere Discovery (Discovery) is a BIE component that automatically cre-
ates a profile for structured data sources. Discovery can determine the logical
model of a source system (for example, inferring a customer object by look-
ing at the physical data and tables). It can also infer some of the transforma-
tion or validation rules for that data source by examining the relationships of
data across fields; it can determine cross-field validation rules, allowable val-
ues, and so on. This greatly aids in the integration process by short-circuiting
the labor-intensive process of profiling and documenting existing sources of
data. IBM also has capabilities for discovering, profiling, indexing, search-
ing, and navigating unstructured Big Data, using InfoSphere Data Explorer
(formerly known as the Vivisimo Velocity Platform).
IBM InfoSphere Metadata Workbench
Shared metadata is the basis for effective data integration. By sharing a com-
mon definition of terms and data transformations at the enterprise level, an
organization can quickly translate data from one system to another. Meta-
data also documents data lineage (where the data comes from), where it's
heading, and what happened to it along the way. Data lineage metadata is
one of the most powerful forces of trust because when it's exposed to a busi-
ness user, it quickly establishes trust. InfoSphere Metadata Workbench has
capabilities for managing and sharing enterprise metadata in a structured
format. IBM InfoSphere Information Server also contains capabilities for
parsing unstructured Big Data sources and storing metadata on all sources of
Big Data with more features coming to address some of the new challenges
associated with Big Data.
IBM Business Glossary
Effective sharing of metadata relies upon a common vocabulary, one that
business and IT can agree upon. That's how Business Glossary can help. It
manages the business definition of the metadata—putting IT terms into com-
mon ones that business users can understand. This function becomes even
