New Features in the IBM InfoSphere Information Server v11.7

Timothy Valihora is a longtime management consultant who has IT experience with data warehousing and software development. An IBM Information Server expert, Timothy Valihora has intimate knowledge of new features included in the latest release of a product designed to enable unified exploration, analysis, and cleansing of data.

The IBM InfoSphere Information Server v11.7 offers new user interfaces such as IBM Information Server Enterprise Search, which allows quick retrieval of enterprise assets and exploration of their linkages through a relationship graph. At the same time, the new Information Server Governance Monitor allows data status and health to be seamlessly checked via the curation dashboard and quality dashboard.

Another new feature is full integration with the IBM Watson Knowledge Catalog, which serves as an Information Governance Catalog extension. The benefit of this is in providing knowledge workers with self-service access to a variety of insight-driven data assets.

Once glossary assets have been set up and information assets profiled, curated, and classified within the Information Governance Catalog, the Watson Knowledge Catalog is employed to display and protect these assets. From this point on, the self-service catalog is designed to enable users to seamlessly source and prepare data assets.

What’s New in IBM IIS Version 11.7

As the president of TVMG Consulting, Timothy Valihora draws on more than 24 years of experience in technical architecture, software development, and data governance and warehousing to serve clients across a broad range of industries. His particular area of specialization is the IBM InfoSphere Information Server. Over the course of his career, Timothy Valihora has performed more than 100 successful installs of IBM IIS and has developed considerable expertise in all aspects of this leading data integration platform.

IB recently released the latest design of the platform, IBM IIS Version 11.7. Some of the new features in this release include:

1. Enterprise search – Geared toward business users, this new feature offers an enriched search experience powered by a detailed knowledge graph. This graph helps users gain new awareness and understanding of enterprise data, and how such data is connected and used, through its clear and simple contextual presentation.

2. DataStage Flow Designer – This thin-client interface boosts productivity by simplifying job development and speeding job creation. DataStage Flow Designer also eliminates the need for expensive Citrix infrastructure. The feature is easy to learn through the quick tours on each dashboard.

3. Automation powered by machine learning – IBM IIS Version 11.7 deploys machine learning that continuously improves as it is used, which greatly accelerates the speed of metadata classification.

Defining Data Governance, An Increasingly Important Field

 

Data Governance
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Timothy Valihora, an IBM information server expert with more than 20 years of information technology experience, serves as president of TVMG Consulting, Inc. Through his consultancy, Timothy Valihora leverages his technical insight to advance data governance solutions initiatives.

An emerging, influential field, data governance involves procedures that preserve the quality of data as it passes through the various systems, institutions, and processes that encompass the data lifecycle. Data governance might involve, for example, setting parameters within an organization so it’s clear who has the authority to access what data under what particular circumstances.

Given the increasingly central role data plays in the public and private sectors, data governance solutions can have a profound impact on efficiency and security. Data governance can prevent privileged information from falling into the wrong hands. Moreover, it can make it easier for stakeholders to interpret and act decisively on key information.

In light of these factors, major corporations like IBM have designed products to help customers achieve data governance goals. For instance, IBM’s Information Governance Catalog, a web-based analytic tool, offers users easy access to metrics that aid them in understanding how data flows through their organizations.

IT Consultant One of Many Software Developers with Affinity for Music

 

Music
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The president of TVMG Consulting, Timothy Valihora has a passion for his work in technical architecture, data warehousing, and software development, fields related to his math and computer science studies at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. Like many software developers, Timothy Valihora also has a passion for music, which he pursues as an avid player of Takamine, Signature, Jackson, and PRS guitars.

Blogs for companies specializing in coding and software development have noted the affinity of coders for music. Musicians trained to read and write musical scores can transfer that ability to writing code, suggests Gaslight blogger Merilee Luke-Ebbeler in her blog post “Why Are So Many Software Developers Also Musicians?” The post appears in the company blog for Gaslight, a software development company that also provides in-person and online training.

Ms. Luke-Ebbeler likens printed musical notes to lines of code, where symbols on a page are interpreted and performed as music, and symbols in code are interpreted to perform myriad online tasks.

She compares musical instruments and peripheral devices, such as amps, mixers, and mutes, to computer hardware. Familiarity with the former may ease proficiency with the latter, she suggests. The ease with which musicians can transfer their skills to programming has been known to IT recruiters for years, she notes, citing an IBM ad from 1956 that targeted music majors for careers in programming.

Nowadays, musicians come to coding out of necessity, says Code Fellows blogger Lauren Sauser. In her blog post, “Music Meets Code: How a Musician’s Background Translates to a Career in Tech,” Ms. Sauser notes that software has become an essential tool in the work that most musicians do. This includes recording, mastering (adjusting and combining individual tracks), and distributing music online.

An online coding academy, Code Fellows has provided training to a number of musicians, some with advanced degrees in music. Training prepared musicians to expand their careers, for example, in audio programming, while also allowing them to explore the uses of code in musical composition.

The Benefits of IBM Information Governance Catalog

IBM Information Governance Catalog
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A graduate of Carleton University, Timothy Paul Valihora studied math, commerce, film, and computer science. He leverages his training to lead TVMG Consulting, Inc., as it’s current president. An IBM Information Server certified consultant, Timothy Valihora maintains an interest in a diverse array of IT topics, including IBM Information Governance Catalog (IGC.)

IBM Information Governance Catalog helps organizations establish a consistent data governance program that dictates how data should be structured and stored. The Catalog also helps businesses glean useful information from their data – which can then used to feed major initiatives such as Master Data Management (MDM), lifecycle management, big data integration – as well as security and privacy projects.

Further, IBM Information Governance Catalog helps businesses establish a common vocabulary and understand how their various types of data are connected across the organization. The Catalog also helps cut back on technical training by giving team members a strong understanding of their business’s information and what it means as well as how the business uses the information.

In terms of leading-edge Data Governance – Mr. Valihora’s most recent specialization in IGC includes the following expertise:

• Over 120 Successful installs of IIS
• Installation and configuration of IBM Business Process Manager (BPM) for use as a “Stewardship Center” with IIS v11.5 IGC
• Coding of over 6600 DataStage and QualityStage jobs
• Expert in SMP, GRID/MPP IIS topoligies – High Availability, Clustering, Mirroring…
• Open IGC (bundle.zip) definitions of technical information assets
• IMAM scripting via imam.sh
• ISTOOLS scripting via Istools.sh
• Programming of over 200 DataStage jobs which utilize the IIS REST API (query, create, modify, map and delete Information Assets in IGC.)
• Coding of multiple IIS Service Oriented Architecture (ISD) “Real-Time” Jobs (i.e. exposing the functionality of DS/QS jobs as a web service)
• ESSBASE PACK for DataStage installs, configuration and programming
• Information Analyzer – Workbench and Think Client (including Data Rules and Data Quality Scoring)
• IisAdmin.sh scripting for managing and fine tuning IIS Installations for scalability
• Dsjob scripting with integration to CA7 and Control-M etc.
• IBM Platform Load Sharing Facility (LSF), Sun Grid Engine (SGE) integration with the Grid Toolkit for DataStage
• Operations Console (DSODB) implementations (DSAppWatcher.sh)
• Flow-Unit.xml document creation via DataStage jobs (define accurate Data Lineage reports for Open IGC Objects.)
• MetaDex Implementations (reverse engineer stored procedures for Data Lineage reporting)
• Expertise in the IIS Hadoop, Hive, Amazon S3 Connectors
• ODBC Connectivity

Mr. Valihora is considered one of the foremost experts in IIS in North America with over 18 years of full-time sustained consulting for IBM Software Group (SWG) – Ascential Software Inc. – amongst other premier consulting companies such as Time well Inc., Stream Integration and Prolifics Inc.

When out of the office Mr. Valihora enjoys fishing, guitar, golf and tennis.

Addressing the Data Governance Challenges of the Internet of Things

Data Governance
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Timothy Valihora draws on over two decades of experience in data governance, data warehousing, data conversions, and additional business IT solutions in his role as president of TVMG consulting. Timothy Valihora possesses an extensive knowledge of the full IBM InfoSphere product suite, and he has developed and implemented big data solutions for major firms including Wal-Mart, Merck, Vanguard and Southern California Edison.

The rapidly expanding internet of things (IoT) has had a significant impact on the data governance sector. As more and more sensor-embedded products, ranging from smart cars to remote health monitoring devices, generate and transmit a larger volume of data, companies face a greater challenge in making this data both accessible and secure.

Many companies have sought to solve the logistical and compliance solutions associated with IoT data management by implementing a subscription fee for IoT data access. However, this expense can often dissuade customers from purchasing IoT products or prompt them to drop the service after an introductory free trial period.

Companies such as microshare.io have begun to provide potential solutions to IoT data governance roadblocks. By providing a scalable platform for IoT data management, microshare is allowing firms to exercise customizable control over their information, sell it to outside parties, and in turn provide it to customers for free. Services such as microshare’s could have a significant impact on the future of both IoT and data governance, as they allow firms to balance information privacy, security, and legal compliance with a level of accessibility that respects the vast potential of the IoT.

IBM’s Information Governance Catalog

IBM
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With over two decades of active experience as a technical architect, Timothy Valihora provides a broad range of skills in the information technology space. One of Timothy Valihora’s areas of expertise is in the utilization of the IBM Information Governance Catalog (IGC). IGC was introduced at IBM InfoSphere Information Server (IIS) v11.1 and is essentially a re-worked offering of “Business Glossary” and the former “MetaData Workbench” products.

IGC offers organizations a means of managing and comprehending their information. It enables companies of any size to store and manage their valuable data assets in a centralized system created for the purpose.

The key components of IGC include Business Glossary (used to define a corporate ‘vocabulary’ of categories, terms, policies and rules) and Information Assets (technical objects generally loaded via IBM MetaData Asset Manager – or IMAM) which can then be mapped to terms within Business Glossary.

Tim Valihora has extensive experience in assisting companies to utilize IGC to i) define their business and technical metadata in the glossary, ii) establish data governance policies which can be achieved through establishing and enforcing rules, iii) establishing responsibility (ownership) of information assets through stewardship – and iv) linking business metadata to technical metadata.

In addition Mr. Valihora is an expert at “Open IGC” which involves creation of a custom asset bundle within IGC (these assets are generally objects that a company would like to define but are not able to come into the governance catalog via one of the available connectors within IMAM.)

Open IGC relies upon calling the IGC Rest API for both querying and creating new custom content. Ideally DataStage jobs are used for this purpose and Tim Valihora has extensive experience writing such programs which utilize the Hierarchical Data stage – that includes REST functionality which is idea for both JSON and XLM calls to the REST API.

Using the Glossary Development component – governance policies, rules, categories, terms, labels, and the inclusive data hierarchy setup are established and can be manually customized via custom attributes. In addition, the import wizard of the Information Governance Catalog allows for the uncomplicated import of existing categories, labels, governance, and rules.

Those who have access to the catalog are users who have designated security and workflow roles. Access based on specified roles guarantees that only authorized users can access, create, and manipulate data assets assigned to them.

Avoiding Data Governance Pitfalls

Data Governance Pitfalls
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Timothy Valihora draws on over 20 years of experience in technical architecture to develop and implement a wide range of data management solutions. Skilled in the use of software suites including IBM InfoSphere, IBM WebSphere, Oracle, and Cognos, Timothy Valihora possesses extensive knowledge in the area of data governance.

As businesses develop strategies to manage an ever-increasing volume of data, new regulations continue to define the standards that they must meet in keeping recent, relevant, and accurate records. As noted by Nicola Askham of ITProPortal, there are a number of simple mistakes that organizations should strive to avoid when implementing data governance strategies.

First and foremost, data governance should be a collective effort. While IT professionals will often have the vision and expertise to drive successful data management overhauls, the actual quality of a business’ data will not improve without new considerations at the point of entry. Furthermore, a business should view data governance as a company-wide operational shift rather than a temporary project. Simply consolidating data governance into a few items on a checklist likely will not generate the level of commitment needed from the entire organization to successfully manage its information.

The same holds true when data governance efforts are the result of regulatory pressure rather than internal innovation. Striving to comprehensively improve the company’s data governance rather than merely meeting the regulator’s minimum requirements will help to lessen the organization’s long-term workload by implementing efficient, lasting data governance protocols.

Understanding MPP Systems

Massively Parallel Processing
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Timothy Valihora is a technical architect experienced in various data management aspects including data integration and data warehousing. Timothy Valihora also prepossess a deep understanding of Massively Parallel Processing (MPP).

Massively Parallel Processing, or MPP, is a process by which multiple processors, or separate computers, perform different functions on a program simultaneously. Devices communicate via an interconnect arrangement that enables messages to be sent seamlessly from one processor or computer to the next. A step up from Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP), devices on an MPP system each contain an individual copy of the operating system and applications, as well as individual memory.

An MPP system is ideal for data warehousing scenarios, where multiple devices may need to communicate in order to access large amounts of data for businesses. MPP is initially complicated to set up because it entails a large amount of time and thought to create optimal system functionality. However, once a system is in place, it allows on-location users and remote users to access information more effectivity and efficiently.

What is the IBM Information Governance Catalog?

With a background in utilizing the IBM Information Governance Catalog (IGC), Timothy Valihora specializes in Data Warehousing and Data Conversions. Specifically, at TVMG Consulting Inc., Timothy Valihora focuses on the architecture, design, implementation and programming of technical systems.

The IBM Information Governance Catalog is a streamlined way for organizations to manage their information technology (IT). With the growing dependence of small and large businesses alike on IT, the proper management of information and systems is paramount to business maintenance and growth.

To that end, the IBM Information Governance Catalog provides software that allows users to manage and understand assets utilized by their company, as well as set governance practices around this information. Utilization of the IGC can allow companies to manage projects, especially those heavy on IT usage, more efficiently, since individuals can easily access project information simultaneously. Use of IGC allows for improved handling of information integration, security issues, and privacy issues. Companies can also note effects of changes to information management with lineage reports and analysis available in the IGC.