The IBM data warehouse architecture

U sers of IBM's data warehouse solution represent a wide range of communities differing with respect to business activities and processes, services and products, resources and cultures, and, most important, business objectives. This diversity has motivated IBM's development of a comprehensive set of data warehouse offerings (hardware and software) and an integrated warehouse solution designed to serve a wide range of requirements—from simple query and reporting to advanced data mining. IBM is in a unique business position, since the legacy data in many enterprises is stored in files and databases managed by IBM products. Nonetheless, IBM recognizes that many organizations have supplemented these legacy systems with data management tools designed and delivered by other vendors. Therefore, the company's data warehouse architecture includes the ability to integrate data managed by multivendor offerings, as well as interfaces facilitating interoper-ability with multivendor tools. How IBM integrates its own and other vendors' tools to derive useful information for decision support.