***************************************** *** The IBM Data Replication Solution *** ***************************************** Data on the go for businesses on the move MEETING THE CHALLENGES The IBM* Data Replication solution is designed to help you meet the growing demands for data across your enterprise by delivering the right data in the right format into the right hands at the right time. In general, replication systems can be used for various kinds of application support, including -- * Sharing host data with client/server applications -- for example, to put data where business transactions occur. * Building decision support systems that enhance the company's decision-making effectiveness and competitive advantage. * Maintaining backup systems that improve data availability. Various applications impose various requirements on a replication system, but most replication needs fall into one of two general types: those that support operational applications, such as downsized applications; and those that support informational applications, such as executive information systems. Many client/server applications require replication features which are a blend of these two general areas. IBM's suite of replication products address the key operational, informational, and administrative requirements of data replication. IBM's Data Replication solution supports your operational applications by -- * Replicating key business data from production systems into client/server environments. * Replicating only the data required -- for example, subsetting by region or branch. * Restructuring data as required for new applications. * Allowing you to control the currency between source and target data to meet your application needs from near real-time replication to point-in-time copies ("snapshots"). The IBM solution supports your informational applications by -- * Replicating key business data from production systems into informational databases. * Improving data availability and access performance by moving data to the server most convenient for each user. * Enhancing data to improve its usefulness. * Supporting both point-in-time copies and data histories for trend analysis. Furthermore, IBM's Data Replication solution supports a range of operating environments, from mainframes to LANs to laptops, both SNA and TCP/IP networks, and data dissemination (one-to-many) and data consolidation (many-to-one) models for the flexibility you need when implementing a distributed environment. LEVERAGING YOUR CURRENT ASSETS The IBM Data Replication solution allows you to leverage your existing data assets across new applications. That means you can fuel new client/server applications by bringing legacy data from IMS* Database Manager (IMS DB) databases, VSAM datasets, DB2* for MVS databases, and flat files to a variety of client/server platforms. REPLICATION MADE EFFICIENT Because the source data for replication is likely to be your production system, minimizing the impact to production applications and transaction performance is of critical importance. IBM's replication design minimizes the impact to transaction performance by capturing changes from the log instead of competing with transactions for access to production tables or adding path length to production transactions. IBM's replication design also provides optimizations to minimize network traffic. Data reduction can be carried out at the source site, so only the data necessary flows over the network. For example, aggregations can be performed at the source and hot spot activity on the source system can be eliminated at the target by copying only the last change to occur rather than every change that occurred. MAKING DATA MEANINGFUL The IBM Data Replication solution's enhancement capabilities enable you to transform your data into its most usable and meaningful format. You can derive data from a DB2 inventory application on MVS to create a DB2 table on AIX containing the daily reduction in specific inventory items. You can summarize data to create averages, sums, minimum and maximum values in a set, and more. You can maintain data histories -- for example, you might copy weekly regional sales totals maintained on a source IMS database to DB2 LAN servers in each regional sales office to analyze business trends. You can join data across multiple tables and translate values from encoded to descriptive formats. In fact, since IBM's replication design includes a relational data staging area, you have the full power of the relational engine at your fingertips for transforming your data into meaningful information for each application, each workgroup, each individual end user. SIMPLIFYING ADMINISTRATION IBM's Data Replication solution offers user-friendly interfaces that help you get up and running quickly, but also support the most complex replication environments. Graphical user interfaces (GUIs) tailored to users' particular tasks and skills make it easy to specify source-to-target mappings and enhancements to both relational and non-relational data. SQL is used for enhancing data, allowing you to leverage skills already developed in your enterprise. And initialization tasks that used to require a DBA -- like creating and loading copies -- are now automated. Existing applications continue to run without changing, re-compiling, re-binding, or re-linking. You can administer the IBM Data Replication solution from a single point of control, on a workstation that's either local to or remote from the source and target systems. A DataHub* workstation provides the administrative control point for an integrated data replication solution spanning central and distributed environments. The replication system can be changed dynamically without impact on the entire replication network. With the IBM Data Replication solution, many of the tasks associated with replication can be automated. Apply programs run automatically based on interval- and event-driven methods -- for example, you can specify that copies be made once a week, day, hour, and even minute. The IBM Data Replication solution also provides automated recovery from system and network outages. The components work independently, ensuring that failure of one component or system won't affect other components or systems. In addition, using relational tables as control tables ensures that all state data is recoverable. BUILDING ON PROVEN TECHNOLOGY IBM's Data Replication solution represents the third generation in a product suite that was born more than six years ago, when its architecture and performance were first evaluated and successfully validated by IBM customers. The replication architecture is based on individual components that interoperate to give you all the flexibility you need to customize your data replication environment. Capture components capture changes as they occur in the source and store them in a staging area. Apply components read the staging area and apply those changes to targets or copy data directly from the source in full refresh mode. Administration components provide the GUIs for defining copy requests. Each component is independent and will operate regardless of whether the other components are running. DESIGNED FOR MIXED ENVIRONMENTS IBM recognizes that many customer environments today have a mix of hardware platforms, operating system platforms, and database management systems. IBM's Data Replication solution supports these environments as follows: * IBM's architecture is built on standard SQL to leverage the database engine functions for data enhancement, network connectivity, and data security. * The data staging area architecture supports interoperability between -- - multi-vendor sources and targets - relational and non-relational formats - products from independent software vendors. * IBM replication products directly support multi-vendor sources and targets through IBM's multi-database server product, DataJoiner*. GROWING WITH YOUR BUSINESS In replication environments, scalability means much more than just the ability to run on bigger hardware. Scalability means you can run in any environment from the smallest to the largest, across many network types, with a varying number of database servers and varying amounts of data -- all with minimal impact on database, network, and personnel resources. IBM's Data Replication solution is designed for such scalability. Our customers today are using IBM technology to implement -- * Corporate data warehouses that replicate data from thousands of transactions to multi-gigabyte data stores. * Backup systems for improved data availability. * Regional support centers that replicate centralized order processing for improved customer support. * Mobile solutions where centralized data is dispersed to thousands of agents for daytime transaction processing and consolidated at night for batch processing. SPEEDING IMPLEMENTATION IBM offers Data Replication services which provide expert assistance in creating your replication environment -- from the initial planning to going live in a production environment. With Data Replication services you get: * SOLUTION PLANNING. Experienced service personnel analyze your distributed data requirements and match the solution to the business problems you need solved. Our personnel can develop the implementation plan, provide preliminary sizings, and create a "proof of value" statement to define the criteria for success. * SOLUTION DESIGN. Our solution designers can create the detailed definition of the data replication processes and schedules, and develop a roll-out plan for expanding the replication network. * APPLICATION AND DATA MIGRATION. IBM can help you convert data, port applications, and model data in addition to capacity planning and analysis and designing the system for performance. * PRODUCT INSTALLATION, CONFIGURATION, AND OPERATIONAL EVALUATION. IBM provides the skills and experience required to install successfully all of the required products and platforms and complete administrative setup. IBM can train your personnel and document your operational processes. And IBM can assist you with performance analysis and optimization. REALIZING YOUR DATA'S POTENTIAL The IBM Data Replication solution is delivered by -- * DataPropagator* Relational Version 1 * DataPropagator NonRelational Version 2 * DataRefresher* Version 1 * DataHub Version 1 * DataJoiner Version 1 Used individually or together, these products provide flexible and efficient data replication that can maximize the accessibility of reliable data for a single user, a department, a workgroup, and an entire enterprise. For more information on the member products of the IBM Data Replication solution, see the following publications: * An Introduction To DataPropagator Relational Version 1, GC26-3398 * DataPropagator NonRelational Version 2: An Introduction, GH19-5034 * DataRefresher Version 1: An Introduction, GH19-6993 * DataHub General Information Release 2, GC26-4874 * An Introduction to DataJoiner, GC26-8243 For more information, contact your IBM authorized software reseller or IBM marketing representative. (C) International Business Machines Corporation 1995 IBM United States Santa Teresa Laboratory P.O. Box 49023 San Jose, CA 95161-9023 5-95 All Rights Reserved References in this publication to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them available outside the United States. * IBM, AIX, OS/2, OS/400, DB2, DataPropagator, DataHub, DataJoiner, DataRefresher and IMS are trademarks or registered trademarks of the International Business Machines Corporation. All other product and company names used in this publication are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. GC26-8458-00