Maximise the Value of your IBM Netezza Systems with SMF
Although IBM®’s Pure Data™ for Analytics / Netezza Performance Server for Cloud Pak for Data systems are incredibly fault tolerant and require far less effort to administer than a traditional RDBMS, the reality is that unforeseen hardware, software, systemic, or environmental problems can still occur at any time, and it is not cost effective for businesses to pay for dedicated Netezza skilled resources just in case such problems to occur.
Smart Management Frameworks (SMF) automates processes to improve the performance, availability, recoverability, and security of one or more of IBM®’s Pure Data™ for Analytics (aka Netezza) or Netezza Performance Server for IBM Cloud Pak for Data appliances.
SMF can greatly increase the return on your Netezza investments by ensuring they provide a better service more reliably to your business users, who increasingly rely on analytics for their planning and operational decisions on a daily or even more frequent basis.
SMF comprises three modules - Smart Database Replication, Smart Access Control and Smart System Management.
Smart Database Replication
Smart Database Replication is a managed service offering provided by Smart Associates which allows customers to replicate their Netezza databases in near real-time.
In many of today’s businesses, immediate access to near real-time data for analytics has become mission critical, so in the event of a disaster, an aggressively small Mean Time to Recovery (MTTR) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO) must be achievable. With Smart Database Replication, these are measured in minutes instead of the many hours or more by the usual methods.
And even without a disaster, Smart Database Replication enables customers to divide their data, users, and workloads between multiple systems to maximise performance, concurrency and throughput. You won’t be paying for a backup server to stand idle waiting for a disaster recovery incident, it will be put to productive use providing enhanced service levels.
A third benefit of Smart Database Replication can also be to ease migration to newer servers or the cloud (Netezza Performance Server for IBM CloudPak for Data). It enables migration to be eased over a period, rather than having to complete it with a risky “big bang” cutover.
Smart Access Control
Smart Access Control allows you to automatically synchronize your Netezza system’s user access privileges with your Entra ID (formerly Active Directory)/LDAP. Normally such synchronization relies on manual processes which are subject to delay and error.
This removes the risk of exposing data to unauthorised access in contradiction of corporate data privacy rules as implemented in Entra ID/LDAP.
Smart System Management
Smart System Management automates many Netezza housekeeping tasks to help keep your system operating at peak performance with minimal manual intervention. It comprises:
SuperTuning - Automatically detects which database objects are in need of statistics collection, reorganisation, or grooming in order to improve query performance, and then performs only the operations that are necessary against only the objects that need it to reduce overall system maintenance overhead.
SuperGovernance - Automatically monitors all database query activity and produces alert notifications if it detects that any custom data governance rules have been violated.
SuperCuration - Automatically deletes, aggregates, or obfuscates any data according to customisable, flexible, and granular criteria.
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Further Information
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