Information Builders Supports IBM zIIP Chip

Information Builders (IBI), an independent provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, announced support for IBM System z/OS computer Integrated Information Processor (zIIP) in Focus 7.6.10 and WebFocus 7.7.

Information Builders stated that its zIIP chip support represents the first and only BI platform optimized for the mainframe environment. Using the IBM authorized and licensed API for zIIPs, IBI will not charge for its software running on zIIP, minimizing the costs of workloads.

The zIIP chip was designed to handle the workloads of Business Intelligence, and other data intensive applications. Specialized mainframe processors like the zIIP allow users to offload work that might otherwise run on the mainframe's general purpose chips.

"By extending support for the IBM zIIP, Information Builders is providing mainframe users a dramatic performance and cost advantage to expand their operations in the zIIP mainframe environment," said Robert Hoey, GM, Major Markets, Systems & Technology Group, IBM. "It represents the latest of many levels of support and interoperability Information Builders offers to IBM customers."

Information Builders explained that for mainframe operations looking for ways to drive greater value and performance, Information Builders has optimized Focus and WebFocus for the zIIP environment. The new versions perform the same mission critical tasks and maximize processing power, reduce execution and response time, while delivering consistent application performance and solid customer service. By enabling efficient BI operations on the mainframe, Information Builders said that it gives customers real-time, dynamic reporting, with enough processing power to deliver large "customer facing" applications, without incurring extra costs for setting up infrastructure or buying new machines or databases.

"Information Builders is dedicated to helping customers enhance value and optimize their BI deployments," said Information Builders founder and CEO Gerald Cohen. "By extending Focus and Web Focus to support the zIIP chip, we have dramatically recalculated the economics of mainframe business intelligence. Finally, business intelligence applications can leverage the genius of the zIIP environment without compromising accessibility or performance."

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