One of the things that is nice about working with various clients is that I get exposed to a variety of projects, database designs and products. One of the new product releases that is very interesting and really surprising is the QMF 10. This new release of QMF for the Workstation is completely new and has several features that everyone should take advantage of as soon as possible.
First the new QMF leverages your existing QMF and the reporting infrastructure your enterprise has built over the years. All your existing queries, forms procs and reports are immediately available after connecting to your existing QMF. Also what is great is even though QMF runs on z/OS, it can now also run on other platforms to interact with any enterprise data from any relational database, flat file or unstructured data source.
Through the new user interface all “Excel-like” types of charts, graphs, speedometers and other widgets can be quickly built and made interactive through drop-down menus and other HTML controls. Templates and the new designer interface provide an easy way to develop business analytic interfaces. Dynamic browser-based interactive dashboards allows users to drill down from broad summary pie charts to bar graphs to spreadsheets to find detailed analytical figures and insights.
QMF goes beyond just DB2 through easy connectivity to other relational databases such as Oracle, SQL Server and other data types such as flat files and unstructured data. Using any of these data types QMF can now do a federated SQL Join of these different platforms, bring disparate data types together and create a chart comparing the different data sources. By comparing different data sources QMF now is able to be leveraged by any user within the enterprise on almost any data source. With its new interface traditional users as well as new users can publish a variety of reports, graphs or web-based interactive dashboards that can combine all your enterprise platforms for business analytics.
QMF also has an enhanced security model that can interface with Active Directory, LDAP, or an internal database to show different data perspectives based on the user. This feature lets users see their view of the data based on their level of security or departmental authority, providing flexibility and new opportunities to share the same information across the enterprise through a single user report or browser-based chart. Combining this access with the Row and Column DB2 10 security access lets everyone use the same enterprise-wide interface and only be able to access their authorized data.
If you have not seen the new QMF, check it out and you’ll probably be as surprised as I was with its ability to create interactive web based browser charts from all types of data sources.
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Have you made your plans for IDUG in Orlando this year? Also the make sure to register early and get the IDUG early bird discount. Sign up today!
I look forward to speaking at the IDUG DB2 Tech Conference 2013 North America conference. The conference will be held in Orlando, Florida on April 29-2, 20132. Get more information at www.idug.org.
I will be speaking at the conference presenting Session F07 – “Data Warehouse Designs for Big Data Performance” on Wed, May 01, 2013 (02:15 PM – 03:15 PM) in Bonaire 5 & 6.
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Dave Beulke is an internationally recognized DB2 consultant, DB2 trainer and education instructor. Dave helps his clients improve their strategic direction, dramatically improve DB2 performance and reduce their CPU demand saving millions in their systems, databases and application areas within their mainframe, UNIX and Windows environments.
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