IBM unveils Cognos 8 BI for Linux

BANGALORE, INDIA: Cognos, an IBM company, leader in business intelligence and performance management solutions has announced that IBM Cognos 8 Business Intelligence software is now available, for the first time, for Linux on System z.

With IBM Cognos 8 BI for Linux on System z, customers can efficiently report and analyze transactional systems directly on the mainframe, so workers across an organization can use information to quickly identify and respond to critical business trends.

Highly targeted information delivery and analysis capabilities let knowledge workers, ranging from front-line managers to executives, receive strategic business information where, when and how they need it to make better business decisions.

A result of IBM's rapid assimilation of its acquisition of Cognos, the product unites the proven reporting and analysis capabilities of IBM Cognos 8 BI with the power and reliability of IBM System z. This allows organizations across industries to leverage their mainframe investments to improve decision-making and overall business performance.

The availability of IBM Cognos 8 BI for Linux on System z extends IBM's Information on Demand business strategy, which unifies the company's software, hardware, consulting and research expertise to help customers gain access to the right information when they need it, along with business insights to address and respond to changing market demands.

Further in support of this strategy, IBM has established multiple worldwide System z competency centers to help customers learn about IBM Cognos 8 BI on System z, benchmark the System z architecture and interact with other IBM products and solutions.

"System z customers want more users across their organization making better, faster decisions using their infrastructure platform of choice," said Leah MacMillan, vice-president, BI product marketing, Cognos, an IBM Company. "With IBM Cognos 8 BI for Linux on System z, these customers will be able to take advantage of the broad range of proven BI capabilities for all types of users across the organization to optimize operational processes while reducing infrastructure cost and complexity."

Cognos, an IBM Company, is a recognized leader in delivering BI and performance management solutions across industries. For example, 19 of the top 20 consumer goods companies worldwide, 9 of the top 10 insurance companies and over 1,000 financial services organizations, including 9 of the top 10 banks in Europe and all of the top 10 banks in the United States, use IBM Cognos solutions. 

IBM announced the availability of the System z10 Enterprise Class on February 26, 2008 as the most sophisticated server ever developed, reflecting a multi-billion dollar investment, five years of development and a global team of thousands of technical professionals.

IBM System z is an important part of IBM's new enterprise data center model, which helps clients improve IT efficiency and facilitates the rapid deployment of new IT services for future business growth. The model is based on best practices for virtualization, green IT, service management and cloud computing.