In today’s digital business landscape, data is fragmented and scattered across various systems. Pulling all this data together is a significant challenge, and with businesses constantly implementing new data sources, cloud environments and other systems, integration complexities are multiplying quickly.

Enterprises have traditionally resorted to APIs to solve the point-to-point integration problems, but data scientists and data engineers have lost access to the raw tabular data and thus to analytics/BI. Data connectivity drivers (such as ODBC and JDBC connectors) effectively act as data APIs, enabling businesses to solve this unique challenge of exposing data for BI tools such as Tableau, Power BI, Qlik, Cognos, etc.

Mainframes continue to play a key role in data storage for business-critical applications that can’t have downtime. However, today’s challenge is to safely access mainframe data for use across the enterprise, in custom applications, webpages and off-the-shelf app integration. That requires modernizing data access to IBM DB2 for z/OS.

Read this whitepaper to learn:

• Why REST, and by extension, OData, are the solution
• Options to REST-enable DB2 on z/OS
• The critical role DataDirect Hybrid Data Pipeline plays in REST-enabling IBM z/OS

REST APIs have become increasingly popular for accessing enterprise data from web and mobile applications. But are REST APIs good enough? You still need a different client codebase for every REST API in use, which can quickly become a technical burden.

Read this whitepaper to learn:

• Why you need to RESTify databases
• Why companies are using OData
• How your enterprise can RESTify your databases via OData
• What role DataDirect Hybrid Data Pipeline plays in this process

IT needs a fast way to SQL-enable their internal API layer for business intelligence.

Organizations are investing heavily in API layers to control authentication and data access from one place. However, enterprise data teams can’t access this data from their favorite BI tools such as IBM Cognos, OBIEE, TIBCO or MicroStrategy without complex custom coding.

As companies adopt multiple analytical and data management tools, SQL access to the enterprise API layer (or data access layer) is crucial. The ideal solution enables you to quickly build real-time access to your API layer from popular BI tools, while taking advantage of centralized API management capabilities.

Download the whitepaper to learn:

• How to how to quickly integrate your internal API layer into leading tools such as Microsoft Excel, SAP BusinessObjects, IBM Cognos, Oracle Business Intelligence and others
• What to look for in a connector SDK for delivering SQL clients (ODBC, JDBC, ADO.NET and OLE-DB)
• Steps to deliver custom SQL connectivity in under five days

Research on the latest trends in database technologies

SaaS Adoption Increases from 62% to 79%

That’s just one of the findings in our 4th annual survey, based on responses from 1,200 participants around the world. 

Data continues to spread across a variety of sources. And SaaS adoption is increasing significantly, resulting in an explosion of cloud-created data.

Read the report to learn:

• Use of RDBMS, big data, NoSQL and SaaS
• Biggest data integration challenges
• How standards can help solve data integration challenges
• Current state of application adoption
• Firewall concerns and solutions for connecting cloud and ground
• Open analytics trend among ISVs
• Data compliance requirements across industries

Which Strategy is Best for You and Your Customers?

Eckerson Group gives you the insight you need to make the best choice for supporting advanced analytics.

Cloud application vendors are under pressure to provide multi-faceted support for analytics. Today’s customers expect more than just static reports or dashboards—they want interactive visual experiences that illuminate key data and trends.

In this paper, leading data and analytics research firm Eckerson Group dives into the pros and cons of open and embedded analytics. Cloud application vendors can discover where each approach fits into their strategy and use this knowledge to deliver support for advanced analytics.

Download the whitepaper to learn:

• Advantages and disadvantages of each strategy from the customer’s perspective
• Whether to build or buy data connectivity to support analytics
• Recommendations for an analytics strategy that supports different types of users and companies.

In this whitepaper, David Loshin, recognized thought leader in all things data, explains how to balance new technology acquisition with bridging technologies for data connectivity to extend the life of legacy systems as replacement applications are adopted.

Data is at the crux of all your major business decisions, which means data integration matters now more than ever before. Wherever your data exists—in the cloud, on-premises behind a firewall or some combination of both—you need to deliver real-time integration with enterprise applications. But do you buy connectivity or build a custom solution?

Download this whitepaper and learn about the obstacles and advantages of each approach.

This sharp, visual IDC report delivers a concise view of business analytics software trends, including recent market developments around cloud-based and self-service software. The impact of cognitive computing solutions and disruption around data warehousing are explored along with long-term predictions:

• Emerging industry trends
• Buyer needs
• Competitive assessment
• Long-term market opportunities

This report is ideal for business executives, technical product managers and marketing intelligence professionals who want to understand how to thrive in the business analytics market and gain competitive advantage.

Companies featured include Teradata, IBM, Oracle, Microsoft and more.

As with technology wars in the past —VHS versus Beta, Blu-ray versus HD DVD, or PS3 versus Xbox—the real winners are visionary managers that embrace technologies that are gaining the most traction.

This tutorial gives you everything you need to solve common performance problems and make your DB2 applications run more efficiently.

Discover 5 strategic ways to accelerate your business and improve customer satisfaction with Progress DataDirect Connect and Progress DataDirect Cloud, delivering the breadth of depth of data connectivity you need.