The Ministry of Social Development has acquired a Sybase IQ solution to complement its SAS-based data warehouse.
It provides technology for the “retail layer” that sits on the core SAS database replicas, says acting CIO David Habershon. This enables enhanced and faster end-user queries and web-based reporting to a broader number of users.
He says all existing SAS business analytics facilities work without modification over the Sybase IQ retail layer.
A technical proof of concept was done with each of Sybase, Oracle Exadata and Teradata. All solutions passed the criteria.
Habershon says as a software-only solution, Sybase was the most cost-effective option. He says the solution was able to be installed on the existing hardware, making it a six-week production deployment.
“Sybase is self-tuning, and GUI administration capabilities made the support requirements straightforward. The system is now in production and we are progressively rolling out new features. We are seeing an increased uptake of the use of the tool by the MSD business community.”
MSD has had a SAS-based data warehouse for more than a decade. It contains 47 “time-series” replicas of transactional databases, numerous data marts, and fills 20 terabytes of storage.
The ministry is conducting a number of IT projects now that its core benefits system is installed.