Articles

CA Technologies Upgrades ERwin to Power New Business Users and Solve Critical Data Challenges Across the Enterprise

CA’s ERwin Data Modeler was first introduced in 1989 and has become a default solution for database professionals charged with the task of designing and visualizing their corporation’s data assets. These systems create a framework of information detailing the structures and components of enterprise data. The sophisticated schemas become the information foundation for new application development, business intelligence initiatives and critical data integration processes while automating much of the work, reducing the need to build out duplicate sources and providing reusable views of the data. Enterprise data landscapes have evolved to heterogenous environments containing traditional sources coupled with semi and unstructured data making the task of designing, organizing and visualizing these data assets extremely complicated. Data modeling tools supply a critical layer of information that supports the data needs of your entire enterprise.

ERwin Data Modeler r8 is delivered in four editions:

1. Community Edition – A free version limited to 25 objects that allow you to test ERwin and to develop small scale projects on the ERwin Data Modeler platform.
2. Navigator Edition–This version offers read-only access to prebuilt ERwin models and is excellent for line of business user who need to see the data model but may not need to create one.
3. Standard Edition – This is the flagship solution designed for a single data modeling user.
4. Workgoup Edition – This version allows a team approach to data modeling and provides collaboration features as well as change management functionality.

CA ERwin Data Modeler

Key Features

Visualization of Complex Data Structures: ERwin provides a simple, graphic display to visual complex database structures in an easy-to-manage interface.

Design Layer Architecture: ERwin offers unique flexibility to create multiple model layers, from logical to physical, to even higher-level models. Users can create logical and physical models that are completely separate, or create logical and physical models that are linked, allowing you to choose the implementation style best suited to your needs.

Standards Definition: Reusable standards improve an organization’s ability to develop and manage their information assets in a cost and time effective manner. ERwin supports the definition and maintenance of standards through reusable model templates, the Domain Editor, the Naming Standards Editor and the Datatype Standards Editor.

Large Model Management: ERwin helps you manage large enterprise-level models through subject areas and diagrams. These graphical views and model visualizations facilitate information exchange and collaboration among the different stakeholders in an organization.  In addition, advanced features such as autolayout, on-demand UI components, and “bird-eye” navigation allow you to easily visualize large models.

Complete Compare: This powerful feature automates complete bidirectional synchronization of models, scripts and databases, compares one item with the other, displays any differences and permits bidirectional selective update. If model changes are targeted for a database, ERwin can automatically generate a database ALTER script, as desired.

Database Design Generation: ERwin allows you to create database designs directly from visual models, increasing efficiency and reducing errors. Industry-leading database support includes optimized referential integrity trigger templates and a rich cross-database macro language, allowing modelers to customize triggers, scripts and stored procedures. Customizable templates facilitate the generation of a model’s complete physical design and definitions.

Data Warehouse and Data Mart Design: The performance, usability and value of a data warehouse are determined by its underlying design. ERwin supports data warehousing-specific modeling techniques (such as Star Schema and Snowflake dimensional modeling), thereby optimizing the data warehouse for your performance and analysis needs. It also captures and documents a rich set of information about the warehouse, including data sources, transformation logic and data management rules.

Reporting and Printing: Every copy of CA ERwin DM SE  includes a copy of SAP Business Objects’ Crystal Reports. Customers can use out-of-the-box reports, or create their own. A generic ODBC interface is available for customers who use other reporting tools. Reports may be generated in a variety of formats, including HTML, PDF, RTF and TXT.

Integration & Metadata Exchange with Other Tools: It’s easy to integrate ERwin with other projects and tools with import or export from a wide variety of sources, including BI tools, MDM hubs, other data modeling tools, Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) tools and Unified Modeling Language (UML) tools.

ERwin r8 Features

CA ERwin Data Modeler r8 has key features that enhance visualization with flexible drawing tools aimed at eliminating the need to work in Visio. New personalization features allow granular changes to the look and feel of the application. Enhancements to the presentation layer allow users to work with larger models on a single screen. Additional features include:

• One-click auto layout for model diagrams – helps to organize the model view into easy-to- analyze views.

• Model Display Themes and Formatting Options – allows customization of colors, fonts, backgrounds and borders. Display Themes allow the creation of reusable themes for reuse among teams and projects.

• Universal Bulk Editor – helps the designer to execute changes across all elements and objects within a model, using an intuitive, spreadsheet-style interface.
• SAP Business Objects’ Crystal Reports Integration – creates Crystal Reports directly from the ERwin interface, including out-of-the box reports for commonly used reports.
• DB2 Support Improvements – updated support for DB2 z/OS and LUW v9.x to include Partitioning support, Global Temporary Table support, MDC support, Compression, Nicknames, column “Labels”, Query Optimization syntax, “Include” column syntax, “Enforced/Not Enforced” check constraint syntax and XML data types.

EMA Perspective

CA Technologies’ decision to engage business users illustrates the importance of how data is managed by today’s end users. IT is no longer the sole owner of corporate data. By providing a clear and concise picture of a company’s data assets it enables innovative product development and takes data modeling to a new level of importance within the company. CA ERwin Data Modeler r8 is positioned to act as a conduit to these mission critical systems by designing data structures that power business intelligence and analytics. As business intelligence continues to grow more management professionals will need to understand the underlying data that is driving their business systems. Companies looking to create value quickly by leveraging data need to be able to trust the data at its most atomic level. This trust acts as the foundation for successful business intelligence. CA ERwin Data Modeler has the opportunity to act as the foundational tool to provide that trust. Other applications of a progressive modeling platform include insight to data that is critical for ETL and data integration projects. Once again putting data modeling tools at the center of the process to identify and leverage the correct data required to fuel applications and insight.

Management outside of IT is being held accountable for the accuracy of analytics across the enterprise. Repeatable and automated best practices around data modeling will help to eliminate the blind trust required by many systems that don’t leverage this type of solution.
The growth of Cloud Computing and Software as a Service (SaaS) open a new opportunity for CA ERwin Data Modeler to excel. Expect further upgrades beyond the r8 release to add great functionality for serving Cloud customers. Presently the solution has the capabilities to inventory existing systems and provide a clear path for planning Cloud-based data stores. As organizations make the business-critical decisions of which data assets to move to the Cloud, CA ERwin Data Modeler is able to help these organizations create a visual blueprint of their data infrastructure, facilitating the decision of which data to move to a Cloud environment, and which data assets to manage on-premises.

CA Technologies has added a new service, ERwin.com, to help its customers innovate and learn from one another by connecting them to a global community that allows them to share ideas and best practices, get help from their peers and share content via RSS feeds. Participation at ERwin.com is free, and since its launch in October 2009, it is already hosting thousands of data modeling professionals worldwide. This type of community outreach demonstrates CA Technologies’s commitment to moving data modeling upstream to play a larger role in the success of both IT and the business.

Download a product briefing paper here.