updated 6/16/ to fix minor typo.
Following up on  Curt's blog about the new releases in June, let's take a deeper look at what is new in InfoSphere Data Architect V7.5.2.

Building on top of the privacy specifications for generating test data that was already built in the product from December 2008 you will now be able to pick from a predefined list of categories for specific data privacy information.  It's probably best to explain this with an example.  Let's say you have a credit card column that you want to mark as private by generating a random number where you maintain the first 4 digits of the card.  Within InfoSphere Data Architect you can specify that you want to use the credit card masking policy, and IDA will be able to connect to Optim Test Data Management and Data Privacy solutions to get the appropriate masking method that should be used.  Not only can you generate this in the design phase of your model you can now share this with Optim Development Studio so now when developing applications you have the ability to view what data is private and even look at the SQL that accesses the sensitive data.  

Also new in IDA 7.5.2 is the capability to size storage requirements and estimate for data capacity and growth.  This is often called volumetrics support and as per customer requests we have implemented this in the new release.

Finally, building on the fact that InfoSphere Data Architect is more than just a data modeling tool, we have leveraged all the different use cases that customers have implemented to improve on the different integration scenarios that we provide with IDA.  We already know that Data Architect is built on top of the Rational Software Delivery platform (reminder,  this product used to be called Rational Data Architect) and we continue to improve in those areas, but we have also enhanced integration scenarios related to Information Management as well. Since most of the Optim Solutions for Integrated Data Management are built on Eclipse you can utilize the sharing of connection information feature that was introduced in the June releases.  Also new in IDA 7.5.2 is improved integration with IBM Industry Models and glossary information.  All Industry Models and the newly added glossary information can now be managed in InfoSphere Data Architect.

The trial of this release will be available in a few weeks at the current trial download location. The announcement letter is here. Oh, by the way, the announcement letter also contains information about the updated Learning Services course for IDA that has been enhanced to cover more product capabilities. I always strongly recommend that new users get education, and this new and improved course can help you get what you need to get started.

-- Anson Kokkat