INFORMIX DYNAMIC SERVER TAKES A BITE OUT OF CRIME DOWN UNDER
Informix Corporation, the technology leader in enterprise database-powered solutions, has announced that the New South Wales (NSW) Police Service, the third-largest police organization in the English-speaking world, has selected Informix Dynamic Server with Universal Data Option and Advanced Decision Support to form the basis of the new state-wide police data warehouse.
The solution will integrate numerous existing transaction-based operational and administrative systems to provide greatly enhanced analysis capabilities, including the ability to search across rich data types such as geographic and vector information, voice and image data, as well as standard text documents. The data warehouse is part of a major upgrade to the Police Service's information systems infrastructure.
Robert Rixon, project manager with the NSW Police Service Information Technology Services commented, "Until now, information that police officers need has been locked in disparate systems. Getting integrated information from related, but separate, sources has been difficult and slow. The data warehouse will unleash the data resources we have always had available, but could not easily access."
The Informix data warehouse will integrate data from many of the more than 60 mainframe-based applications across the Service; the resulting information will "feed" multiple data marts throughout the Service. The first data mart will go live in July 1999, replacing the Service's current executive information system. Other marts will follow, providing wide-spread analyses of police information--such as comparisons of region, time and location against various crime-types such as theft, assaults, drug-related crimes and even traffic infringements. Financial and human resources management data will be integrated with the operational data in the future.
The data warehouse is being implemented now on an eight-processor Sun E5500 UNIX server. By the end of the year the warehouse is expected to contain a half terabyte of data, and the Police Service estimates that this figure will double by the end of 2000.
Approximately 17,000 Police Service staff across the state will use the Informix solution, with 500 stations expected to go on-line or be provided with remote access to data marts. The Service is also contemplating providing limited Internet access, making public service information available to the NSW community.
According to Jeffrey Jarratt, deputy commissioner, Operations, "The Informix data warehouse will allow us to ascertain not just what or where crime occurred, but we will also be able to look for patterns in crimes. It will help us to proactively predict what may happen next. The ability to marry together all this information takes us way beyond traditional, reactive policing. It will allow us to place our resources where they are needed, when they are needed, to stop crime occurring."
Jarratt added, "The data warehouse is just one part of an integrated infrastructure that Police are implementing, not only to respond to the challenges created by the Sydney Olympic Games, but as part of its drive to become the leading Police Force in the next millennium."
About Informix Dynamic Server with Universal Data Option
Informix Dynamic Server speeds query and administration tasks, maintains optimal performance regardless of computing environment, and enables the development of database applications that take full advantage of all available hardware resources. With flexible configuration options, Informix Dynamic Server supports all data types, provides maximum performance and scalability for decision support, supports data warehouse applications running in high-end parallel environments and allows the creation of intelligent Web applications.
The Universal Data Option uses DataBlade technology to extend the traditional relational database functionality of Informix Dynamic Server to incorporate new data types such as photos and maps, and new industry-specific business logic such as package routing rules or complex currency exposure analysis. This option also allows customers to take advantage of new server functions and indexing methods for Web and content management.
About Informix
Informix Corporation, based in Menlo Park, California, provides innovative database products that assist the world's major corporations to attain competitive advantage. Informix is widely recognized as the technology leader for corporate computing environments ranging from small workgroups to very large parallel processing applications. Informix's database server, application development tools, superior customer service, and strong partnerships enable the company to be at the forefront of major information technology solution areas including data warehousing, high performance OLTP, and Web/e-commerce. For more information, contact the sales office nearest you or visit our Web site at http://www.informix.com.