Doug Greer, CA PPM Solutions Architect
What can you really expect when it comes to performance in CA PPM 14.2? We sat down with Doug Greer, CA PPM Solutions Architect, to forecast performance.
In this post we’ll talk about what may be unexpected costs and performance gains, so you can determine what’s affordable in your CA PPM 14.2 upgrade (CA Clarity PPM).
CA PPM 14.2 Data Warehouse (DWH) | Will You Add a Server?
A lot of people are excited CA PPM 14.2 uses two servers. “The assumption,” says Doug, “is that On Premise clients will already own, or will purchase, an additional server to house the Data Warehouse,” (DWH). This will allow queries to bypass the CA PPM database, decreasing transactional stress and speeding up the process.
This is great, especially if your organization’s security policy already requires using a separate reporting database.
“But if you’re not in that situation, and many organizations are not,” says Doug, “you’ll have to decide if it’s worthwhile to purchase the additional server and the software licensing, like Oracle or SQL.”
It won’t come cheap. And many of our clients would rather finance faster hardware than purchase an extra license.
As Doug points out, you can still put the Jaspersoft software package onto a separate server from the production server, which is a fairly standard practice and should provide performance benefits.
The good news with the DWH is whether or not you use an additional server, you’ll get performance gains creating aggregated portlets and reports.
CA PPM Data Warehouse | Build Reports Faster
The Clarity data model had a lot of complex tables, says Doug. But the CA PPM 14.2 Data Warehouse has far fewer, and it includes all your custom fields and objects for ad hoc reporting.
“That was a barrier before,” says Doug. “It took a lot of effort. Now, anything you add will automatically be in the Data Warehouse or in Jaspersoft.” This is huge benefit.
With this change, we expect faster report and portlet building.
“It may not be a lot faster, but it could be 10 – 20% faster,” says Doug. “It’s just an easier data model; there are less joins.”
This brings us to another related benefit.
CA PPM Data Warehouse | Simplify Training
“Because the data model is simpler, it may be easier to train resources to build reports and portlets. There are fewer tables, so there’s a lower barrier of entry,” says Doug.
If you need to train a new technical person, and their raison d’être is report building, you’ll want to start them on DWH.
It will make more sense.
“If your new technical person is going to troubleshoot existing portlets, they’ll need to learn the full CA PPM database, but you can also benefit by taking resources who are using external reporting tools, like Tableau and Cognos, and easily connecting them to the DWH to build reports,” says Doug.
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Whether or not you’re reducing the load on your production server, the DWH will still bring significant performance improvements to your report and portlet building because of its simplified tables.
Have a question about performance? Tell us about it in the comments.
And if you liked this post, stay tuned. We’ve got more to share about CA PPM 14.2 performance, and you can expect to see Doug back soon.
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Doug Greer is a CA Clarity PPM solutions architect. Since he began consulting seven years ago, he has helped over 50 clients get more value out of their investment in CA Clarity PPM. He has helped to define processes, architect solutions, provide meaningful reporting, and train users and administrators. Doug holds bachelors and masters degrees in Accounting and Information Systems and is a certified PMP. He and his wife Cheryl reside in Salt Lake City, UT where he enjoys outdoor activities such as hiking, rock climbing, and sailing.
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