Informatica PowerCenter 8.0 New Features and Enhancements

Informatica Distributed Services Architecture:

One of the major differences between the two versions is that PowerCenter 7 had a client-server architecture whereas PowerCenter 8 has a service-oriented architecture.

�� Domains and nodes: PowerCenter 8.0 allows you to scale services and share resources across multiple machines. PowerCenter introduces a PowerCenter domain, the primary unit of administration for the PowerCenter environment, and a PowerCenter node, the logical representation of a machine in a domain.
�� Services: PowerCenter provides application and core services. Application services represent PowerCenter server-based functionality such as the Repository Service,Integration Service, and SAP BW Service. Core services support the domain and application services. Core services include a Log Service, Licensing Service, and Domain Service.
�� High availability: You can use the high availability option to eliminate single points of failure in the PowerCenter environment and reduce service interruptions in the event of failure. High availability provides resilience, failover, and recovery for services.
�� Administration: PowerCenter provides centralized administration through the Administration Console. You perform all administration tasks for the domain and services in the Administration Console. This includes administration of the Repository Service.

Command Line Programs:
�� infacmd. infacmd is a new command line program that allows you to administer PowerCenter domains and services. You can perform tasks such as enabling and disabling services and purging log events.
�� infasetup. infasetup is a new command line program that allows you to configure domains and nodes. Use infasetup to define domains and nodes, join domains, and configure node passwords, domain licenses, and domain service ports.
�� pmcmd. pmcmd includes new commands to support Integration Service functionality and new syntax to connect to a domain.
�� pmrep. pmrep now includes former pmrepagent commands and new syntax to connect to a domain.

Datatypes:
�� Flat file definitions: You can configure flat file definitions to use the Integer or Double datatype.

Performance Improvements:
�� Pushdown optimization: The Integration Service can execute SQL against the source or target database instead of processing the transformation logic within the Integration Service.
�� Partitioned flat file targets: The Integration Service can create an individual target file for all partitions, a merge file for all partitioned flat file target instances, and a file list that references the individual target files for all target partitions.
�� Append to flat file targets: The Integration Service can append data to existing flat file target and reject files.
�� Flat file source and target commands: You can specify a command for any flat file source or target instance in a session. You can use a command to generate source data and you can use a command to process target data.
�� Data compression" Repository data is compressed during communication among the Repository Service, Integration Service, and PowerCenter Client.