This IBM® Redpaper publication provides a comprehensive overview of the IBM Spectrum® Discover metadata management software platform. We give a detailed explanation of how the product creates, collects, and analyzes metadata.

Several in-depth use cases are used that show examples of analytics, governance, and optimization. We also provide step-by-step information to install and set up the IBM Spectrum Discover trial environment.

More than 80% of all data that is collected by organizations is not in a standard relational database. Instead, it is trapped in unstructured documents, social media posts, machine logs, and so on. Many organizations face significant challenges to manage this deluge of unstructured data such as:

IBM Spectrum Discover is a modern metadata management software that provides data insight for petabyte-scale file and Object Storage, storage on premises, and in the cloud. This software enables organizations to make better business decisions and gain and maintain a competitive advantage.

IBM Spectrum Discover provides a rich metadata layer that enables storage administrators, data stewards, and data scientists to efficiently manage, classify, and gain insights from massive amounts of unstructured data. It improves storage economics, helps mitigate risk, and accelerates large-scale analytics to create competitive advantage and speed critical research.

This paper was produced by a team of specialists from around the world working at IBM Redbooks, Tucson Center.

Joe Dain is a Senior Technical Staff Member and Master Inventor in the IBM Systems Storage organization in Tucson, Arizona. He is currently on his 26th invention plateau and has over 100 patents issued and pending worldwide. Joseph joined IBM in 2003 with a BS in Electrical Engineering and is the Chief Architect for IBM Spectrum Discover.

Norman Bogard is a Senior Technical Sales Specialist with the IBM Washington Systems Center and a member of the IBM Spectrum Storage™ Technical Leadership Team. He began his career in Information technology in 1984 with Intel Corporation and came into IBM through the acquisition of Sequent Computers. His areas of expertise though the years includes Ethernet networking, Storage Area Networks, Network Attached Storage, and unstructured data.

Isom Crawford Jr. is a Subject Matter Expert for Software Defined Infrastructure at IBM Washington Systems Center. He has over 20 years of experience in computer software product architecture and development. He holds a PhD in Mathematical Sciences from the University of Texas at Dallas and MS in Applied Mathematics from Oklahoma State University. He has developed and delivered multiple technical training courses, holds nine patents, and authored multiple publications, including Software Optimization for High Performance Computers (ISBN 0130170089).

Mathias Defiebre is a leading IBM expert for Analytics, Object Storage, and Data Protection with over 20 years of storage experience. From IBM’s EMEA Storage Competence Centre (ESCC), he provides support to customers through the Advanced Technical Skills (pre-sales support) and Lab Services channels (Implementations, Migrations, Health checks, Proof of Concepts, and Workshops). He graduated from the University of Cooperative Education Mannheim with a German Diploma in Information Technology Management and a Bachelor of Science. Mathias also is a Master Certified IT Specialist and an IBM Certified Specialist for TotalStorage™ Networking and Virtualization Architectures. He is an IBM Redbooks® author for several Storage Redbooks publications, including IBM Software-Defined Storage Guide Redpaper publication.

Thanks to the following people for their contributions to this project:

Nilesh Bhosale
Scott Brewer
Stephen Edel
Denver Hopkins
Stephen Moffitt
Guillermo Nolasco
Daithi Ocuinn
IBM Systems

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