Ecologic Analytics plans to extend the Ecologic MDM solution to include IBM Informix software as a data management option for customers. This solution will allow utilities to store and retrieve data from smart metering systems and other monitoring devices more efficiently and streamline operational processes, such as time-of-use billing, load forecasting, and outage management.

An ever increasing population of smart meters is creating larger, more complex sets of time sequenced data, also known as interval data, for utilities organizations throughout the world. This increase in data generated by smart meters creates data storage challenges as well as performance challenges for analytics that utilize that data. With the right meter data management technology, utilities can better locate and diagnose pain points, monitor and reallocate electric loads and reduce outages.

IBM Informix software, with its TimeSeries feature enables utilities to manage the interval data produced by smart meters using a scalable database architecture. IBM’s Informix TimeSeries can dramatically accelerate data load and process times, decrease data storage requirements and improve both operational and analytical performance. Additionally, the software offers high availability and security to ensure data is easily and quickly accessed without being compromised.

Informix TimeSeries software enables customers to cut storage requirements by as much as 66 percent, with data load and processing times reduced from hours to minutes. Ecologic Analytics and IBM will work in parallel to enable support for the Informix database technology within the Ecologic MDM application.