Every day, more than 15 petabytes of data are created. Mashups are critical in helping people make sense of this overwhelming amount of available data. Organizations from a variety of industries are using IBM mashup technology to empower not only business users but also decision-makers at the employee level to gain new insights from previously hard to access data found in a variety of sources, such as the Cloud, enterprise applications, and personal software and programs.

As part of today's news, IBM is announcing a new version of its Mashup Center software and a new offering called IBM Cognos 8 Mashup Service. The new IBM Cognos 8 Mashup Service is an application programming interface (API) that automatically and securely exposes content from IBM Cognos 8 Business Intelligence as a Web service for use in other operational applications, business processes and mashups. By integrating entire reports, analyses and metrics - or just the most relevant parts - into key applications such as human resources, procurement, and sales management, users can quickly and more easily make informed decisions in the context of their daily business.

For instance, a sales manager responsible for many retail outlets will be able to easily overlay critical sales reports into a GIS application in order to gain a quick, visual snapshot of store performance throughout the district, identify trouble spots, and initiate necessary sales strategies to boost underperforming locations. Similarly, sales managers accustomed to working solely in their sales force automation system will be able to mashup timely business analytics reports and metrics with client interaction history to better manage and forecast pipeline.

The latest version of IBM Mashup Center is expected to include connections with new data sources, as integration with RESTful services significantly expands the types of data sources that can be included in a Mashup. It will also include improved security and governance, new collaboration and community tools, and new widget tools: A new browser-based tool lets people create simple widgets - small applications or pieces of content that can be placed on a web page - right from their mashup to solve problems faster.

The latest version of IBM Mashup Center software is expected to be available in November. IBM Cognos 8 Mashup Service is expected to be available in December.