CA Technologies has announced the release of CA ERwin Data Modeler r8 for collaboratively visualizing data that is managed in multiple systems, applications, platforms and locations. Focused on managing the migration of data to the cloud and other forms of IT infrastructure, the company says that CA ERwin Data Modeler r8 provides a route towards visualizing complex data structures within a customizable environment — from an intuitive interface to back-end database script generation.

"As business-critical applications are increasingly dispersed across virtualized computing environments, it is more important than ever to generate maximum value from corporate data," said Donna Burbank, senior director of product marketing, data management, CA Technologies. "CA ERwin Data Modeler r8 provides the capabilities to help enterprises and service providers meet this challenge as we pass through the next radical transformation of IT infrastructure."

Data model visualization capabilities in CA ERwin Data Modeler r8 are intended to make it easier for disparate development teams to collaborate on complex data structures. CA is using this collaboration methodology to try and provide an argument for optimizing applications for both technical performance and alignment with business requirements through several factors including increased visibility into — and control over — compliance-related data management issues.

New personalization capabilities with this technology are designed to enable different team members to tailor their workspaces to their individual assignments, skills and needs. CA is also providing a drawing tool, with full data modeling functionality as well as embedded integration with SAP BusinessObjects business intelligence (BI) solutions and SAP Crystal Reports software. The theory here being to provide a tool for enterprise-wide reporting, impact tracking analysis and cross-model queries across the enterprise — essentially, this is unified approach to data and metadata operations.