Looking to extend its Ecologic MDM solution, Ecologic Analytics, a provider of meter data management (MDM) solutions for electric, natural gas and water utilities, has announced plans to include IBM (News - Alert) Informix software as a data management option for customers.

With its TimeSeries feature, IBM Informix software enables utilities to cost-effectively and efficiently manage the interval data produced by smart meters using a scalable database architecture.

Apart from improving both operational and analytical performance, IBM's Informix TimeSeries can dramatically accelerate data load and process times, decrease data storage requirements. Also, to ensure data is easily and quickly accessed without being compromised, the software offers high availability and security.

“We are very pleased to be working with IBM to introduce Informix TimeSeries technology into the solution,” said David Hubbard, chief technology officer and co-founder of Ecologic Analytics. “We feel that the Informix TimeSeries technology lends itself extremely well to the performance characteristics, data types and high-volume processing required for the next generation of smart metering and smart grid applications.”

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

Apart from streamlining operational processes, such as time-of-use billing, load forecasting, and outage management, this solution will allow utilities to store and retrieve data from smart metering systems and other monitoring devices more efficiently, the company stated in a press release.

Recently, the company announced that meter data management is being simplified by the third generation of the Ecologic MDM, which makes it easier for utilities to realize greater value more quickly from smart meter deployments.

To a growing community of users throughout the utility, the initial release of the third generation Ecologic MDM solution provides streamlined operational access and advanced analytics. The next generation Ecologic MDM features a completely new user experience and is built on a robust solution.