Cognos Glossary

If you’ve found this blog you’ve likely already felt the deep sting of incomprehensible Cognos IT acronyms. Fear not – I am here to deliver the soothing balm of jargon clarity. Behold, the IBMBV Cognos Glossary of Terms!

Cognos Versions

Cognos Analytics: Cognos Analytics (also known as Cognos 11) is the newest version of IBM Cognos, released in December 2015. Cognos Analytics features a completely modernized UX with a host of new self-service features, including web-based data modeling, intuitive dashboard creation, and visualization via search that bring Cognos functionality in-line with current demands for analytics solutions. Cognos Analytics also maintains its enterprise class pedigree by retaining proven technology like Framework Manager & Transformer while providing a smooth upgrade path for Cognos BI content. It is available in on-premise and cloud deployments. See What Is Cognos Analytics for more information.

Cognos BI: Cognos BI (also known as Cognos 10) is the previous version of Cognos, released in November 2010. Cognos 10 retained the functionality of Cognos 8 while adding significant new features, including Workspace and Workspace Advanced, the 64-bit Dynamic Query Mode, and Dynamic Cubes. As of this writing (October 2016) the vast majority of Cognos customers are on some version of Cognos 10. IBM has announced end of support for Cognos 10 as April 30th, 2018.

Cognos 9: Hahaha! Good joke Ryan! There was no Cognos 9!

Cognos 8: Cognos 8, released in September 2005, combined a variety of existing software into an enterprise BI environment with content hosted in the web rather than client side. The bedrock components of Cognos – Framework Manager, Transformer, Report Studio, etc… were either created for or incorporated into Cognos 8.

Technical Terms

Dynamic Query Mode (64-bit): Dynamic Query Mode is the query mode introduced in Cognos 10.1. It is a 64-bit java query engine that runs as one or many java.exe process on the Cognos application server and is managed by the query service. All native Cognos Analytics features utilize DQM only – CQM queries execute in simulated DQM as mentioned above. Keep in mind that the advantages of DQM are best realized in Dynamic Cube or DMR packages – pure relational may or may not experience much benefit from DQM.

Compatible Query Mode (32-bit): Compatible Query Mode is the query mode introduced in Cognos 8. It is a 32-bit C++ query engine that runs on the Cognos application server as part of the BIBusTKServerMain process. CQM was the default query mode for new models created in Framework Manager up to Cognos 10.2.x, after which Dynamic Query Mode became the default.

Compute Service AKA ‘Flint’: Data sets are an in-memory data processing engine first introduced in Cognos 11.0 and greatly enhanced in 11.1. Cognos 11.1 data sets run on the compute service aka ‘Flint’. The compute service is a 64-bit spark-sql process that is created and managed by the same query service that manages DQM.

Features

Data Modules: Data modules are a feature introduced in Cognos 11 that offer a web-based data modeling and blending experience. Data can be pulled from a large number of databases as well as excel files and Cognos packages. Key features include automatic relative time (YTD, MTD, etc…), table split/merge, custom grouping, data cleansing and multi-fact and even multi-database query aggregation.