This white paper, authored by industry analyst IDC, explores the problems confronting IT organizations today as they seek to bring data together from disparate sources in order to achieve better information coherence, operational efficiency, and more effective overall governance. Specifically, the paper considers the problems posed by the complexity of "data integration" technology in terms of its configuration and maintenance. It looks at the utility of a grid computing approach in providing scalability and manageability for "data integration" and considers how an appliance approach, with its pre-configured hardware and software, can further reduce cost and risk for customers, by taking the effort and guess work out of setting up a "data integration" platform. This paper considers the solution offered by IBM, first with respect to the Information Server technology, and then with its appliance offering, the Information Server Blade.