Initial Impression of Metadata Tools in Information Server 8.7

Just got my hands on a sandbox of Information Server 8.7 installation. After looking at the InfoCenter and the Redbook about metadata management, I have had an initial view of the new metadata offerings from the Information Server 8.7.

Just to add a bit background here. I have been using Information Server 8.1.x in the past 4 years.

• In InfoSphere Business Glossary, I can see that the BG "Editor" and BG "Browser" interfaces are merged into a single user interface which is a good improvement on the user experience side. The new UI looks more "modern" and gives overview to both terms, categories, and IT assets very easily. In addition, Business Glossary has added a workflow feature that enables an "approval workflow" for managing BG terms. This workflow is disabled in the default installation. 
• The meta-model in the Metadata Server has been extended with a few new elements. Among other, the most existing one to me is the Logical Data Model. In the 8.1.x version, only physical data model (database table schemes) can be imported to the Metadata Server. Now a logical data model created in InfoSphere Data Architect, including the documentations in IDA, can be imported to the Metadata Server. This is a very good step towards making BG and Metadata Workbench more widely accepted and used by both business and IT developers in enterprises. 
• Metadata Workbench looks similar to the previous versions. The "Administration" tab in Metadata Workbench has an improved interface. And as I have heard (not tried myself yet), the data lineage and business lineage functionality has been improved a lot, so is the automated metadata service (which has been a pain in the 8.1.x version).
• A new tool, "Metadata Asset Management" seems to provide an excellent way of administrating metadata in an enterprise setup. This tool allows users to import and compare different types of metadata, such as data models, data files, BI reports. As described in the Redbook (link), one can , based on this tool, design an enterprise metadata environment for all kinds of metadata related to data integration process. 
• istool seems to keep the same functionalities as before and add a "reporting asset" for import/export. 

I also heard that Business Glossary provides more ways of integration with other tools. And the "Blueprint Director" is a very interesting architecture tool. Hopefully I will post more findings when I begin to do more work with this sandbox in the coming days :)