IBM Unveils First Major DB2 Upgrade In Two Years

IBM on Thursday unveiled the first major upgrade of its DB2 database in nearly two years, saying the overhauled product offers features that automate maintenance and administration, provide advanced clustering and make web services deployment easier.

Code-named Stinger, version 8.2's self-managing features, such as table maintenance and data backups, reduce the time for administration by as much as 65 percent, officials with the Armonk, N.Y., company said.

While lauding DB2's new automation features, Charles Garry, analyst for market researcher the Meta Group, said they wouldn't change IBM's distant third position in the database market behind No. 1 Oracle Corp., followed by Microsoft Corp.

DB2 holds a strong market position among products used to run data warehouses, but is under pressure, in general, in the low-end of the market from open-source alternatives. The low-end is defined as databases running on four processors or less.

"The third option in the market could stay with IBM, but I believe it's more likely that an open-source database option is going to be the chose for the very low-end stuff," Garry said. "Unless IBM gets really aggressive in pushing DB2 on Linux, which it hasn't done yet, then it will continue in the data warehouse market."Among DB2's ease-of-use features is the upgrade's "Design Advisor" tool, which automatically designs and optimizes the database and can speed up query jobs sevenfold, compared to doing the same work manually, IBM said.

Performance enhancers include a "Learning Optimizer" that enables the database to take note of past searches, making new ones quicker by taking the fastest route to information, such as customer histories, product pricing or product availability.

The upgrade's automated failover mechanism reroutes applications to a backup DB2 during system failures to keep systems up and running. The new version supports clustering on 1,000 nodes.

Used with IBM's Tivoli systems automation platform and the Linux operating system, DB2's backup features will transfer information to a back-up server within 20 seconds of a system outage, IBM said.

New technology embedded in DB2 makes it possible for the database to act as a consumer or provider of web services. The upgrade, however, needs assistance from IBM's WebSphere application server.Scaling and performance improvements makes it easier to build data grids, and the product's new "Geodetic Extender" makes it easier to build spatially enabled applications for land management or any other tasks with geographical data requirements.

DB2 version 8.2, scheduled to ship Sept. 17, is the first major upgrade of the database since version 8.1 shipped in November 2002. The enterprise edition of the latest version will sell for a starting price of $25,000 per processor. A version for small workgroups and small and midsize businesses will sell for a starting price of $500. DB2 runs on Windows, Linux and Unix operating systems.