Evolution of Db2
IBM Db2, released on June 7, 1983, revolutionized data storage, management, processing, and query.
Db2 has had an exciting and transformative 40 years. In 1969, retired IBM Fellow Edgar F. Codd published “A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks.” His paper and research inspired Donald D. Chamberlin and Raymond F. Boyce to create SQL.
IBM Db2 V1.1 launched on MVS in 1985 after its 1983 announcement. The “father of Db2,” retired IBM Fellow Don Haderle, saw 1988 as a turning point when DB2 version 2 proved it could handle online transactional processing (OLTP), the lifeblood of business computing. A single database and relational model for transactions and business intelligence were created.
Successful mainframe ports led to OS/2, AIX, Linux, Unix, Windows, and other platforms on IBM and non-IBM hardware. The 1993-born Db2 (LUW) turns 30 in 2023.
Impact of Db2 on IBM
Db2 established IBM as a hardware, software, and services provider. Its early success and IBM WebSphere in the 1990s made it the database system for the 1992 Barcelona, 1996 Atlanta, and 1998 Nagano Olympics. Performance and stability were essential to avoid failures or delays that could affect millions of viewers.
IBM Db2 protecting, performant, and resilient business applications and analytics anywhere is based on decades of data security, scalability, and availability innovation. Forrester’s 2022 Total Economic Impact Report for Data Management highlights Db2 and IBM’s data management portfolio’s impact on customers:
- ROI = 241% and payback <6 months.
- Benefits PV $3.43M and NPV $2.42M
- Customer experience growth of $1.76M, automation-driven productivity gains of $1.20M, and data-driven operational improvements of $473K are three-year benefits.
What is LUW IBM Db2?
IBM Db2 (LUW) is a cloud-native database that powers low-latency transactions and real-time analytics at scale. It offers self-managed and SaaS options. It gives DBAs, enterprise architects, and developers a single engine to run critical apps. It stores and queries anything and speeds decision-making across organizations.
Db2 has given customers’ data management solutions stability and dependability for 30 years. Its robust architecture and proven performance have powered enterprise-level applications and provided uninterrupted data access.
Db2 v11.5 revolutionized data management, allowing organizations to maximize their data.
How Db2, AI, and hybrid cloud interact
IBM AI-infused intelligence Data management is improved by automated insights, self-tuning performance optimization, and predictive analytics in Db2 v11.5. Machine learning algorithms continuously learn and adapt to workload patterns, improving performance and reducing administrative work.
Additionally, robust tooling and integration with popular development frameworks speed up application development and deployment. REST APIs, JSON support, and SQL compatibility help developers build cloud-native apps. Db2 v11.5 is reliable, flexible, and AI-ready.
Db2 Universal Container (Db2u) is a microservices-based containerization technology. Every component is divided into services that run in one or more containers. This architecture improves fault isolation because applications are mostly unaffected by microservice failures. Overall, deployment is easier. Automatic provisioning, scaling, and redundancy. Db2 runs on Red Hat OpenShift, Kubernetes, AWS ROSA & EKS, and Azure ARO & AKS.
Fully managed IBM Db2 database and warehouse services are also available. Fully managed Db2 database SaaS for high-performance transactional workloads. Meanwhile, Db2 Warehouse SaaS is a fully managed elastic cloud data warehouse using columnar technology. Both services scale compute and storage independently, provide high availability, and automate DBA tasks.
Watsonx.data integration
IBM introduced watsonx.data, an open, hybrid, and governed data store for all data, analytics, and AI workloads, at Think. Open data lakehouse architecture integrates commodity Cloud Object Store, open data/table formats, and open-source query engines. Watsonx.data will be fully integrated with Db2 Warehouse, allowing it to access data in Db2 tables using a Db2 connector and cataloging its metastore to share data in open formats like Parquet and Apache Iceberg.
Watsonx.data scales up and down with cost-effective compute and storage and powerful query engines like Presto and Spark. This allows Db2 Warehouse customers to pair the right workload with the right engine based on price and performance to augment workloads and reduce costs. Db2 transactional data can be combined with watsonx.data data for new insights and scaled AI.
Connecting Db2 and z/OS Db2
The world’s most valuable data is still stored on mainframes. The platform can execute 110,000 million instructions per second, or 9.5 trillion per day. Cybercriminals may target the mainframe due to its high-value data, which contains sensitive financial and personal information. Fortunately, IBM Z is one of the most secure platforms. Industry’s first quantum-safe system is IBM z16.
Parallel sysplex and Db2 data sharing are landmarks in database history and technological achievements. The IBM mainframe’s deep software-hardware integration and synergy yields these benefits. Parallel sysplex and Db2 data sharing provide mission-critical workloads with maximum scalability and availability.
Exploring Db2 for z/OS Version 13 innovations
IBM Db2 for z/OS version 13, released May 2022, adds cutting-edge features to strengthen its position as a hybrid cloud foundation for enterprise computing.
In availability, scalability, performance, security, and ease of use, Db2 13 for z/OS improves all critical enterprise database success factors. Synergy with surrounding tools and technology maximizes Db2 13’s value. The latest IBM Z hardware and SQL Data Insights AI technology provide semantic SQL query support for unprecedented business value from data.
New and improved application development tooling, AI infusion for operational efficiency, and IBM Db2 Data Gate complement Db2 13’s new capabilities.
Db2 for z/OS offers enterprise-scale HTAP with its patented consistency and coherency model and heterogeneous scale-out architecture.
More applications, especially mobile computing and the Internet of Things, require the ability to ingest hundreds of thousands of rows per second. Tracking website clicks, mobile network carrier call data, “smart meter” events, and embedded devices can generate huge volumes of transactions with the IoT.
Many consider NoSQL databases necessary for high data ingestion. However, Db2 allows high insert rates without partitioning or sharding the database and queries the data using standard SQL with ACID compliance on the world’s most stable, highly available platform.
Db2 for z/OS switched to continuous delivery in 2016, delivering new features and enhancements through the service stream in weeks (and sometimes days) instead of years. This improves agility while maintaining customer quality, reliability, stability, and security.
Db2 invests in availability, performance, and scalability to handle today’s and tomorrow’s most demanding workloads with a continuous delivery model. This allows millions of inserts per second, trillions of rows per table, and more.
IBM analytics solutions like Cognos, SPSS, QMF, ML for z/OS, IBM Db2 Analytics Accelerator, Data Gate, and others use IBM Db2 for z/OS as their data server. Db2 for z/OS’s value has created “Data Gravity,” prompting organizations to co-locate their applications and analytics solutions with their data. This reduces network and infrastructure latencies, costs, and security risks.
The volume and velocity of transaction workloads, the richness of data in each transaction, and the data in log files are gold mines for machine learning and AI applications to exploit cognitive capabilities and create a more intelligent and secure solution.
The recently released IBM Watson Machine Learning for z/OS uses open-source technology and the latest innovations to make the platform’s perceived complexity transparent to data scientists through the IBM Data Science Experience interface.
