IBM DB2 Analytics Accelerator: 5 Performance Enhancements in the New Version 4.1

The IBM DB2 Analytics Accelerator (IDAA) continues to be improved, and the Version 4.1 enhancements really help take your SQL program performance to the next level.  The following five changes within Version 4.1 of IBM’s DB2 Analytics Accelerator increase its flexibility, availability, workload balancing, and sharing capabilities.

1. IBM DB2 Analytics Accelerator adoption rate accelerates. The adoption rate of the IBM DB2 Analytics Accelerator continues to increase.  Last year the IBM DB2 Analytics Accelerator was a bright star and will continue this year as more companies look to save money and improve performance.  Also as companies look to the security, availability, and low cost of the mainframe, enhancing SQL performance becomes an easy decision because of the inexpensive IDAA sizing options.  The low cost and many different sizes of IBM DB2 Analytics Accelerators are offered based on your workload, storage requirements, and SQL transaction rates.  Since the IBM DB2 Analytics Accelerator usually shaves huge amounts off mainframe CPU usage, using it can sometimes be a net savings in some situations.
   
   
2. IBM DB2 Analytics Accelerator provides static program SQL query acceleration.  With Version 4.1 the IBM DB2 Analytics Accelerator can handle and manage execution of static program SQL.  With the ability to manage both static and dynamic SQL workloads the administrator has flexibility to control which workloads go to the IBM DB2 Analytics Accelerator or the base DB2 database tables within your performance configuration.  This flexibility, along with the new capabilities of handling rowsets and multi-row fetch SQL, Version 4.1 embraces all types of application possibilities.  Enhanced support of more DB2 functions such as BITAND() and TIMESTAMPDIFF(), the ability to handle more data types, and the capability of leveraging multiple code pages within a single IBM DB2 Analytics Accelerator, let all types of workload leverage the robust performance possibilities.
3. Multiple IBM DB2 Analytics Accelerators can be configured for HA/DR.  Since everyone these days is consolidating workloads on the mainframe, from Oracle RAC systems being migrated to DB2 z/OS to UNIX server consolidations under zLinux, the mainframe DB2 data sharing systems are getting bigger and becoming the main data source for most applications.  With all of the data on the mainframe Version 4.1 of the IBM DB2 Analytics Accelerator provides the ability to configure multiple accelerators within a DB2 environment.  Being able to configure multiple accelerators provides the DB2 data sharing subsystems a high availability environment with no single point of failure.
   
   
4. New WLM support for local applications.  Since you can have multiple accelerators within an environment, workload management aspects are now available with Version 4.1 of the IBM DB2 Analytics Accelerator.  This important feature helps DB2 detect the current utilization of each of the attached accelerators and push a new query to the accelerator with the lowest utilization.  Also a new WLM API provides configuration details to furnish WLM with importance levels and default priorities of different SQL programs and workloads.  These WLM API configuration and workload monitoring facilities will continue to be enhanced as the IBM DB2 Analytics Accelerators go on to provide huge performance benefits.
   
   
5. Version 4.1 lets a single IBM DB2 Analytics Accelerator support up to 10 DB2 subsystems.  Version 4.1 now allows all your DB2 subsystems to share and leverage the accelerator capabilities.  By providing connectivity to up to 10 DB2 subsystems, a single IBM DB2 Analytics Accelerator can improve the performance of almost all of your DB2 subsystems.  We all have large tables being scanned by various reporting systems. Being able to have these large tables leverage an accelerator can make a huge difference in performance and lower the overall CPU costs when offloading those workloads to the IBM DB2 Analytics Accelerator box.

The IBM DB2 Analytics Accelerator continues to be a great way to improve performance and save mainframe CPU costs.  These five performance enhancements in the new Version 4.1 are further proof that IBM and DB2 for z/OS are the best low cost solutions available for your next new web or mobile application.

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Dave Beulke is a system strategist, application architect, and performance expert specializing in Big Data, data warehouses, and high performance internet business solutions. He is an IBM Gold Consultant, Information Champion, and President of DAMA-NCR, former President of International DB2 User Group, and frequent speaker at national and international conferences. His architectures, designs, and performance tuning techniques help organization better leverage their information assets, saving millions in processing costs.