Every year at the DB2 training and DB2 education IDUG conference the users, consultants, vendors and IBMers get together and talk about the best database for performance and the lowest total cost of ownership – DB2. This year was great because it seems that almost everyone is at DB2 Version 8 for z/OS or going to Version 9. All are really excited about the new DB2 Version 9.7 for LUW.
DB2 for z/OS
The z/OS environment continues to migrate forward. Everyone is at a minimum at Version 8 and most people have either already implemented Version 9 in test or are planning on “going to Version 9 in 2009.” This migration is great because everyone is finally taking advantage of the great features within V8 such as separating partitioning and clustering. Another feature that everyone is starting to use is the new Universal Tablespaces (UTS) along with the many new SQL features such as DB2 Materialized Query Tables (MQTs) and better access path optimization for improved DB2 performance. These features seemed to be the most popular new Version 8 features that people were leveraging after they finally implemented Version 8.
DB2 Version 9 for z/OS was also interesting with about 30% of the crowd already implementing Version 9 for z/OS in test. Also everyone said to apply the latest DB2 maintenance, it helped resolve or avoid migration issues. The talk was that all the new DB2 zParms should be turned on eventually and carefully because some access paths may be improved through enabling parameters such as global optimization and other SQL related parameters. Remember to look into all the latest PTF and APARs as they are there to help you avoid any situations in your shop.
DB2 for LUW
In addition, Cobra, the new DB2 Version 9.7 for LUW was fully announced and discussed during DB2 training and DB2 education sessions at the conference. The many features such as index compression, improved transaction concurrency, Oracle compatibility and Scalar functions, especially the new date and time functions were great to hear about. There is so much to talk about that going to the IBM web site at http://ibm.com/db2 is probably the best way to get documentation about all the features.
It was another great IDUG conference with great information to meet your DB2 training and DB2 education needs.
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