o
The database might not be the first place you would look to
help reduce hardware costs, but IBM has been working on
that line of thinking with DB2 for some time. For example,
the long-term performance advantage maintained by DB2
can ultimately translate into a reduced need for hardware
purchases, because you aren’t forced to constantly add hardware to keep up with performance demands.
Data compression can have the same beneficial effects
n an organization’s need for storage, and DB2 9. 7 offers
improvements to the Deep Compression technology that
first appeared in DB2 9. 1. Whereas version 9. 5 added the
capability to automatically start compressing data once
there’s enough data to create a meaningful dictionary, DB2
9. 7 adds the ability to compress more than just row data,
expanding to include indexes, log files, temporary tables,
inline XML data, and large objects. These enhancements
will be of particular interest to organizations with large
business intelligence (BI) applications and data warehouses,
which depend on indexes and temporary tables.
Unlocking
XMLdata
By enabling DB2 to store XML data in its native format, the pureXML engine has
given organizations that depend on XML tremendous advantages in performance
and flexibility. A major enhancement in DB2 9. 7 is the ease of moving back and
forth between SQL data and XML data—developers don’t need to know which is
which and can develop with whatever tools they prefer.
More organizations are capturing XML data but aren’t sure what to do with
. For example, suppliers may communicate via XML with an organization’s EDI
system, so that a single system can handle the interaction with all suppliers. Until
now, the organization’s transactional system has had to convert XML data to
relational data or simply delete it from the warehouse. But DB2 9. 7 can store XML
in a warehouse and can scale to accommodate high volumes of data—even a
terabyte or more. By taking advantage of this capability, organizations can now
use their BI tools directly against XML to discover business insight previously
locked in their XML data. The enhancements to Deep Compression for XML have
led to great results, with compression rates over 65 percent and performance
acceleration of more than 1. 5 times.
it
The additional compression also leads to better performance with indexes and temp tables. Companies involved in
the beta testing program for the most recent version of DB2
are consistently reporting compression rates of 70 percent or
more, which translates into storage savings of up to 50 percent with no performance penalties.
DB2 9. 7 compresses
more than just row
data; it can also
compress indexes,
log ;les, temporary
tables, inline XML
data, and large objects.
li
l
Virtualization on the march
Most databases continue to command dedicated physical
servers, but virtualization is on the rise—so IBM has
announced support for virtualization in all editions of DB2
9. 7 for LUW, from IBM DB2 Express to IBM DB2 Enterprise,
as well as the IBM InfoSphere Warehouse for DB2 editions.
IBM supports a broad array of virtualization environments for
x86 and x64 architectures, including both full virtualization
(VMware ESX, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server), and OS virtualization (Solaris Zones,
Parallels Virtuozzo Containers). For a complete list of virtualization support, visit ibm.com/developerworks/wikis/
display/im/DB2+Virtualization+Support.
IBM has also optimized DB2 9. 7 for VMware. As work-oads or virtual partitions change, DB2 will react and
dynamically allocate memory. You can also take advantage
of the VMware vMotion feature to move a virtual machine
from one physical server to another with no downtime.
IBM is certified by VMware on this capability.
To help lower costs, IBM offers flexible virtualization
cense costs, where you pay only for the number of virtual
resources that you have deployed. Processor Value Unit
(PVU) sub-capacity licensing lets you license DB2 for less
than the full capacity of your server or group of servers. It
provides the licensing granularity needed to leverage various
multi-core chip and virtualization technologies. Also, IBM
has provided additional usage options by announcing DB2
availability through the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud
(EC2) infrastructure service ( aws.amazon.com/ibm).
