IBM Unveils DB2 Viper for the Mainframe

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that the DB2 9 "Viper" data server is now available for System z customers. Featuring hundreds of new features for mainframe customers, DB2 9 for z/OS will provide unmatched security, enhanced data storage compression and, for the first time, allow the seamless management of relational and XML data in the same database.

DB2 9 for z/OS (DB2 9) brings significant advancements to the mainframe, including patented "pureXML" technology and enhanced autonomic data management capabilities. This combination of industry-first features, along with new security and disaster recovery enhancements, can speed information queries and provide clients with unconstrained information access and significantly reduce total cost of system administration.

IBM customers such as Citigroup have done extensive testing of DB2 9 for z/OS and are excited about the new capabilities the product provides.

"The new security and compliance tracking capabilities of DB2 9 for z/OS will allow us to simplify our existing process for the management reporting of changes to our production database systems," said Bob Perih, Senior Vice President, Citigroup. "In addition, we have evaluated the new native XML support that DB2 9 provides and view this as a major technological advancement to help us to integrate XML data into a format that will allow for more robust and efficient usage by applications."

IBM partners also played a key role during the development of DB2 9 for z/OS and have added applications to what has become a rapidly growing ecosystem supporting the new data server.

"IBM and SAP have cooperated very closely on DB2 9 for z/OS and we look forward to supporting our customers with these new capabilities," stated Torsten Wittkugel, Vice President of Database and Operating System Platform Development at SAP. "The SAP Banking Services 5.0 release, which will be released soon, will be the first SAP product to take advantage of many new beneficial features in DB2 9 for z/OS."

DB2 9 for z/OS builds upon proven capabilities in areas such as online schema evolution, Unicode, XML, SQL, utilities, security and compliance, and 64-bit virtual storage. Optimization improvements include performance-boosting innovations, synergy with IBM System z, and query management enhancements driving increased cost savings.

"DB2 9 Viper for z/OS marks a significant milestone in the database software industry and has changed the rules of competition," said Ambuj Goyal, general manager IBM Information Management. "Viper provides increased performance, deep compression capabilities along with scalability and availability that are unmatched anywhere in the industry."

In addition to DB2 9 for z/OS, IBM is announcing new and enhanced DB2 and IMS Tools including IBM DataQuant, DB2 Optimization Expert and DB2 Utilities Suite. IBM is also announcing that all DB2 tools support and exploit DB2 9 for z/OS today.

DB2 9 for z/OS builds on the customer value of IBM's DB2 9 Viper data server that was first introduced for Linux, UNIX and Windows customers in July of 2006.

DB2 9 is the culmination of a five-year IBM development project that transformed traditional, static database technology into an interactive, vibrant data server that enables clients to improve their ability to manage all types of information and provides an industry-first seamless and simultaneous information flow of XML and relational data, regardless of platform or location.

For more information about IBM, visit ibm.com/db2/zos-new