Kingdee has been testing DB2 9 with its Enterprise Application Suite with a focus on the new compression capabilities. According to IBM's Chan, the new compression features will enable users to tap into mainframe-like storage compression performance which can help companies facing the constant need to add storage to cope with growth.

Kingdee' tests have revealed that over 50 percent of the storage capacity for the majority of tables can be saved, said Lin Feng, vice president of Kingdee Software. "We were even more pleased when we found out that DB2 9's compression capability helped us process database queries on average 20 percent faster than before," he added.

DB2 9 also features new automated management features that will help administrators and independent software vendors. IBM calls this autonomic storage management which enables automatic tuning of the database to various environments, software applications and platforms. Chan noted that often users complain of lower performance than expected when new applications are implemented. This is not always an application problem but could require some tuning of the database to optimize performance. DB2 9 provides automated tuning and management of the configuration to maximize application and overall system performance, noted Chan.