IBM releases DB2 version 10, the first big upgrade in four years

03.04.2012
Sensing a change in the way customers store and analyze data, IBM has updated its flagship DB2 relational database management software to handle a wider range of data processing duties. The company has also updated its InfoSphere data warehouse software, IBM announced Tuesday.

"We believe we're in a new era of data management. The answer to every data challenge today is not to use a relational database management system," said Bernie Spang, IBM's director of strategy and marketing for database systems. "It's about using the right tool for the right job."

Version 10 of both products will be available April 30.

Both products are faster and work more efficiently, IBM claims. DB2 can cut storage space requirements by up to 90 percent, and InfoSphere can execute queries up to 10 times faster than before, according to IBM.

Both products have new capabilities as well. DB2 can now work with the World Wide Web Consortium's RDF (Resource Description Framework) data format. InfoSphere can now communicate with Apache Hadoop deployments.

DB2 version 10 is the first major update for the database system software in four years. IBM released DB2 version 10 for z/OS in 2010. This release is for Linux, Unix and Windows systems, and has a different codebase and is maintained by different set of developers from the z/OS version.