6 Reasons Why DB2 10.5 ”Cancun Release” Is So Important

The new DB2 10.5 “Cancun Release” was recently released as DB2 LUW Version 10.5 Fix Pak 4.  IBM has done a lot of work and put a number of impressive features in this DB2 LUW Fix Pak 4.  All these new DB2 10.5 “Cancun Release” features remove any doubts or restrictions about going to the most recent DB2 LUW BLU Acceleration which offers the new column data store as a table definition option.

When I first talked about DB2 LUW Version 10.5 BLU Acceleration last year here, it offered state-of-the-art technology and performance processing that no other DBMS offered. That’s still true. Its new column data store, actionable 90-95% compression, Single instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) for interrogating multi-core CPU buffers in parallel, and data skipping technology for avoiding I/O against unneeded data make DB2 LUW 10.5 performance extremely desirable and the best in the industry.

The list of features and improvements of DB2 10.5 “Cancun Release” are long and very detailed, and the best place to get information on the prerequisites and features is here at the IBM DB2 10.5 “Cancun Release”  Fix Pak Knowledge Center website.

Some of the most important Fix Pak 4 features that jump to the top of the DB2 LUW list are:

1. Better performance without any effort.  DB2 LUW system software leverages the new Power8 chip better than previous releases which provides more threads per CPU, larger memory addressability, and 2.4x more I/O bandwidth.  The BLU Acceleration capabilities that I mentioned earlier are uniquely tailored to fully exploit the Power8 chip improvements.
   
   
2. Application programmers can now leverage SQL arrays for INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE, grabbing a full web page of DB2 data during one trip to the database.  Also, application processes can now leverage the SQL MERGE statement to help eliminate the complex application processing logic for insert or update processes.
   
   
3. DB2 pureScale removes interconnect hurtles, now leveraging TCP/IP to connect its different DB2 LUW members.  By running within virtual machines (VMs) DB2 pureScale can be more easily leveraged, managed and configured by quickly configuring and deploying VM for additional pureScale members.  DB2 pureScale now supports spatial data types, removing previous restrictions. Now all types of applications can have their data leveraged within the high availability pureScale environment.
   
   
4. Full HADR support for column-organized tables, as well as new monitoring fields to check on the health of your HADR environment, and the ability to take GPFS snapshot backups remove the column HADR restriction and enhances disaster recovery for all DB2 LUW HADR users.
   
   
5. DB2 10.5 “Cancun Release” removes almost all of the restrictions to implementing DB2 LUW Version BLU Acceleration columnar tables.  The ability to get better Explain information, the new SYNOPSIS table support, improved columnar table support of SQL with table expressions, support for the ALTER ADD COLUMN, and other features give the developer and DBA more flexibility with DB2 LUW.  If you haven’t experienced the performance of column-based tables there is no longer any excuse to delay leveraging DB2 LUW column-base-table technology.
   
   
6. DB2 10.5 “Cancun Release” adds several security enhancements such as new auditing facilities to make sure the users and applications are well-behaved.  The most impressive is the new enhanced encryption that is NIST SP 800-131A compliant.  This encryption, which only has a minor performance overhead, does a great job of encrypting the data storage at rest.  There are new monitoring elements to let DBAs and application developers verify their process performance.  To improve ease of use, the new DB2 LUW install  no longer requires Root access making the installation and maintenance of DB2 LUW even easier for operations organizations.

IBM has done a great job with the BLU Acceleration DB2 10.5 “Cancun Release”.  These great features along with others that I didn’t mention continue to enhance the DB2 LUW column table options along with security.  Everyone should attend and look forward to the upcoming IDUG and IBM Insight conferences where you’ll hear more about these and other great features from the IBM developers who will lead you on a trip to “Cancun” DB2 10.5 “Cancun Release.”

Dave Beulke is a system strategist, application architect, and performance expert specializing in Big Data, data warehouses, and high performance internet business solutions. He is an IBM Gold Consultant, Information Champion, and President of DAMA-NCR, former President of International DB2 User Group, and frequent speaker at national and international conferences. His architectures, designs, and performance tuning techniques help organization better leverage their information assets, saving millions in processing costs.

As President of the DAMA-NCR Washington DC user group I would like to announce DAMA Day September 16, 2014.  Great speakers with topics you need to know!

• John Ladley – Using Enterprise Architecture to Manage Data Governance and Information Management
• David Loshin – Establishing a Business Case for Data Quality Improvement
• Catherine Ives – Understanding and working with the DATA Act
• Peter Aiken – The Case for the CDO

For more information go to www.dama-ncr.org.

Also look to the IBM Insight (formerly Information on Demand-IOD conference) for more information.  For more details go here.

Support IDUG through the European IDUG conference in Prague, CR November 9-14.  For more details go to www.idug.org.