After five years of development, IBM has finally
launched the next generation of its DB2 database
server.
Available next month, DB2 9 offers XML technology called
PureXML, which allows users to manage both conventional relational
data and XML data in a consistent way, thereby reducing database
administration.
The product also uses row compression technology called Venom,
designed to improve disc, input/output and memory utilisation.
IBM said Venom delivers mainframe-like data storage compression
capability to the Linux, Unix and Windows computing
environments.
Also new to DB2 9 is autonomic storage management. This is
designed to automate storage management tasks, which currently
require numerous manual and incremental changes by
administrators.
IBM is also adding support for service oriented architectures
(SOAs) to make it easier for organisations to develop web
applications in response to the needs of their business.
DB2 9 will also offer support for the open source web
development framework Ruby on Rails, among other features.