IBM Db2 Database Reviews

We're using the solution for an e-commerce project. 

It has a HADR availability, and we have a TSA as well. Whenever the primary database goes down, automatically, the primary database will be moved to standby. There will be minimum downtime in the case of a HADR setup, and it provides great performance. 

Db2 is coming on Kubernetes as well. Once you start using that, everything will be good. I'm currently learning Kubernetes as well.

The solution can scale.

It is stable. 

We need some time to improve the performance. We have to perform a weekly REORG, or else RUNSTATS for the databases.

In Oracle's 19.1 version, there are many ways to automate things. However, in the case of Db2, we have less scope. As of now, my understanding is they have a separate tool called Pacemaker. It's similar to the HADR, TSA, which is Tivoli System Automation. 

The initial setup is difficult. 

In terms of OS-level information, we won't be able to capture database entries. There are bugs. If the bugs are fixed in that, it'll be easier. Whenever there is an OS-level error or the logs are attached to the database, we have to reach out to the OS team to get the information. 

I've been using the solution for the last ten or more years. 

This is a stable product. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

We're currently using the solution for multiple projects. We have more than 100 people on the solution. 

It's very scalable. You can size it down or up. 

If we need to, we can contact IBM and get assistance. They have been okay for the most part.

Neutral

I'm also familiar with Oracle solutions. Oracle is more expensive.

It's hard to set up the solution. The setup could be easier in Db2. However, we have to work with the AX engineers to set up the Db2 file system. For that, we have to install the Db2 binaries, and we have to create the instance and create the databases. It takes around 30 to 45 minutes to deploy. That's pretty fast, at least.

We can handle the setup, for the most part, our own way, in-house. 

While the solution is less expensive compared to Oracle, it is still pretty expensive. 

We're an IBM customer. We're using it in a Windows environment. 

The reason to use Db2 depends upon the application team. Basically, we have the Db2 running in an older version as well. However, whenever we check with the application team, they don't want to upgrade since their applications also need to be supported. 

If a person is using the solution for the first time, they need to learn the architecture of Db2 and how Db2 works. After that, they would need an overview of the tables, the configurations, how the buffer pools, and how the data is fetching from the tables. 

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. 

I am currently using IBM Db2 for z/OS. It is used to manage a huge amount of structured business data and provides DB services for many different applications.

Its performance is great. In my case, half a million transactions per second are using the DB services of the Db2 mainframe. So, it provides a great ability to support logical units of work.

For every big organization or big site, such as a bank or a credit card company, the most important asset is data. An organization puts all its business data and manages it in Db2 because it trusts that Db2 will be able to provide all the necessary services, such as:

• Business continuation
• The ability to process a large amount of data
• The ability to maintain a large amount of data
• The ability to execute DB services in a fraction of a second

Its functionality and availability are valuable. Its availability is great. It is available 99.99% of the time. 

Its security is great, and there is also the ability to execute very complex SQL statements. It provides the developers the ability to get the functionality using great tools like SQL and many other additional features.

The management of Db2 should be simplified because there are not too many specialists in this area, and the learning curve of Db2 specialists is very long. After the courses, probably it takes one and a half or two years to get to the point when you are using the product properly in the production systems. So, the complexity is very high, and the most important thing is to simplify the management of the product, including self-maintenance. They should simplify the installation, management, and monitoring to simplify the product. It takes too long for a person to be a specialist in this product.

The price should also be adjusted a little bit. IBM is quite expensive with respect to the product.

I have been working with this solution for 34 years.

It is very stable.

It is absolutely scalable. It is hard to count the number of users. For example, in a bank, each and every customer of the bank uses the product. There are hundreds of thousands or, in my case, even millions of customers. There are also people who are not customers but access the website of the banks to look at something. Those people are not registered, but they're using the product as well. So, there could be millions of users. In the banks where I work, the business is growing. With the growth of the business, the number of users is also growing every year by a small percentage.

If Db2 is properly used, an organization can build a database with thousands of tables, and it can provide the exact information for the applications within a second. We have 500,000 transactions a second, and each of them needs to get some information from the database to perform a show, insert, or delete operation for different users. In the banking or finance domain, there are a large number of transactions. Even in a small country, there would be a large number of transactions every minute or seconds of the day. Db2 is capable of providing services for each and every transaction.

Currently, technical support is concentrated in IBM's main supporting facilities and laboratories. Years ago, each and every country had its own engineers who provided technical support, but today, it is concentrated in a few hands through the support centers of IBM, and their support is good.

Positive

Before Db2, we used IMS. It was years ago, and currently, in addition to Db2, the same organization is using Oracle, MSSQL, MySQL, and even NoSQL databases, such as MongoDB. During the past five years or so, the NoSQL databases are getting in as well. So, we are using a few RDBMSs and NoSQL databases as well in parallel.

When I compare IBM's mainframe Db2 for z/OS with other relational database management systems, this one wins against almost each and every other database in terms of abilities and performance. Optimizing the scales or optimizer for creating the access process is probably the best in the world. In many aspects, Db2 wins against almost each and every other RDBMS, including Oracle, Microsoft, MySQL, and NoSQL ones. However, in the area of complexity and maintenance, probably the others are better.

It is quite complex. It is not a simple installation. If the installation is done by a specialist, it takes a few hours.

It was implemented by our own in-house team. For deployment and maintenance, in a big organization, probably two DBAs are required to be on the safe side, in case one of them is on holiday or something like that. Two people are sufficient to maintain the product.

It is expensive. The price depends on the size of the machine on which you are installing the Db2 and the features you are using. It also depends on the country. IBM has different policies and different options for payment for this product. 

IBM Db2 manages a huge amount of structured business data and provides DB services for many different applications in banking, military, logistics, and other areas. Big organizations that are using IBM mainframe are using Db2 Database for providing the database services for various applications. Thousands of organizations in the world are using Db2 for managing their data—their most important asset. By using Db2, they can manage this huge amount of data by building an enterprise-wide data model, consisting of thousands of entities and tables. When built with a proper methodology, Db2 is a great asset for each and every organization.

IBM mainframe Db2 for z/OS would probably be the best platform if you need a database that is not limited to one specific area and can provide you with the following:

• Different DB services
• Different functional and application areas
• Parallel processing abilities with a big amount of relational structured data

It will be difficult to find a better solution for such a business.

I would rate it a nine out of ten. It is very good.

We use the product for managing large volumes of data, particularly in mainframe environments. It supports interoperability with other IBM systems and products.

They could enhance the product's cloud integration and general-purpose database capabilities to better compete with solutions like Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server.

Our organization has been using IBM Db2 Database for 20 years. 

I rate the product stability an eight or nine. 

I would rate Db2’s scalability around a six or seven. While it is adequate, other solutions like Oracle offer higher scalability.

While there can be occasional delays in response time, the support team is knowledgeable.

Neutral

We are switching from Db2 as part of a broader strategy to consolidate onto fewer platforms. Oracle is being favored for its widespread industry use and better cloud compatibility.

The initial setup was easy due to IBM’s comprehensive installation manuals.

I rate the process an eight out of ten. 

I rate the product pricing a nine out of ten. 

I rate IBM Db2 Database a seven out of ten. 

I'm helping customers migrate from Oracle to Db2. I am also assisting with business intelligence using Db2 Database.

One of the benefits of the solution is efficiency. One of our biggest clients is a bank based out of Brazil. As their data grew, fetching data became slow, and they did not have a good banking experience. By moving to Db2, they get better efficiency in managing and accessing the data. They have a good experience with the application.

IBM DB2 pureScale Feature is valuable. It is used for scalability. Customers with huge growth potential would really benefit from having a database that enables them to scale their business without the fear of having a redundant database.

The product’s user interface is not easy to use. I did one implementation of pureScale at Welsh Bank. It was very, very complex to deploy the feature. It took us more than six weeks. It has specialized hardware for you to use, and specialized switches are required to have that functionality in place. Over the years, it has improved, but nine years ago, it was a nightmare. The product should make the implementation of pureScale easy. It could give a seamless experience.

I have been using the solution for about ten years.

The solution is quite stable. It's not a simple database, but it comes with the territory. The product has existed for a long time, since the late 80s. The team has experience in databases, and maintaining them is a breeze for them. The tool is a futuristic database. I witnessed teams in IBM do time travel queries in 2012. The tool’s version 10 had already implemented time travel queries. Years later, we saw the features in other databases.

The product is years ahead of technology and architecture. It helps software developers have very good features that are years ahead. Now people are really focusing on the cloud. I'm sure they have features that help software engineers or developers work or code with the cloud in mind.

I've used SQL Server for a very long time. Microsoft SQL Server is quite easy to use from a beginner’s perspective. Its user interface is very intuitive and quite easy to use.

The ease of setup depends on the instances. In some instances, it's quite complex. Compared to SQL Server, MySQL, and PostgreSQL, Db2 is not easy to deploy. It is quite complex compared to other databases. However, the complexity comes with the territory. Companies that have complex requirements benefit from it.

Depending on the features we are deploying, deployment would take a couple of days to months. IBM DB2 pureScale Feature is quite complex. Deploying it is not easy unless you have somebody who's very, very experienced. While deploying pureScale, we need staff to help with the deployment. I was working with IBM at the time, so I could ask my colleagues, who were quite experienced, to help me. They were from the worldwide team in Toronto. They're quite happy to help.

From a customer’s perspective, we would need a very experienced business partner if we get support from a business partner to assist with the deployment. If we have money, we can contact IBM. IBM is quite expensive. IBM is always ready to assist, and the team is quite experienced. As long as you have knowledgeable database administrators who have the experience and are ready to learn, it's quite easy to maintain daily. For upgrades, we need someone who's very, very experienced to do an actual migration. SQL Server is quite easy to migrate. For Db2, we need experienced people to help out with the migration.

Compared to other databases, Db2 is relatively cheaper. Oracle is very expensive. Sometimes, it is ten times more expensive than what we pay for Db2. However, Db2 has more features as compared to Oracle. When we buy Db2, we buy all the features. When we buy Oracle, we just buy a few features. For example, for row access security, you have a different product that you need to pay to unlock that functionality. Things like storage are available on Db2 straight out of the box. You have to pay Oracle to unlock new features.

I work with huge enterprise customers such as banks who, at the moment, are not quite ready to take the data to the cloud. Db2’s SQL PL understands up to 85% of Oracle’s thought procedures. Many developers are unwilling to invest a lot of money and resources to migrate Oracle databases with huge thought procedures to Db2. However, with Db2, we don't have to migrate all the thought procedures or triggers. DB2 understands most of that language out of the box without changing anything. So it's quite easy to move from Oracle to Db2. This is what I would advise any enterprise customer that is ready to move to Db2. It’s very, very cheap in the long term compared to Oracle or any other database. Overall, I rate the solution a nine and a half out of ten.

IBM Db2 is a database for our core banking. We extract data from Db2 and put it in the data warehouse.

The main database platform is for core banking. It covers vulnerabilities.

The structure is straightforward, consisting of the test file and the logical and physical files. You have one physical file and many logical files related to it.

Banks use it which indicates that the security and compliance features are quite good.

The data table names are very short which is not user friendly compared to the Oracle SQL server. It should have longer column and table names.

I have been using IBM Db2 Database for six years.

I rate the solution’s stability an eight out of ten.

The solution is scalable depending on the IBM hardware you're using. IBM has also operation for Unix hardware. 1,000 users are using this solution.

Oracle is very good product compared to Db2. We have used Postgre too.

Deployment is vert fast. It takes eight hours to complete. It depends on what path you're doing. IBM provides training.

The product has a competitive pricing.

The solution depends on the use case. It is reliable and scalable.
Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

We use the solution for handling retail customer information. We use it as an integration broker. It stores all the vendor information.

We rely on it for our data transfers. If we need to send an invoice, for example, we'd use this product. 

The solution is very stable and reliable. It's a very mature product.

If you have specialized support, it's fine in terms of getting assistance.

The solution can scale. 

IBM gives us tools that help us 

When I look at Microsoft SQL Server, SQL Server provides me with better tools for database management. IBM is missing things like data permissions and backups, et cetera. Microsoft has a very user-friendly interface that IBM lacks. The user interface from IBM is not great.

I've used the solution on and off for the past ten years. 

It's a stable solution. It's been around for quite some time and is very mature. It's reliable. There are no bugs or glitches, and it doesn't crash or freeze. 

It's quite scalable. We haven't had any issues. We can reuse DB2 mainframes, et cetera. We haven't had issues. 

We're not increasing usage. We're pushing towards the cloud and Azure systems. 

We are a big customer of IBM and have some sort of specialized services. We have an elevated support agreement that helps. In general, it's not the greatest. That's only at a personal level.

Neutral

I am familiar with the Microsoft SQL Server, which is more user-friendly and has more user-friendly features. We're also exploring moving away from this solution to more cloud-based Azure services. 

The setup wasn't part of my job. We had a team that handled it. However, my understanding is it was straightforward. 

I don't deal with the pricing. I can't speak to its exact cost.

I'm not a database person. I'm a programmer. 

I'm using version nine in the company.

If a person wants to use the solution from a user perspective, I'd suggest they actually look at cloud programs, not IBM or on-premises. Cloud simplifies a lot of things. If I were starting from scratch, I'd go right to the could.

The reliability is excellent, and therefore I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. I only have issues with the user interface.

The most valuable feature of the solution is its compatibility with IBM Power Systems.

IBM Db2 Database is not a commodity product compatible with hyperscalers. IBM Db2 Database needs to work more on compatibility with other platforms.

Considering the competitors of IBM Db2 Database, I would say that the tool has to be made more cloud-friendly and should have agreements with AWS, Microsoft, or Google to run things on hyperscalers. In general, I would want the tool to have a bit more openings around cloud solutions rather than only being available on-premises.

I have been using IBM Db2 Database for a few years.

It is a stable solution.

It is a scalable solution.

It doesn't really matter whether small companies or big companies use IBM Db2 Database. Whether to choose IBM Db2 Database or not depends on a customer's preferences.

If I consider the price of IBM Db2 Database, I would say there are cheaper products in the market.

Whether or not there is a requirement to pay additionally for maintenance or support apart from the standard licensing fees of the solution depends on the agreement you have with IBM.

When you look at IBM Db2 Database, you feel it is more of a vendor lock-in type of approach. IBM Db2 Database offers little performance difference or competitive advantage compared to Oracle SQL or other platforms.

The products recommended to my customers may vary and depend on certain agreements. There are a lot of products, like Oracle, Microsoft SQL, and many other cloud databases, making for a wide portfolio of products.

IBM Db2 Database is a very standard and IBM-centric solution, so you need to be familiar with all the aspects of the product since it is not really an open product, meaning you can't run it on everything. IBM Db2 Database only runs on specific systems. I rate the overall product an eight out of ten.

We use it for the core banking business. We have Db2 for z/OS 2.4 on the IBM mainframe machine. It is on-premises of one of the big banks in Israel.

Its robustness, scalability, availability, and performance are valuable. All these are the major attributes of a relational database for supporting a very high-volume business, and Db2 is very good in all those areas and in all those attributes.

They should simplify the management of Db2 as a relational database system. There should be the simplification of management. This is probably one of the most important asks for being successful in the future.

They should add AI support for performance improvements for application and system performance and tuning management. AI is a very deep and complex product. There are thousands of parameters, and it is very hard to do it manually. So, I would suggest developing an AI system to do the monitoring, tuning, and performance improvements.

I have been using this product for 40 years.

It is very stable. There are organizations where Db2 has been working for more than a year and sometimes, for many years without going down. The operating system as well as Db2 work for a long time. There is no downtime at all.

It is very scalable. There are about 250 application systems with even more different databases on the same server with data sharing.

Their technical support is okay. It was better 10 years ago, but it is still okay.

It must be done by a professional. It is not a simple task. Somebody with quite significant experience must do the initial setup. It is difficult.

It is expensive.

I would rate IBM Db2 Database an eight out of 10.