IBM Db2 Database Reviews

I use IBM Db2 Database for an application that we use in the marketing sector.

I was a consultant.

When we use IBM Db2 Database, we are using a simple SQL server. I didn't use all of the features. It's mainly because when I worked, they used to set up Db2 for DB.

The most valuable aspect of this solution is its stability. We have never had any problems and have never had to contact technical support.

The scalability could be improved, but the problem was that it was something in the legacy of the application where I work.

The problem was not the DB itself, but there were certain limits regarding the application, and the DB was the final component, where we worked. We weren't too concerned with the DB.

It's expensive, but it's not for every client. 

Also, the website could be more intuitive. I didn't find it easy to find documentation on the website.

I have been working with IBM Db2 Database for one year.

IBM Db2 Database was stable, we didn't have any issues.

IBM Db2 Database is not scalable.

We have approximately 8, 000 clients.

We didn't have any issues with IBM Db2 Database. It was stable for us. We did not have the need to contact technical support.

I have some experience with Terraform, from HashiCorp. 

It's a tool for infrastructure, for building automation similar to Jenkins, or Bamboo.

I worked with Bamboo a year ago.

I have worked with databases such as MySQL, IBM Db2, Oracle DB, and some NoSQL databases like MongoDB. We use the threat procedures when we used Oracle DB.

When I worked within Db2, I didn't set up the Db2. I just used it. I didn't do any tuning or anything like that. I only performed some database management.

Clients are required to purchase a license.

I would recommend this solution to others who are interested in using it.

I would rate IBM Db2 Database a seven out of ten.

I used DB2 two years ago. It's a data warehouse project solution for a bank. I use DB2 as a warehouse and the data stacks for the APL.

My role in this project was as a database designer. I would design the database, the warehouse, and get the requirements. 

I am not detailed in the technicality of creating the table in DB2.

I am now selling this product.

The most valuable feature is data analytics.

The price should be lower.

I have been working with this solution for six months.

I use the DB2 BLU version.

This solution is stable. It's good.

I don't' have any knowledge about scalability.

The technical support is good. They have presales and technical support. When you submit a ticket the response time is quick.

Previously we were using SQL Server.

The main difference is the pricing and implementation.

The initial setup was straightforward.

It took four months to deploy this solution.

I only use one server to implement the solution.

I think that everyone knows that with IBM the standard price is higher than the others.

There is a lot of documentation available. I was, however, able to find what I needed through Google.

For our clients who have a large scale enterprise, we suggest DB2 and mid-scale enterprise customers we suggest SQL Server or others.

It's a better solution, it's better on the application. The purpose of DB2 is for a data warehouse or with data analytics.

I would rate this product an eight out of ten.

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.

I'm using this solution for a financial network. I make and prepare the databases for analysis.

I'm using version 11.5. There are 1,200 people using this solution in my organization. It's deployed on-premise.

It's very secure.

The command line part of this solution could be much better. Redshift is a lot better. It's easier to work with them. IBM Db2 is a little bit outdated.

I've been using this solution for two years.

It's scalable.

Technical support isn't very helpful when I've had problems.

It's not easy to set up. It takes a long time, especially compared to other solutions.

It's very expensive.

I would rate this solution 6 out of 10.

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.

The primary use for our Db2 database is for OLAP (Online Analytical Processing). Our department is using it for data warehousing and data analysis.  

We are deploying some of our enterprise systems to Azure. We would like to migrate data there and most of the systems will be running on the infrastructure as a service, so we will have lots of servers. Migrating data from Db2 becomes an important matter.  

Our target currently is to create the infrastructure which would include the servers, the backup solutions, the databases, application servers and whatever else we need.  

Db2 enables us to analyze big amounts of structured data in DataWarehouse solutions.

The feature that is one of the most valuable in Db2 is the DPF, or the Database Partitioning Feature that use Massive Parallel Processing architecture. We have deployments where one database is deployed on multiple physical servers. It is not exactly like RAC from Oracle. The purpose is not the availability but the performance and scalability of the DPF.  

Integration with other services could use some improvement. Currently, we are using Informatica ETL (Extract, Transform and Load) and the data is not loading as expected between the Db2 database and Informatica. Our goal is to eventually migrate the data to Azure servers and evaluate how it will perform. Currently, we are doing a POC (Proof of Concept) on this migration, but the second step cannot be completed without a dependable data load.  

We have been using Db2 for a long time. Maybe 15 years.  

DB2 is very scalable offering multichoice of possiblities - massive parallel processing and also  clustering.

We have technical support from IBM. If I had to evaluate their services, the quality really depends on the person that gets the ticket. There are some very good specialists on the technical support team and some that are not so good.  

If the ticket is critical, it will go to a queue and the IBM team will help you out very quickly and efficiently. Of course, sometimes critical problems are difficult and take some time to resolve.  

If I had to rate technical support overall, then I would give them about an eight-out-of-ten.  

We are a typical enterprise with the typical array of databases. Primarily we use Db2 and MS SQL, and some others. We have reporting tools like Business Objects, Power BI and Micro Strategy. We also have data warehouses. So we have ETL tools and then we need to have the backups, scheduling, and monitoring. We are using more than one database type for different reasons, so it is not exactly that we have switched away from something else to Db2.  

The initial setup is straightforward. I think that installing the Db2 is not that complex and it should not be a problem for a skilled DBA.  

Usually, we use our own team to maintain our products and we do not require outside services from vendors.  

As we have experience with a variety of database types any one of them could play into our architecture. I was hoping to have PaaS backup solution for the Db2 that we plan to deploy to Azure. But current plan is to back up the Db2 database to storage instead to some service in cloud. Doing it this way we would need to do a work-around and manage the backups by scripting and manage the retention and the sizes and disk drives. It is not optimal and it would be better if we could just send the backup to some kind of API or service in Azure and just configure it to back up images and files. In our testing, that is currently not working with Db2.  

I was looking for this kind of migration solution for the Db2 database, but I could not find it — which surprises me. I looked at the Tivoli Storage Manager, which supports the Db2 backups to the API, but they do not have that kind of PaaS service in Azure.

I have experience working with both Oracle and Db2. Comparing the two products, I would recommend Db2. Both Oracle and Db2 have some unique features that separate them. Although they are different, in comparing the two databases, they are both enterprise grade databases with lots of good features. But from my point of view, Db2 is much better.  

On a scale from one to ten where one is the worst and ten is the best, I would rate Db2 as an eight. It is not rated higher because I think that there are things that can be improved. It is currently not perfect. The graphical tools are not good. It is very common for GUI interfaces in IBM products to be lacking. For the first-time user who has no experience with it, the GUI will not seem very straightforward. If you had to work with it for four years, then you get used to it. But for the first-time users, it is not that user friendly.  

If some of the user-interface features can be enhanced, it could be a nine. Db2 is a good database. It is for structured data and there is always room for improvement. It requires an experienced person to handle it.  

I use the product to audit databases, SQL statements, and user activities. I am currently working on migrating the on-premise database to IBM Docker.

The solution helps secure the database. We can encrypt the data and mask the tables using the solution.

When we enable audits on our database, there is a server overload. The product needs to improve its configuration and storage.

I have been using the solution for six months.

The tool is stable. I rate the tool's stability an eight out of ten.

I rate the product’s scalability an eight out of ten.

The support team didn’t give me a quick response to the issue I raised.

Neutral

The initial setup is complex. Since the database has various types of data, we must integrate it with the audit server. An expert in Linux can easily manage the integration.

It takes three to four days to deploy the solution. We needed help from IBM to implement the solution. We need only one person to maintain the product.

The solution costs less than other products. I rate the pricing an eight out of ten.

Guardium can be used in confidential environments. There are many customization options available in Guardium. We purchased the solution in 2018. I will recommend the product for auditing. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

The primary use case of the IBM Db2 Database is our trading platform.

We use store procedures and SQL. 

We have some tables with partitions, as well as some tables with a large amount of data. 

We use partitions, we use views, and we know who uses them.

We don't have any compatibility issues because we use all IBM products. We use every IBM product. That is why we use IBM's developer tool as well. We never encounter any product compatibility issues during development and deployment.

That is one of the good things that happened to us, in my opinion.

When we had server-related issues, such as a database outage, compatibility and support were good. I believe that because the support is good, they jump in and assist us in determining the root cause. 

The product is really reliable. 

We have seen very few instances of problems, overall IBM products are valuable.

The most valuable features are compatibility and support. 

I am currently moving away from that core application. I am not focusing on the solution. 

It is our trading application, and there are some reservations, about continuing to upgrade to the latest versions even though we are currently running on older versions. I believe the first step would be to upgrade it to the most recent versions and then see if any improvements are required while continuing to provide feedback on older versions.

The pricing could be improved, it's expensive.

I am not working on it as closely these days, but our application began in 2001, and we have been using the IBM Db2 database since then.

IBM products are very nice and perform very well.

IBM Db2 Database is a stable product.

We use a scalable WebSphere Application Server topology, but it's a monolithic application that can only be scaled vertically, not horizontally, because it's a monolithic single database, but those limitations exist. But there are times when I believe we are pleased with the product.

We have multiple production environments and various resources, as well as separate teams to manage the database and separate teams to manage the Application Server. I believe it began with a small team, but as time passed, I believe the number of environments and teams increased. Teams are popular now. I believe we have teams dedicated to each area.

I can say that there are approximately 100 developers, both offshore and onshore.

We have support. In my opinion, they are prompt, we receive responses from IBM within two to three hours. 

There are some challenges. There may be one or two instances where it exceeds, but we are content with that.

The product is very reliable and stable, and we used to receive prompt responses from IBM on support. 

Previously, we were using the WebSphere Application Server. Those applications are in maintenance mode.

We also worked with the Application Developer,m which is the Rational Application Developer for WebSphere software. It is running on legacy Java version 8.

No one is currently using this software because everyone has upgraded to the latest version, but our application is still running with an older version. I don't believe anyone is currently using the older version of Java and the Application Developer that we are.

It's an older version of Java, and I don't believe any developmental improvements will be made to the tool as of now. Because we are not using the most recent version of the tool and the most recent version of the WebSphere Application Server, the feedback I could provide may be ineffective.

We are in the process of migrating to the AWS Cloud.

Our design approach is to convert our monolithic applications to microservices.

We have not used Hadoop, High-Availability Clustering, or Backup and Recovery, we only use the Application Server to host our applications.

The monolithic application is hosted on-premises.

We installed the system in 2001 and have been using it ever since.

The maintenance and support staff is quite small. We have a dedicated database team, we can support multiple database products in addition to Db2.

I am aware that IBM pricing is expensive in comparison to other products. 

However, I am not the person who dealt with pricing.

It is expensive when compared to other products.

We are moving away from IBM products.

Everyone is now gravitating toward AWS and cloud computing. And this is a legacy monolithic platform. My advice will be ineffective. The legacy system was designed in the year 2000.

When we first launched our product, IBM hosted our client platform.

Our client insisted on using IBM products, but I believe we are now satisfied. However, the company where we started, has now been acquired by four different companies.

We are working on a different company that has Java-based products, department-based products, and many other products. It's obvious it's a trade. We will build a trading platform on which our clients and sponsors will trade.

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