Top 10 Reasons to Consider DB2 10 for LUW

It seems like yesterday when we took the wraps of DB2 V9.7 for LUW. I admit it is a kid in the candy store moment every time I get my hands on a newer version of DB2. The new features and enhancements in this new release address the needs of our business, directly improving availability, reliability and performance. This release also has enhancements that simplify security and reduce cost in several areas.

DB2 on LUW has evolved over years and continues to deliver rich features resulting in cost effective management of databases. This release is well thought-out, feature rich and the best release yet. There is something for everybody; looking to upgrade from a previous version or migrate from another vendor database.

IDUG DB2 Tech Conference in Denver, CO [May 14-18 2012] is offering Deep-Dive sessions in all the features listed below. The conference is packed with over 20 hours of DB2 10 for LUW education and is a must for everyone looking to upgrade or break free from other vendor databases.

DB2 10 for LUW is a significant release and will be talked about in detail for several years to come. To give you a taste of what it has to offer, here is my take at Top 10 features in DB2 10 for LUW.

Feature #1: Adaptive Compression

DB2 for LUW has supported table compression since V9, via the “Row Compression” feature. New to this release is the “Page Compression” feature. As you may remember, DB2 also supports ADC (Automatic Dictionary Creation) which automates row compression. In this new release, the same automatic feature is available for page level compression.

Benefit: Savings in storage, no more reorgs to compress table, improve buffer pool usage, reduce I/O request to read the same amount of data and deliver better performance.

Feature #2: Star Schema Optimization

As a Warehouse customer, optimizing star schema queries is critical for delivering reliable query performance. There are several techniques to address this in previous releases (using statistical views and column-group statistics). In DB2 10 for LUW, the all-new zigzag join accomplishes this. Zigzag join is effective in cardinality estimate when optimizing inner joins with skew along dimension.  The new zigzag join method can be used to join one or more fact tables with two or more dimension tables.

Benefit: Time and Effort in tuning adhoc queries.

Feature #3: Change History Event Monitor

A new feature to track changes without enabling db2audit. I call this “Soft Audit”. This is a gift for the DBA in keeping track of changes when presented with a performance problem. Usually, when there is a performance problem, the first question that’s asked is “What Changed”? So, this feature is to our rescue. With change history event monitor, we can capture changes related to database and database manager configuration and registry settings, execution of DDL statements, and execution of utilities.

Benefit: Ability to track database related changes without taking a performance hit.

Feature #4: HADR Supports Multiple Standby

This is probably the most asked feature for transactional systems. It’s finally here with impressive features. The high availability disaster recovery (HADR) feature now allows up to three HADR standby databases. You can have your primary and one of your standby databases in the same location, with one or two additional standbys a long distance away. These distant standbys automatically run in SUPERASYNC mode, so the distance does not have an impact on activity on the primary database.

Benefit: Distance is no longer an issue for the standby database, which improves high availability and disaster recovery.

Feature #5: Continuous Data Ingest (CDI)

We are used to using import and load. Using these utilities impacted throughput, recoverability and/or concurrency. Especially for data warehouses running batch loads with large data sets. The ingest utility is a new client-side DB2 utility specializing in the high speed, continuous ingestion of data from sources like files and pipes into DB2 target tables and for frequently populating data warehouse tables with minimal impact on concurrent user workload and data server resources. The ingest utility allows you to roll-in business-critical data, even while long-running queries are accessing the table. In other words, there is no trade-off between data concurrency and data availability.

Benefit: Load large data sets using CDI without sacrificing performance, concurrency and/or recoverability.

Feature #6: Fine Grain Access Control (FGAC)

DB2 10 for LUW introduces row and column access control (RCAC) as a solution to help you further secure your data. RCAC is sometimes referred to as fine-grained access control or FGAC. Row and column access control allows you to regulate data access at the row level, column level, or both. RCAC can be used to complement the table privileges model. You can rely upon row and column access control to ensure that your users have access to only the data that is required for their work. Setup is quick and simple, and security is easy to handle even for complex enterprise systems.

Benefits: Centralized security model, understands privacy data sets and no code changes.

Feature #7: Temporal Tables and Time Travel Query (TTQ)

How would you like to go back in time and query the past? In this release, we can assign time-based state information to data in tables. These tables are called Temporal Tables and use Time Travel Query (TTQ) to view previous state of data. Data in tables that do not use temporal support represents the present, while data in temporal tables is valid for a period defined by the database system, customer applications, or both. There is a business reason to store history of data. Without Temporal Tables, it is difficult to store historical data to meet business needs, such as audit trail and regulatory compliance.

Benefits: Provides built-in support for temporal infrastructure, address critical business requirements and ability to query previous state of data.

Feature #8: Multi-temperature storage

This feature is important for every customer strapped with paying top dollars for their storage needs, particularly for large data warehouse customers, for instance when 10% of data (most recent data) is used for reporting and the remaining 90% of data is retained to meet compliance. Why leave the 90% of data on expensive storage? Can they be stored on less-expensive storage?

The answer is Yes.

Multi-temperature storage classifies data into Hot, Warm, Cold, and Dormant. Hot data is the active data set and should be stored in high-speed storage, while warm, cold, and dormant data can be stored on less-expensive storage and still be available to database.

Benefit: Lower storage cost, efficient storage manage and consistent database performance.

Feature #9: New Tools, Bye Bye Control Center! Hello DataStudio V3.1.1

The Control Center tools and all related components such as wizards and advisors are discontinued. IBM Data Studio is available for FREE and replaces IBM Optim Administrator and IBM Optim Developer tools. IBM® Data Studio and IBM Optim™ tools perform similar tasks that you used to perform with the Control Center tools. For more on IBM Data Studio, visit: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27021898

Benefits: Data Studio V3.1.1 is a significant release and provides features aimed at simplifying development and administration.

Feature #10: DB2 pureScale

In DB2 10 for LUW, the DB2 pureScale feature includes several enhancements such as support for Range Partitioned Tables, easier Installation and Configuration, Better Recovery, addition of Workload Management and Enhanced Monitoring capabilities.

Benefits: Handle capacity needs as you go and only pay for what you use.

That concludes my top 10 features and I hope there is something for everyone in it. Join us at the IDUG DB2 Tech Conference in Denver, CO – May 14 – 18, 2012 and be the first to gain in-depth knowledge on DB2 10 for LUW.

I give DB2 10 for LUW a score of 10/10!