IBM Db2 Database Reviews

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.

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 value and impact of using IBM Db2 Database lie in its essential role in storing data. The benefits include enhanced performance, reliability, and effective data management compared to other databases.

The most valuable feature of IBM Db2 Database is its ability to perform automatic self-management, reducing the need for manual tasks such as managing logs and folders.

One area where IBM Db2 Database could be improved is its Java development environment. Similar to those found in competitors like Oracle, there could be more user-friendly tools with features such as drag-and-drop functionality, visual basics, and low-code capabilities.

We have been using the IBM Db2 Database for ten years.

The platform is stable. I rate the stability an eight out of ten.

The primary concern is related to the cost implications when scaling with multiple nodes in a database. The associated costs increase when additional nodes are added, each requiring separate storage space. We have approximately four or five Db2 instances being used in the organization.

It is a scalable platform. I rate the scalability an eight out of ten.

I have used MySQL and Oracle in my previous environments. We switched to IBM Db2 Database for auto-management features and reduced manual intervention.

The initial setup is straightforward. We have to install and register. The deployment process includes downloading the software from the vendor's website, having a customer account, copying the downloaded file to the machine, and executing the installation. It takes five to ten days to complete. We have around 50 executives working in the database administration team.

We implemented the product in-house.

We purchase the product's yearly license. Later, we have to pay support and license renewal fees. Its pricing is comparable to other database solutions such as Oracle and MySQL. If you choose to buy IBM Power Systems, there may be opportunities to receive Db2 licenses at a lower cost or even free of charge. However, if the installation is on servers other than open Power servers, standard licensing fees apply, similar to those of other database solutions.

The application has analytical tools to support day-to-day management and analytics needs. It is convenient to meet business needs objects.

Regarding integration with other tools and systems, Db2 can be integrated with comprehensive banking solutions involving various teams, including CVS, analytics, and importing teams.

As for recommendations for those considering Db2, it can effectively impact performance. If an organization predominantly uses Db2, individuals are more likely to choose Db2. However, there is a challenge related to training resources for Db2, which may be less readily available or focused on compared to other platforms like Oracle.

I rate it a nine out of ten.

We work with a few use cases suggested by the IBM Watson Library. All the data is inside the event processor, we can extract it with a query. There are multiple use cases already in the IBM marketplace.

It's easy to search and extract data from the warehouse using queries.

The queries can be difficult for beginners because there are so many. I would like to see more use cases for flow analysis that enable us to correlate the flow with events. Adding this feature in a QI format would be good for beginners.

I have used Db2 for around two years.

I rate Db2 eight out of 10 for stability. 

I rate Db2 nine out of 10 for scalability. We have more than a thousand users. 

IBM's technical support is excellent. They provide a solution in 24 to 48 hours. 

Setting up Db2 is straightforward. Most IBM products I've used aren't complex to integrate or deploy. We deploy it on-premise and in the cloud.

I rate IBM Db2 two out of 10 for affordability. It's expensive but not much more than other tools. There are also cloud-based solutions like Elasticsearch. 

There are multiple competitors like Oracle, but Db2 is the best for our use case.

I rate IBM Db2 nine out of 10. It's more expensive, but it's better than the competing solutions. I have to deduct a point for license costs. Everything else is excellent. We recommend Db2 to many clients, but few adopt it due to the high price tag. If a project has strict budgetary restraints, we typically don't recommend Db2. 

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.

It is installed on the mainframe that we use for our applications.

It's the best solution in terms of security, performance, and availability because the system is available 24/7.

The problem with this environment is that any software that you install is very costly because there are no free tools for this environment.

The environment itself comes at a very high cost because the mainframe machine is very costly, and the licensing cost is very high as well.

I've been using IBM Db2 Database for the past 22 years.

It's very stable, and the performance is very good.

We use IBM technical support for the big bugs related to the operating system and the database. We haven't faced any problems with the database. Sometimes, with the operating system we need some fixes, and technical support has sent us those. On the application side, our team develops the application and solves any problems related to it.

Previously, we used COBOL with a database sold by Computer Associates. We didn't have lot of choices for mainframes at the time. The best database that can run on the mainframe is the IBM Db2 Database, and we have stayed with Db2 from 2000 to the present.

The initial setup was quite simple because we've been working in this area for more than 40 years.

It took about a year and a half to develop and deploy the whole application.

We developed the application, and we deployed it using a solution strategy. We have an IBM partner who gave us all the software that we needed, and we implemented it ourselves.

We had three system engineers, two people for the database, and two people for the application.

Our ROI is big because we earned about 100 billion in our currency.

It's very expensive for West African countries like ours.

We are currently in discussions with IBM concerning the reduction of licensing costs. We have a license based on the capacity of the machine and are looking into a license based on usage.

There weren't a lot of choices for mainframes at the time.

If you're going to use it for the first time, you would need lot of training and some technical support. You would need support during development as well.

I would rate this solution at nine on a scale from one to ten.