The most valuable feature of the solution is its compatibility with IBM Power Systems.
External reviews
External reviews are not included in the AWS star rating for the product.
IBM DB2 4 years user experience.
Scalability provides by DB2 is great. Support is also excellent.
Can be used very frequently and easily without login into another system.
Implementation or integration of db2 is very easy.
A tool that offers better performance and competitive advantage when compared to its competitors
What is most valuable?
What needs improvement?
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.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using IBM Db2 Database for a few years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the 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.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
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.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
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.
What other advice do I have?
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.
Reliable database platform with impeccable support.
It works with great encryption and decryption features.
Easy scalability.
Great connection between Cobol and db2
Queries and transactions in milliseconds.
Licensing can be an issue due to the high value of the premium version.
Dashing DB2
I am stunned with the vloume of data it handles and works seemslessly with webservices with different systems in real time basis.
As datastudio comes handy, there is no downfall at all now for DB2. Earlier you need to know mainframe a bit to access, but now its not the case
DB2: the real scalable Database
Easy installation and configuration
A highly scalable solution with unique features that enable efficient management of data
What is our primary use case?
I'm helping customers migrate from Oracle to Db2. I am also assisting with business intelligence using Db2 Database.
How has it helped my organization?
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.
What is most valuable?
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.
What needs improvement?
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.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for about ten years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
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.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
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.
How was the initial setup?
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.
What about the implementation team?
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.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
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.
What other advice do I have?
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.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
A highly scalable database system for production-grade workloads
A balanced database for large scale data deployments
It has automatic scaling as per requirement and environment.
It has easy data loading option and drag and drop features of csv files.
High availability.
However it has less integration options.
Upgrades take a lot of time and a lengthy process.
Backup restoration is not handy with the running process.