IBM's vintage Db2 database jumps on AWS's cloud bandwagon Cloud giant AWS has announced the inclusion of IBM's Db2 database — among the first relational databases on the market — as one of the systems available on its Relational Database Service. The development of Db2 began in the 1970s and it was first released as a product for the IBM mainframe in 1983. In recent years, users have …
I suspect there may be three reasons that's unlikely to happen.
One is that the performance and reliability of Db2 for z/OS is closely tied to features of the Z systems (why do they keep changing the capitalization?) and I can't see AWS deploying them in its cloud anytime soon.
Another is that for users with very high transaction volumes they may need lower transaction latency and more convenient local access to the resulting data than they might get from any cloud solution.
But perhaps the most significant is that there has to be a reason for people to keep buying IBM iron.
Precisely, IBM thinking SMALL again!
FYI - IBM could, easily, cut a deal with AWS and/or GCP to run z-series, within THEIR cloud - ever consider that option??
BTW - I have been a zMAINFRAMER, for over 40+ years and the first thing out of other ancient "mainframers" mouths is - "NO, we can't do that, RICK" - That's why the zMF still lives in the shadowz...
By design, me thinks, maybe???
;-]
Rick Mo? Where have I heard that name before?
But you know what they say, there's no substitute for hardware. Even if the Db2Z software could be ported to run on n x86 chip without an interpreter how do you provide the IO bandwidth, the context switching and RAS functions provided by z hardware? Look at how x86 native databases have tried to compensate for the hardware limitations; by scaling out. But scaling out brings it's own problems, chief among them consistency. Eventual consistency across the replicas? Guaranteed consistency with the associated performance hit? Db2 on z is the success it is because of the hardware and z hardware is all about dense computing. You'll never get the same result if you leave the hardware behind and just move the software.
"ibm cloud doesn't really count - as most of us leverage AWS and/or GCP!!"
So the fact that *you* leverage AWS means that IBM should just throw out hundreds of millions of dollars/pounds in potential sales by giving its cloud competitor (AWS) the service(s)?
That's mighty magnanimous of you.
Perhaps IBM needs to make IBM cloud more integrated into AWS and thus provide a simpler path to capture AWS users who need IBM cloud but would not consider switching between discrete cloud service providers…
Although anyone who has worked on both Unix/WindowsServer scale databases such as DB2 and Oracle and mainframe scale DB2 databases, will know schemas and SQL written for one do not transfer well to the other. So unless the toolsets have massively improved, it is still a step change between the two platforms.
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