IBM ICES Competition with Record-Breaking Linux Database Performance; DB2 ICE Delivers Top Cluster Performance for the Price of a Single System

Business Wire, Feb 14, 2005

ARMONK, N.Y. -- IBM today set a new standard for Linux database performance with the announcement of a record-shattering 1 Terabyte (TB) TPC-H benchmark using the IBM DB2 Integrated Cluster Environment (DB2 ICE). This is the first time that a large data cluster delivered record-breaking performance at a price point that is lower than any other system in the industry.

The cluster was composed of 64 IBM eServer xSeries 346 systems running DB2 Universal Database v 8.2 on SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9. The cluster delivered a performance of 53451.4 QphH for a price/performance of $33 per QphH. (1)

DB2 ICE is a pre-packaged Linux database cluster solution that helps businesses of any size implement a low-cost, high-performance database platform based on IBM Universal Database for Linux and IBM eServer systems. Designed to generate a fast return on investment and lower the total cost of computing, DB2 ICE provides businesses with the essential building blocks for highly available and dynamically scalable Linux database clusters from 1 to 1,000 nodes.

The results of the benchmark clearly illustrate the benefits of a unified IBM hardware/software solution as it delivers a 50 percent performance increase for almost half the price/performance of the HP/Oracle solution that previously held the number one ranking.

"The new world record clearly demonstrates the strengths of SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 - it is the right choice for customers who are looking for great performance, while still reducing costs, in mission-critical deployments," said Markus Rex, general manager of Novell's SUSE LINUX business unit. "DB2 Universal Database, eServer xSeries 346 and SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 deliver an unmatched value to even small and medium-sized businesses who want to lower their cost of ownership and benefit from exceptional stability, performance and security of Linux."

"With this new result, we're literally changing the landscape and economics of the datacenter," said Gary Schneider, director, Linux Competitive Technology, IBM Information Management. "As proven here, the combination of DB2 Universal Database, clustered IBM eServer systems and Novell's SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 provide unmatched performance at a price that is lower than the non-clustered alternative. This ability to dynamically scale-out cost effectively is an exciting solution for anyone seeking to eliminate their reliance on proprietary platforms or higher-priced database software."

As data volumes increase exponentially, the scalability and performance of DB2 on Linux are cited as key reasons why customers and business partners are choosing IBM over competitors. Today's record shattering price/performance benchmark is the latest in a series of industry-leading records that DB2 has established utilizing the Linux operating system.

Currently DB2 holds numerous industry-leading Linux benchmarks and at least six TPC-H records including:

--Best performance in TPC-H 100GB, 300GB and 1TB scale factors in both the clustered and non-clustered categories (2, 4)

--Best TPC-H performance among all 8-processor configurations in the 300GB category (3)

--Best TPC-H performance @100GB among all results on 2-way systems (5)

--DB2 offers the industry's broadest platform support and is the only vendor to have published industry-standard benchmark results on servers built on IBM's Power5, Intel's IA32, EM64T, IA64, and AMD's Opteron processor.

--Best 4-way result on the three-tier SAP(R) Sales and Distribution (SD) Standard Application Benchmark. (6)

--Best score for the SPECjAppServer2004 Standard benchmark. (7)

Industry Leading InfiniBand Support

IBM, a leader in InfiniBand development and the first database vendor to support InfiniBand technology, also announced today that DB2 ICE now offers support for the InfiniBand I/O architecture. IBM's DB2 ICE is the industry's only end-to-end solution to deliver a full InfiniBand database cluster with up to 1000 nodes. InfiniBand enhances the scalability and simplifies the deployment of large clusters - increasing communications of the systems by up to 10 times over traditional methods.

Traditionally, servers have relied on shared bus architecture for I/O connectivity, starting with the industry standard architecture (ISA) bus. For the past decade, servers have also utilized myriad iterations of the peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus. By creating a unified fabric, InfiniBand provides a means of sharing I/O interconnects among many servers. InfiniBand does not eliminate the need for other interconnect technologies, instead, it creates a more efficient way to connect storage and communications networks and server clusters together, while delivering an I/O infrastructure that will produce the efficiency, reliability and scalability that today's data centers demand.

For more information on DB2 ICE visit: www.ibm.com

IBM, DB2, POWER5, eServer, xSeries, and the IBM e-business logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. For a list of additional IBM trademarks, please see www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml