IBM Introduces World's First, Fully Integrated E-Business Database - DB2 Universal Database Version 7 - Product Announcement

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, April 17, 2000

IBM Tuesday announced a $1 billion commitment to data management leadership and B2B transactions and introduced DB2(a) Universal Database Version 7 -- the most powerful solution of its kind in the industry.

IBM continues to invest in new hiring programs, product development and marketing campaigns with the objective of helping customers leverage their information assets. This year alone, IBM plans to hire more than 500 data management software engineers and sales specialists.

The latest version of DB2 Universal Database, IBM's award-winning database, features breakthrough technologies and new e-business capabilities at a third the price of Oracle in most cases.

The Database for B2B DB2 Universal Database Version 7 makes it simpler for dot.coms and large corporations conducting business-to-business (B2B) on the Web to gain competitive insight about their customers, slash application deployment time nearly in half and perform high-speed Internet searches more than 10 times faster than traditional relational database search engines.

Complementing IBM's WebSphere(a) , the industry's leading Web application server software, DB2 Universal Database Version 7 is embraced by industry leaders such as Ariba, i2, Works.com, Global Freight Exchange (GF-X), adtender.com and Freight Traders for B2B and emerging e-marketplace applications.

"Business optimization requires the free flow of information across corporations -- from customers, through the supply chain, and back through to the customer," said Janet Perna, general manager, IBM Data Management Solutions. "Companies best able to intelligently exploit their information assets to drive top-line performance while improving operational efficiencies will be the winners. Over the last two years, companies around the world have chosen the scalability and reliability of DB2 Universal Database as the foundation for their e-business data infrastructure."

IBM also introduced a first-of-its-kind pricing structure, allowing application service providers (ASPs) to purchase DB2 Universal Database at a minimal investment. Under terms of the new program, IBM will receive a percentage of the revenue ASPs receive from their customers once the solution is implemented, based on a "per subscriber" or "per transaction" model. Also available today are ASP Prime and Hosting Advantage programs, designed to support ASPs using IBM software and help ISVs certify and deploy their applications in the ASP business model.

Beyond ASPs, a new IBM incubator program offers dot.coms support and services as well as e-business applications to help emerging companies get up and running on the Web.

According to Carl Olofson, research director, Application Development and Deployment, IDC Research,

"By breaking down the barriers to universal data access and management, IBM's DB2 Universal Database Version 7 delivers the levels of efficiency, flexibility, and innovation necessary to compete in the Internet Age."

Technological Advancements DB2 Universal Database Version 7 is the only database in the industry to fully integrate e-business, business intelligence and content management capabilities, which means increased performance and broader application possibilities for customers. New enhancements announced Tuesday include:

- the industry's first and only integrated, in-memory relational database technology, designed to dramatically speed up text search for Web applications. For example, DB2 has performed more than 90 million text searches in a single day -- approximating traffic on some of the Internet's largest and most active sites -- and achieved less than half-second response times in each case;

- deep XML integration to facilitate data interchange in support of B2B applications. With this new function, users can quickly and easily define, store and retrieve XML-based documents;

- integrated, scalable warehousing and data analysis features for fast and easy deployment of business intelligence solutions. By integrating data warehousing capabilities and OLAP functionality, based on Hyperion Essbase OLAP technology, users can access, analyze and disseminate corporate data for improved decision-making;

- integrated support for spatial data allowing companies to visually tie customers or operations to location, making it easier to analyze data in applications such as customer relationship management (CRM); and

- industry-standard SQL Stored Procedure Language for developing applications to ease migration to DB2 Universal Database from competitors such as Oracle, Microsoft, Sybase and Informix.

"Comprehensive database solutions, such as IBM's DB2, can greatly assist customers in mining maximum business value from their information assets," said Aaron Zornes, executive vice president and director of industry authority on business intelligence, META Group. "With integrated e-business and business intelligence capabilities, these solutions offer excellent database design and innovation."

Web Generation DB2 Universal Database Version 7, available on popular, UNIX, Linux and Windows platforms, packs the power required by companies born in "generation Web." Designed from the ground up, this latest release is the first and only database to combine the speed required for Internet searching with the scalability and availability of a relational database.