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IDUG Europe - Day One IDUG Europe - Day One

A short synopsis of the first day of the IDUG conference in Vienna (October 2, 2006).
Well, day one of IDUG Europe is almost over and here is a quick blog post to report on the first day goings-on here in Vienna. As usual the keynote was entertaining and highly attended. Bob Picciano of IBM talked about "Information as a Service... A New Era in Databases." The basic thrust of the pitch was that SOA and services will provide organizations with the ability to better integrate information and transform and modernize their existing systems.

Bob also delivered some interesting statistics that I think are worth sharing with everyone. He indicated that customer invest over $20 billion annually in relational database systems, but even so XML database technology is growing twice as fast as the overall total database investment. Now this is interesting, but without the exact numbers to back up these statistics I am not overly impressed. After all, the XML database market would be growing at 200% if there were one last year and three this year...

Also of interest, Bob noted that both IMS and DB2 are experiencing double digit MIPS growth year over year: with DB2 at 50% and IMS at 22%. So it looks like we are continuing to push more and more work through our mainframe database systems and applications. And why wouldn’t we? After all, the mainframe is the most robust, secure, available, and performance-oriented system in the world!

Picciano also referenced a Gartner research note (G00138213) covering a survey on the DBMS intentions of Gartner clients. He noted that the survey indicated that 50% more respondents are planning to install DB2 next year than are planning to install Oracle.

What about Informix? IBM acquired Informix several years ago, and although Informix is not marketed as heavily as DB2, IBM has continued to upgrade its Informix assets. Bob mentioned several high-availability applications that rely on Informix and went on to state that 70% of the world’s phone call are routed through Informix Data Server.

The next session I attended (I also moderated it) was “Top Ten Tips to Crash Your DB2,” presented by Dirk Johann of Software Engineering. Dirk delivered a very spirited presentation in which he outlined not only ways to crash DB2, but advice on how to avoid such crashes, and guidance on how to recover if you find yourself in such a situation. The presentation managed to mix a great deal of technical information with humor and was well-attended.

Finally, today I spoke at a vendor solution presentation for Software Engineering. My employer, NEON Enterprise Software and Software Engineering are close partners and I was happy to come to Europe to promote Bind ImpactExpert.

The topic was on Change Management for DB2 Access Paths - and it is an important topic to consider. Although my presentation was followed by a short walkthru of Bind ImpactExpert, the topic warrants consideration, product or not.

Basically, the thrust of the presentation is that more focus needs to be applied to managing DB2 access paths. We implement strict change management procedures on every other change we make in the mainframe environment: program changes, system software changes, PTFs, etc. But with access paths it is move the DBRM to production and BIND. We don't move access paths, we create new ones on the fly in the production world. Is this any way to work?

The result of this situation is that many sites often BIND once, and then never REBIND for fear of introducing degraded access paths. This is an unfortunate situation. Basically, what this does is penalize EVERY statement because we are worried about 2 or 3 statements that might degrade.

I know these two things seem at odds with one another: that is, we need change management but we also need to keep REBINDing. And they are. But the proper response is NOT to stop all REBINDs, the proper response is to introduce methods and procedures for implementing a change management discipline. And that is where the product solution comes in. Enough said...

Right now I’m just waiting for the vendor exhibit hall to open so I can chat with customers and visit the vendor booths. It is always fun to catch up with folks I haven’t seen in awhile, and to learn what new DB2 solutions are “out there” – and the IDUG exhibition area is the best place to accomplish both of these goals…

As always, IDUG is living up to its reputation as an informative, exciting, and educational place to learn and network. If you're not here this year it is not too early to start pleading your case to attend next year....

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Craig Mullins
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