IBM challenges database rivals

IBM will turn up the heat in the object relational database market next month with the release of its flagship DB2 product ? the most significant database announcement in 15 years.

DB2 Universal Database 5 will make IBM a third, potentially decisive force in what to date has been a two-sided contest between Oracle and Informix to extend the traditional relational data model into a hybrid market.

According to IBM data management general manager Janet Perna, DB2 Universal Database 5 is the release ?that will put us ahead?.

IBM seems to have learned from the bitter experience of Informix and will downplay the object relational aspect in favour of emphasising the product?s extensibility, scalability, access, applications support and ease of use.

Universal Database will have a number of features that IBM hopes will differentiate it from rival offerings. Among them is the control centre ? a graphical database management toolkit for managing, maintaining and modifying database objects.

IBM is pushing ease of use as the main selling point of Universal Database ? the company claims that installation can take place within a few minutes.

A feature called Smartguides takes users through specific tasks by posing questions and offering suggested ways of managing and organising information.

Universal Database comes with multimedia extensions ? DB2 Extenders ? which enable the database to handle data types that are too complex for the traditional relational model, such as image and audio. Extenders are comparable to the Data Cartridges used by Oracle and Datablades used by Informix.