IBM To Unleash Stinger Next Week

IBM Software said DB2 version 8.2, aka Stinger, will be generally available Sept. 17.

As previously reported, the database incorporates new "autonomic" computing perks including IBM's Learning Optimizer or LEO, which promises to expedite searches. Also new is a Design Advisor that automatically optimizes the database and improves its performance, IBM has said.

Boris Zibitsker, chairman and CTO of BEZ Systems, a Chicago ISV and IBM partner, is particularly bullish on the Design Advisor. "This is a very important milestone and building block for autonomic computing," he said. BEZ makes performance management and tuning software.

"The new Design Advisor will help our customers reduce risk and uncertainty and enable them to implement and manage critical system support and data warehouse applications," Zibitsker said.

IBM is also touting high-availability disaster recovery (HADR) in this release. DB2 8.2 Express for small to midsize businesses will sell for $500 per CPU and will support up to four processors. The Enterprise Edition is $25,000 per CPU and will support up to 1,000 processors, IBM said.

IBM's DB2 franchise faces fierce market-share competition from Oracle 10g and Microsoft SQL Server databases. Repeated delays to Microsoft's next-generation SQL Server could bolster IBM's efforts, some partners say. SQL Server 2005, or Yukon, is still in beta and is now promised for next year.