IBM launches the new version of its DB2 database software: stakes and opportunities.

With this new release, IBM is expanding its portfolio of products and services. This means that, this new version of its DB2 database software, is now generally available and adds game-changing
technology called ‘’BLU Acceleration’’ that aims to make it simpler, more economical and dramatically faster to analyze massive amounts of data.

The new IBM DB2 10.5 with BLU Acceleration includes:

• Dynamic in-memory technology that loads terabytes of data in Random Access Memory, which streamlines query workloads even when data sets exceed the size of the memory.
• "Actionable Compression," which allows analytics to be performed directly on compressed data without having to decompress it.
• An innovative advance in database technology that allows DB2 to process both row-based and column-based tables simultaneously within the same system.
• The simplicity to allow clients access to blazing-fast analytics transparently to their applications, without the need to develop a separate layer of data modeling or time consuming data warehouse tuning.
• Integration with IBM Cognos Business Intelligence Dynamic Cubes to provide speed and simplicity for reporting and analytics.
• The ability to take advantage of both multi-core and single instruction multiple data (SIMD) features in IBM POWER and Intel x86 processors.

"I really appreciate the approach of giving me all the benefits of a columnar database in harmony with a row-store within the same database. What IBM also has done that’s so special with BLU Acceleration is it enables us to deliver strong performance, even if the entire data set won't fit into memory. That's important because in a Big Data world, I might not be able to fit all of my data into memory, even with very high compression ratios. DB2 gives me a single solution for a vital business goal: deliver faster analytics to our users." Said Andrew Juarez, a lead database administrator at Coca Cola Bottling Co.