If you love HP Itanium and want to get off Oracle DB, consider IBM DB2

Smarter Question:

If I’m running Oracle Database on Itanium and want to keep my Itanium system, what is my best option?

Oracle leaves their customers homeless

Being forced from one’s home induces great anxiety.  And anxious is probably what many HP-UX customers feel following Oracle’s March 22, 2011 decision to stop supporting all software development and certification on Intel Itanium-based servers. By effectively shutting these customers off from future upgrades to its software that runs on HP-UX, Oracle is making it difficult for HP-UX customers to remain on their platform of choice.  As a result, many customers are now wondering if leaving their HP-UX home behind is the only option.

The IBM light at the end of the Oracle tunnel

Fortunately HP/UX customers have the choice of keeping their existing systems and switching their database software to IBM DB2.  DB2 is enterprise class, highly reliable and scalable database software.  It powers some of the most demanding workloads for the largest companies in the world in virtually every industry.  HP even highlighted DB2 as a great replacement option for Oracle Database: Terri Molini, an HP spokesperson, wrote in an e-mail to IDG News that IBM’s “DB2 runs great on HP-UX and we are happy to migrate those customers to HP Integrity Systems”.

Moving up to DB2 is easier than you may think

IBM continues to support client choice for software and server platforms.  (Get the executive insight here). The latest versions of DB2 introduced compatibility features that dramatically reduced the code changes required to run an Oracle Database application on DB2.  An IBM Sales representative can provide a quick, no charge compatibility assessment that will tell you exactly what level of compatibility you can expect for your application.

90% of application code is already DB2-ready

Based on the experiences of hundreds of clients who have already moved their applications to DB2, you can generally expect compatibility levels from 90% to 98%. That means as much as 98% of your application code would run on DB2 as-is!  The compatibility features provide excellent performance since they are a native part of DB2.

How our clients saved money with DB2

Once you switch to DB2, you can start enjoying savings with DB2′s flexible licensing terms. For example, if you want to use the HP/UX Virtual Server Operating Environment to carve up your physical server into multiple virtual servers, you only need to license DB2 for the subset of processor cores available in the virtual server. Compare that to the Oracle license terms where all cores on the physical server would need to be licensed.

Even more important than lower license and support costs are DB2′s industry leading technologies that help lower storage and administration costs while improving performance. For example, the Coca Cola Bottling Company Consolidated recently switched their SAP system from Oracle Database to DB2 and enjoyed a 65% performance increase along with a 40% reduction in database size.

Another client, SAP AG, also switched their corporate ERP systems from Oracle Database to DB2 on HP rx8620 Integrity and experienced a 40% improvement in performance combined with a 20% reduction in their storage requirements. Over the years, these lower database operational costs really add up to huge savings!

Contact IBM today to learn more about the benefits of upgrading to DB2

They say that with change comes opportunity. For Itanium system customers running the Oracle Database, IBM DB2 provides that opportunity.  Click here to read more about proven strategies for lowering database costs with IBM Data Management.