Monday, July 3, 2017

IBM Marketing and DB2, Db2 and dashDB

IBM Cloud with Bluemix: DB2, Db2, dashDB
This week I am going to acknowledge that I have been with IBM for 16 years. Looking back, everything might seem brighter and better than it was. However, I remember working in great teams, interesting and challenging projects, many successes and some failures to learn from, and the constant changes. During the time with IBM I got used to those many changes to product names, the constant rebranding. When I first heard about a change to DB2 that was announced last week, I scratched my head and moved on. The product itself does not change, it's a name.

Here are some of the changes, see the Db2 website for details:
  • DB2 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows (DB2 LUW) is now names just "Db2".
  • DB2 for z/OS is "Db2 for z/OS".
  • dashDB TX (dashDB for Transactions) is referred to as "Db2 on Cloud". It reflects that it basically was and is a fully managed Db2 (LUW) database system.
  • The former "IBM DB2 on Cloud", the cloud-hosted version of DB2 LUW, is now named "Db2 Hosted" to correctly imply what it is.
To keep you mentally flexible and to stimulate your brain cells, the uppercase B in "DB2" is now lowercase. "Db2" is what you will see more and more on the outside. But the product itself, as stated above, will remain "DB2". Therefore, you don't have to rewrite your test procedures. And if you have to prepare slides, e.g. for one of the upcoming IDUG conferences, there is one benefit with the new naming: Autocorrect is correct now...

A great Summer and a sane week!