A new wave of clients and business partners in industries such as healthcare, energy and financial markets have made the switch from competitive platforms to IBM DB2 database software to meet data intensive demands of their businesses.  To further accelerate this momentum, IBM recently announced a new feature that allows clients to more easily move their applications written for Sybase ASE to DB2 - adding to the support for Oracle Database applications introduced last year.

Clients such as BJC Healthcare and Pep Boys are already testing the feature to move their industry applications from Sybase ASE to DB2 to help reduce IT costs and achieve overall better performance.

Additionally, in just the past 12 months, more than 500 partners including Synopsis SA, Perficient, Inc. and Odyssey Financial Technologies Inc. have adopted or migrated to DB2 due to its ease of use, lower costs and greater ROI for their clients.  

Current economic conditions are driving companies to consolidate and standardize their IT environments with lower cost, energy-efficient, more scalable infrastructure.  Companies in all industries can have up to thousands of applications and dozens of database management systems that need to interact with one another, that are either purchased or received through an acquisition.  These systems create redundant hardware, software, administration -- increasing IT costs.

Since the release of DB2 9.7, a growing number of clients have moved their applications from Oracle Database to DB2, in some instances, in a matter of days, to gain more efficiencies and reduce costs associated with managing their IT infrastructure.  They have benefited from unique DB2 innovations such as pureScale running on IBM Power Systems, that helps clients increase their database transaction capacity while reducing the risk and cost of growing their IT systems.

For clients moving applications from Sybase ASE, this new SQL Skin feature makes DB2 the best choice for quickly reducing their operational costs so they can invest more on growing their business through strategic initiatives such as analytics.   This fully integrated capability was jointly developed with ANTs software inc. (OTCBB:ANTS), a leading provider of database migration solutions. This development began more than two years ago and early adopter clients have participated in a beta program since late 2009.

"We understand the pressures clients face to increase the overall performance of their organizations streamline their processes while also reducing costs,ˇ said Arvind Krishna, General Manager, IBM Information Management.   "Our continued investment in developing innovative technologies such as the new SQL Skin is a clear demonstration of our commitment to helping clients meet these challenges."

"We are proud of this partnership with IBM," said Joseph Kozak, Chairman and CEO, ANTs software inc. "IBM's global reach and support coupled with the unmatched technology and cost advantages delivered by ANTs innovations creates a powerful new offering for global enterprises.  In large financial services and telecommunications markets, where cost savings is a major priority, the value of quickly moving to DB2 can be compelling for companies focused on reducing costs."

SOURCE: Clients Switch to IBM DB2 Database Software to Meet Data Intensive Demands of their Businesses