DB2 Tool Requirements

The last blog post here at the DB2 Portal offered up a brief overview of the types of tools that you might want to consider to help you use, manage, and administer your DB2 applications and databases. But it did not really look into the capabilities and requirements for modern DB2 tools and solutions.

Today’s DB2 management and administration tools should provide intelligent automation to reduce the problems inherent in the tedious day-to-day tasks of database administration. Simple automation is no longer sufficient. Modern data management software must be able to intelligently monitor, analyze, and optimize applications using past, present, and future analysis of collected data. Simply stated, the software should work the way a consultant works--fulfilling the role of a trusted advisor. The end result should be software that functions like a consultant, enabling your precious human resources to spend time on research, strategy, planning, and implementing new and advanced features and technologies, instead of rote day-to-day tasks.

Furthermore, modern database tools should provide cross-platform, heterogeneous management. For most medium-to-large IT organization it is not enough to manage just DB2 for z/OS systems, for example. The ability to offer administrative and development assistance across multiple DBMS platforms (for example, DB2 for LUW, Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, and so on). Most companies have multiple DBMSs that need to be managed -- not just one... and DBAs and developers are precious resources that increasingly are being asked to work on more than just a single DBMS. When the tools can manage cross-platform, the learning curve is reduced and productivity can be enhanced.

And while it is true that today’s DBMS products are becoming more self-managing, they do not yet provide out-of-the-box, lights-out operation, nor do they offer all of the speed, usability, and ease of use features of ISV admin, management, and development tools. An organization looking to provide 24/7 data availability coupled with efficient performance will have to augment the capabilities of their DBMS software with data management and DBA tools to get the job done.

As data management tasks get more complex and DBAs become harder to find and retain, more and more database maintenance duties should be automated using intelligent management software. Using intelligent, automated DB2 tools will help to reduce the amount of time, effort, and human error associated with implementing and managing efficient database applications.