IBM Db2 Analytics Accelerator: Time to Upgrade?

This post is about the IBM Db2 Analytics Accelerator, sometimes (and hereinafter) referred to as IDAA.

First of all, for those who don’t know, let’s start with what it is. IDAA is a high-performance component, typically delivered as an appliance, that is tightly integrated with Db2 for z/OS. It delivers high-speed processing for complex Db2 queries to support business-critical reporting and analytic workloads.

The general idea is to enable HTAP (Hybrid Transaction Analytical Processing) from the same database, on Db2 for z/OS. IDAA stores data in a columnar format that is ideal for speeding up complex queries – sometimes by orders of magnitude.

Now there is a lot more to IDAA, but we won’t cover it here in today’s blog. If you want more details, I direct you to the following links:

• IBM Hybrid Data Management Community
• IBM: Db2 Analytics Accelerator for z/OS
• IBM Db2 Analytics Accelerator for z/OS resources
• The Fillmore Group: Overview of IBM Db2 Analytics Accelerator

Anyway, the real purpose of today’s blog entry is to alert IDAA users that you need to be aware of some recent and upcoming support and version issues.

IDAA Version 7

The current version of IDAA is V7.5; it was announced October 15, 2019 and released for GA December 6, 2019. But many customers are not there yet. This is not surprising given that it has only been about 4 or 5 months since it has become available. Nevertheless, it offers an abundance of great functionality and usability improvements. At the top of the list are greater scalability and improved synchronization.

Because the data in an IDAA is stored separately from the data in the primary Db2 for z/OS system, when the data is changed in Db2 for z/OS it must be migrated to the IDAA. This causes latency, where the data differs between the two systems. Of course, this is not ideal.

Well, the latest and greatest iteration of IDAA has greatly improved things with Integrated Synchronization, which provides low-latency data coherency. Db2 12 for z/OS (FL 500) delivers the Log Data Provider, which to capture changes and funnel them to IDAA. It is quick, uses very little CPU, and is zIIP-enabled. This greatly improves the latency between Db2 for z/OS data and IDAA data, to the point of it becoming mostly irrelevant.

Additionally, V7 was the first version of IDAA to allow deployment on IFLs, instead of on a separate physical piece of hardware. This means you can accelerate Db2 for z/OS queries completely on the mainframe. And V7.5 expands the scalability of IFLs.

Important Information for Laggards

Perhaps the most important piece of information in today’s blog post though is for those of you who are still running older versions of IDAA… specifically, V4. The end of service date for IDAA V4 is imminent – April 30, 2020 – and there will be no extension of this date. So if you are still on V4, it is time to upgrade!

Fortunately, you can upgrade to IDAA V5 at no cost. Sure, V5 is not the most current version of IDAA, but IBM has not issued an end of service (EOS) date for it yet. The probable EOS date is tentatively set for the first half of 2023 (which is the same for the IBM PureData System for Analytics N3001 on which this earlier IDAA is based.

Today’s Bottom IDAA Line

If you are looking for an efficient, cost-effective query accelerator for your complex Db2 queries you should look into IDAA V7.5.

And if you are still running V4, update soon (by the end of the month?) to avoid running on an out of service version of IDAA.

IBM Information on Demand 2011: Day Two (#IODGC)

As promised, here is the second of my daily blogs from the IOD conference in Las Vegas. Today it was reported that the attendance at the event was the highest ever for an Information On Demand conference; there are more than 11,500 registered attendees.

The second day of the conference is when things really start humming with news and in-depth presentations. The day kicked off with the general session delivered by a host of IBM executives and customers. Big data, business analytics, and gaining insight into data was the theme of the session. The opening session was peppered with lots of interesteing facts and figures. For example, did you know that 90 percent of the world's data was created in just the last two years? Me neither... but there was no attribution to that nugget of information, so...

Other highlights of the day included the announcement of Cognos Mobile for the iPhone and iPad (a free trial is available on the iTune store)… and the other big product focus of the day was IBM InfoSphere BigInsights, a Hadoop-driven big data solution that can process huge amounts of data very quickly and accurately. For more details on that offering check out my Data Technology Today blog where I cover a customer implementation of this solution.

I also had the opportunity to chat with IBM's Bernie Spang, Director of Marketing, Database Software and Systems. We chatted about various things, starting with the uptake of DB2 10 for z/OS. Earlier in the day it was stated that the uptake of V10 has been faster than for V9 and I asked Bernie why that was. His answer made a lot of sense: skip-level migration support coupled with a clear performance boost out-of-the-box without having to change the database or the apps. I asked if he had metrics on how many customers had migrated, but he didn't have access to that. He said he would get back to me and when he does I will share that information with you all.

We also chatted quite a bit about the recently announ ced DB2 Analytics Accelator. Bernie thinks this is probably the announcement he is most excited about. For those of you who haven't heard about this great piece of technology, it is the second iteration of the Smart Analytics Optimizer (but that name is now dead). The DB2 Analytics Accelerator is built on Netezza technology and can be used to greatly improve the performance of DB2 for z/OS analytical queries without changing the SQL or any application code. There are multiple value points but Bernie pointed out the application transparency and the ability to keep the data on the z platform (no movement required) while accelerating the performance of analytical queries.

IBM views the competition as Oracle Exadata and Teradata, which makes sense. I asked Bernie if there were plans to incorporate the Oracle compatibility features of DB2 LUW in a future iteration of DB2 for z/OS, and he said that made sense. Of course, no one from IBM will commit to future functionality of an as yet to be announced  version, but perhaps Vnext??? (that was me speaking there, no Bernie!)

Then I think I blew his mind when I passed a thought of mine past him. With Netezza being used as a component of an accelerator to improve DB2 analytical processing, has IBM given any thought to using IMS as a component of an accelerator to improve DB2's traditional OLTP processing. Not sure if that is even possible, but it should be worth a research project, right? Especially with IBM announcing IMS 12 at the conference today and the IBM boast that IMS 12 can achieve 61,000 transactions per second. That is impressive! But can the mismatch between relational and hierarchical be overcome in a useful manner to do it?

Finally, we chatted about Informix. As a DB2 bigot I am always at a loss for when to direct people to Informix instead of DB2. It just doesn't sound like something I would do! But Bernie offered a brief overview of Informix time series as something unique that certain customers should look into. An Informix customer uses time series for smart meter management of over 100 million smart meters. A month's worht of data - 4 terabytes - can be loaded and processed in less than 8 hours. And some queries perform from 30x to 60x faster.

OK, even to this DB2 bigot that sounds like an impressive capability. Kudos to Informix.

Finally, I'd like to direct my readers over to the video blog that I am hosting in conjunction with SoftBase Systems. I'll be interviewing DB2 luminaries daily, so tune in there at http://www.softbase.com/blog to view each daily submission!

Until tomorrow...