IBM HIGHLIGHTS DB STRENGTH WITH 10,000TH MAINFRAME LICENSEE

Citing continued demand for its high volume, high transaction rate software, IBM unveiled the 10,000th licensee for its industry-dominant mainframe database.

The licensee, CommerceQuest, uses IBM's DB2 Universal Database for z/OS (formerly the OS/390) as a key part of its technology infrastructure. CommerceQuest provides outsourced e-marketplace integration that enables companies to outsource all of their online trading community activities -- including secure transactions, application integration among trading partners, distribution, logistics, trading partner management and credit authorization.

"By building enableNet, our B2B e-marketplace integration infrastructure, with IBM hardware and software, we are assured of the highest level of availability, reliability and scalability," said Ed Wrazen, director of international marketing at CommerceQuest. "DB2 Universal Database V7 for z/OS and OS/390 will play an integral role in providing optimal performance, enabling our customers to be confident that the data involved in their trading transactions is housed securely and delivered promptly."

IBM's database is part of the e-infrastructure for 80 percent of the Fortune 1000, including Charles Schwab, where it handles more than 4,000,000 transactions per hour. IBM currently dominates the mainframe database arena with more than 96 percent marketshare, according to Dataquest. In the fourth quarter of 2000, DB2 for the OS/390 grew more than 17 percent year-on-year.

"The mainframe continues to be an important relational database management system platform, especially for large enterprises with the highest requirements for database availability whether for legacy or new e-commerce workloads," said Jon Rubin, senior research analyst, GartnerGroup.

"The amount of data generated by e-business continues to explode," said Janet Perna, IBM general manager of data management solutions. "The leaders of the next generation of e-business will be the companies that drive information out of that data. This will require a rock-solid e-infrastructure and DB2 on the mainframe will be doing a lot of that heavy lifting."

At its technical developers conference in Hamburg this week, IBM also announced a new version of its mainframe database, DB2 Universal Database V7 for z/OS and OS/390. The updated version includes:

• The ability for users to migrate directly from earlier versions of the product.
• A new patented Net Search Extender feature that integrates high-speed text search capabilities with DB2 and provides in-memory database technology.
• Integration of DB2 Warehouse Manager, making it easy to design, deploy and manage a data warehouse on the mainframe.
• A new enhancement cross-loading enhancement to the Load utility, making it easier for users to load databases on DB2 for OS/390 and z/OS with data from other data sources such as Oracle, SQL Server and other members of the IBM DB2 family.

Hewitt Associates, the largest human resource multi-service provider in the world with clients that comprise more than two-thirds of the Fortune 500, is a beta customer for DB2 V7 for z/OS and OS/390.

"With DB2 V7 for z/OS and OS/390, we don't have to worry at all about the database -- and we worry about everything," said Sandy Smith, Manager of Database Technology, Hewitt Associates. "That's a testament to how reliable DB2 is."

Availability

DB2 Universal Database V7 for z/OS and OS/390 will be generally available worldwide on March 30, 2001. For additional details, please visit www.software.ibm.com/data.

More than 40 million people from more than 300,000 companies worldwide rely on IBM data management technology.

Contact Kirsten Staaterman Brodeur Worldwide for IBM Software 617-587-2021, kstaater@brodeur.com.