IBM's DB2 product is a database management system.It has a long history and was what some consider to be the first database product to use SQL. According to Michael Stonebraker, when IBM chose to make SQL the standard for database query languages by announcing its inclusion into DB2, Oracle seized the opportunity to trumpet that it too used SQL.
Currently, there is a dogfight going on between DB2 and Oracle for the number 1 position in the market. On May 3, 2004 IBM's head of database development and sales, Janet Perna , claimed their main competitors were Oracle in the context of advanced transaction handling, and Teradata in the context of decision-making systems (e.g. data warehousing).
Historically, it is interesting to note that when Informix acquired Illustra and made their database engine an object-relational database by introducing their Universal Server, both Oracle and IBM followed suit by changing their database engines to be capable of object-relational extensions. Technically, today, DB2 can be considered to be an object-relational database.
DB2 started out on the mainframe but soon migrated down through UNIX, Linux and Windows servers to PDAs. Its precursors are IBM DL/1 and IBM IMS, both initially hierarchical and then network (or codasyl) databases.
DB2 is also the designation of an Aston Martin sportscar dating from the early 1960sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s Years: 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 Events and trends The 1960s was a turbulent decade of change around, made famous by James Bond films.
IBM software
Database management systems
