RE: Question about UDB on iSeries

I am currently managing a corporate IS department that uses the iSeries
for its primary business application.  However, my background is much
more rooted in Sybase, SQL Server and in particular Oracle.  My
experience with DB2/400 is that it now competes feature for feature with
the other databases, but this may be a a recent development. I believe
that IBM has been playing catch up with the SQL functions of DB2/400
compared to the competition, including its own UDB product, but is just
about there now with v5r2 and beyond.  I have been pretty successful at
introducing new techniques to my department by assuming since Oracle has
it, there is probably a similar feature in DB2/400.  We discovered SQL
triggers, SQL views and the SQL tools in Operations Navigator that way.
I have yet to be disappointed to find that there was not a feature I was
looking for.  

I will admit to some misgivings about the proprietary nature of the
hardware and OS compared to the Oracle world I am used to, but I have no
complaints about the robustness of the software, including the database.

Jim Reinardy

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Joe Pluta
Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2004 4:35 PM
To: 'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion'
Subject: RE: Question about UDB on iSeries

> From: Dave Odom
> 
> UT the reality is, it and DB2 are not usually used in the same 
> environments and for the same types of applications and reasons as the

> mainframe.

I'm interested in this statement!  Do mainframes not do CICS-type
applications anymore?  Because for the life of me I can't discern the
difference between CICS-based order entry in COBOL and green-screen
order entry in RPG IV (or NEP-MRT order entry in RPG II, for that
matter).

If your contention is that mainframes are used more for data warehousing
on multi-terabyte databases, then I guess you're probably right there.
The iSeries is only just beginning to target that environment, although
from what I understand EVIs and the like make the iSeries a pretty nice
platform for those things.


> There are reasons why mainframe shops and mid-range shops using RDMBs 
> like DB2 and Oracle went with those
engines
> and platforms and not with the iSeries.

What are the reasons?


> In addition, most iSeries shops I know of, since they have been 
> influenced by Rochester and tend to move only in that environment and 
> have done so for decades, don't have an unbiased view of how different

> the DB2/400 implementation is from the rest of IBM and why that is not

> necessarily good.

Actually, we didn't even know we were running DB2 until we were told so
by IBM.  Until then we were just running OS/400 (or CPF).  We just knew
we had the fastest database on the planet for the type of navigational
access that best describes business logic.


> One of the questions that should be answered is, "but with all that, 
> can DB2/400 be used wisely and in keeping with the
tenets
> usually found in the rest of the RDBMs world and why is that important

> to my business?"

Can you provide these tenets?  Or better yet point out where they are
published.  Can I see them online somewhere?  Download them?


Joe

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