DB2 Connect --- to "connect everything to everything"?

A better way to do everything?

http://www-306.ibm.com/software/data/db2/db2connect/


DB2 Connect makes your company's host data directly available to your
Personal Computer and LAN-based workstations.


It connects desktop and palm-top applications to your company's
mainframe and minicomputer host databases, leveraging your enterprise
information no matter where it is!
DB2 Connect provides the application enablement and robust, highly
scalable communication infrastructure for connecting Web, Windows, UNIX,
Linux, and mobile applications to z/OS and AS/400 data.


Features at a glance: Seamlessly connects popular desktop
applications to S/390 and AS/400 data
Enables fast, secure access to legacy data through intranets,
extranets or the public Internet
Integrates new Web-based applications with existing core business
applications
Provides the performance, scalability, reliability and availability
needed for the most demanding e-commerce, CRM, BI, and ERP applications
Provides extensive application programming tools for developing
client-server and web applications using industry standard APIs such as
ODBC, ADO, OLE DB, JDBC, SQLJ, DB2 CLI and Embedded SQL.
Allows you to build new Internet applications and extend existing
applications such as data warehousing, data mining, OLTP and OLAP to the
Web
Integrates with both Java and Microsoft models for developing new
Web-based applications
Energizes mobile PC users and users of the new pervasive computing
devices with reliable, up-to-date data from S/390 and AS/400 database
servers


DB2 Connect is included in many of the DB2 UDB products.

DB2 Personal Developer's Edition provides all the tools for one
software developer to develop desktop business tools and applications
including DB2 Connect.