March 2006 Gartner report predicts strong growth for DB2

Gartner: Gartner Study on DBMS Identifies Spending and Deployment Trends

The IDUG website linked to this optimistic report from Gartner, which sees over two thirds of the world's companies increasing DBMS spending in 2006, and "DB2 will show strong growth during the next 12 months – this is greater than all other DBMSs". Even z/OS is continuing to pick up steam. It's encouraging to see IBM's hard work and careful attention to DBMS user needs paying off with a better suite of products and increasing market share.

SQL maven Joe Celko starts a weblog

Blogspot: Joe Celko - The SQL Apprentice

Despite its misleading title, Joe Celko is not actually the apprentice, but he does take SQL questions from them in a blog he started earlier this month on Blogger. As he has been known to say, if you don't know who Joe Celko is, just as any SQL programmer. Hopefully, most of the answers he gives in this blog won't be news to you, but it may still be worth reading for a chuckle or a groan as he attempts to guide new SQL apprentices (smarties to be?) toward a better path. If not for morbid entertainment, the disturbingly ignorant questions, followed by his diligent responses, will at least make for a quick cut-and-paste shortcut when your own SQL programmers inevitably ask you the very same questions.

IBM releases Viper release candidate of DB2 Express-C

IBM DB2 Viper website: Download Viper release of DB2 Express-C

If you've been interested in Viper, but wanted to stay within the feature set of DB2 Express-C, you are in luck. By playing with the Express-C version of Viper Release Candidate 1, you'll be able to see exactly which Viper features will soon be available for free.

There are also some VMware images of DB2 Express-C on Linux available for quick and easy testing with the free VMware Player. Now that VMware takes the risk and disruption out of testing Viper, there's practically no excuse for not checking it out.

Use Google Calendar to plan your IDUG conference schedule

IDUG conference schedule on Google Calendar

I am an enthusiastic fan of Google's new calendar application, and decided to use it to manage my schedule for the upcoming IDUG conference in Tampa. I entered the 130 sessions for DB2 into a few Google calendars and am sharing them so others can benefit from my caffeine-induced typing session.

If you are a Google Calendar user, or you use some other iCal-compliant program, you can import each of these public calendars into your personal calendar and choose which sessions you want to attend. The nice part is that you'll be able to add other private events into your calendar, like those sales-y parties that database tool vendors throw in their booze-soaked hotel suites. Google Calendar will allow you to manage all that in one place. Isn't that neat?

Each track can be imported as a separate calendar, and I also made calendars for the LUW and Cross-Platform groupings as well. Sorry Informix people, I would have put your sessions in too, but my hands were still sore from the first batch.

By Thread

• Thread A: DB2 Technology Fundamentals
• Thread B: DB2 UDB for z/OS
  
• Thread C: DB2 UDB for z/OS "Cutting Edge"
  
• Thread D: DB2 UDB for LUW
  
• Thread E: DB2 UDB for LUW "Cutting Edge"
  
• Thread F: DB2 Application Development 1
  
• Thread G: DB2 Application Development 2
  
• Thread H: DB2 eXtra On Demand
  
• Thread I: Technical Product Presentations
  
• Thread J: DB2 In-Depth
  

By category

• DB2 for LUW sessions
  
• DB2 for Cross-Platform sessions
  

The typical caveats apply. These sessions could change at any time, despite my waiting until the last minute to enter them. If anyone from SmithBucklin or IDUG wishes to take control of these calendars, I'll happily give them up to the appropriate person.

Get your Viper on today

DB2 Viper Early Community website: DB2 Viper test drive

After months of closed beta testing and teaser articles, IBM is offering a publicly available test drive in Viper Release Candidate 1. In addition to the database engine, downloads are also available for Viper client software, development tools, and documentation. If you have some time to play with Viper and have any questions, IBM has opened an online forum just for Viper, manned by some very dedicated DB2 experts from IBM. The business partners who have been participating in the Viper closed beta since December will also be there now that Viper is open for public testing.

IBM schedules Viper online chat for April 6

IBM Viper site: DB2 Chat with the Lab

On Thursday, April 6 at 11am EDT, IBM is hosting a webcast with Viper experts from IBM's Toronto Lab. I recently participated in a DB2 webcast like this one, and I can say it is an excellent way to exchange a lot of useful, detailed information very quickly. Outside of individually cornering these people at a DB2 conference (good luck with that), there are not many other ways to get this level of access to the masterminds behind this exciting new release. Even though the entire webcast will be archived for on-demand viewing later on, I still recommend reserving a spot and sitting in on the live session on 4/6 in order to submit any questions you have about Viper.