DB2: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

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, DB2 can be considered to be an object-relational database.

DB2 started out on the mainframe but soon migrated down through UNIX and Windows servers to PDAs.

DB2 is also the designation of an Aston Martin sportscar dating from the early 1960s.