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Compare SQL Server to IBM DB2

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 provides better performance and scalability, higher availability, industry-leading security, easier manageability, enhanced developer productivity, leading Business Intelligence and data warehousing capabilities, a platform for mainframe OLTP, and SAP integration—all at a lower total cost of ownership than IBM DB2.  For these reasons, many companies have migrated from DB2 to SQL Server.  SQL Server is now ahead of DB2 in new RDBMS license market share.

Comparison Criteria

Migration stories

  • Scandinavian Airlines

    Scandinavian Airlines moves Data Warehouse to SQL Server, improves access to business data and reduces costs by 50 percent

  • The Progressive Group

    The Progressive Group gains business agility by migrating to SQL Server

  • Bovespa

    Bovespa: Brazilian stock exchange migrates to SQL Server to handle 110,000 trades daily worth $1.5B

  • Danske Supermarket

    Danske Supermarket, with 100 stores, moves analytical database from DB2 to SQL Server

  • Insurance Firm

    An insurance firm moves from DB2 to SQL Server: less cost, higher scalability

  • Indiana University

    Indiana University finds better manageability and performance when moving from DB2 to SQL Server

TCO and ROI

  • Initial acquisition costs are lower than for IBM DB2.  SQL Server’s superior price-to-performance ratio lowers hardware costs.

  • SQL Server 2008 automates, streamlines, or eliminates many routine database management tasks, lowering database administration costs below those of IBM DB2.

  • SQL Server 2008 includes features that IBM DB2 customers must buy as additional add-ins, including: all Business Intelligence, reporting, analysis, ETL, XML capabilities, data warehousing, security, and performance optimization.

  • SQL Server license fees are lower than for IBM DB2, lowering its ongoing TCO and raising its ROI.  DB2 can be 5-6 times more expensive to license than SQL Server, with  an even higher multiple  for multi-core licensing.

 

Case Studies: Customers Select SQL Server over DB2

 

Performance and Scalability

SQL Server outperforms IBM DB2 in performance and scalability.

  • Benchmarks show SQL Server can handle the largest workloads:

    • SQL Server exceeds 1 million transactions per minute in the TPC-C benchmark and has the best performance on Windows.
    • In seven out of ten TPC-H benchmark comparisons, SQL Server outperforms DB2.
    • A SAP-SD certified benchmark supported 93,000 concurrent users, equivalent to more than 10 times the largest SAP customer in the world. 
    • In the new OLTP benchmark standard, TPC-E, SQL Server is the undisputed leader.
    • Read up-to-date SQL Server 2008 benchmark results.

  • New out-of-the-box SQL Server 2008 new performance and scale capabilities enable larger workloads and better performance than DB2:

    • Improved partitioning of tables, indices, ranges, and more
    • Compression support that matches or surpasses that of IBM DB2 UDB Resource governor that enables detailed CPU and memory resource control 
    • Performance Data Collector that troubleshoots, tunes, and monitors SQL Server instances across the enterprise
    • Highly tuned ETL engine  that currently holds the world ETL performance record

 

Case Studies

  • Citi Group runs Lava market montage solution on SQL Server, with more than 200,000 updates per second.

  • Xerox uses SQL Server to manage 7 million transactions per day with 99.999% uptime.

  • American Power Conversion migrated from to SQL Server Enterprise Edition---resulting in 100% faster response times; and savings of US $800,000.

  • VHA  migrated from Mainframe/DB2 to SQL Server—increasing its PeopleSoft efficiency by 25%, decreasing replication time by 89%, and significantly reducing TCO.

  • Countrywide Home Loans chose SQL Server over IBM DB2 to provide better performance and higher availability.

  • Microsoft  IT  uses SQL Server to drive 27TB Global Forensic Security tool.

  • Nasdaq, the world leading technology stock trade, real-time booking system, handles 5,000 transactions per second with SQL Server.

  • Unisys UPSS system, a 23 TB SQL Server installation won “Top 10” for data warehouse peak workloads.

  • Premier BankCard upgraded its 12-TB data warehouse and  OLTP database to SQL Server.

  • Danske Supermarket  upgraded to Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services for its 600GB of multidimensional cubes and more than 10TB of business intelligence data.

 

High Availability

SQL Server provides the highest level of availability at no additional cost with the best price performance of any database on commodity hardware, enabling it to meet the needs of the most demanding data warehousing and business intelligence application environments.  

  • Proven performance in demanding real-world customer applications. IBM mainframe customers continue to migrate to SQL Server.

  • All high-availability features provided out of the box.  IBM DB2 requires customers to purchase these as add-ons.

  • New high availability capabilities, such as database snapshot and snapshot isolation.  DB2 does not currently offer these capabilities. 

  • Improved high availability capabilities in SQL Server 2008, such as enhanced mirroring, improved restore times, reduction of backup volumes, and more. 

 

High-Availability SQL Server Customers

  • bwin, one of the largest online gaming companies, trusts SQL Server 2008 to manage 100TB of real-time transactions, 24x7.

  • Xerox uses SQL Server to manage 7 million transactions per day with 99.999% uptime.   

  • Citi - Market Montage Solution Supports 200,000 Updates per Second with SQL Server.

  • London Stock Exchange  London Stock Exchange cuts information dissemination time from 30 to 2 milliseconds.

  • Nasdaq The SQL Server installation at NASDAQ handles 5,000 transactions/second, and 100,000 simultaneous queries a day.

  • Unilever has lowered their TCO by supporting SAP with SQL Server.

  • Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), with 5 terabytes of data deploys SQL Server 2005 database mirroring

  • FUJIFILM supports multi-terabyte SAP deployment with Microsoft SQL Server 2005.

   

Security

SQL Server is the leader in database platform security and is more secure than DB2. Only one SQL Server vulnerability has been found since 2004—as compared to 61 for DB2.  Out of the box, SQL Server 2008 is more secure IBM DB2. At no extra cost it delivers security features not available in DB2, or available only as expensive add-ons:

  • Work securely with SQL Server Common Criteria certification and FIPS 140-2 compliance.

  • Use Policy-based Management to enforce security polices for data services across the enterprise.

  • Encrypt data without modifying applications, using Transparent Data Encryption.

  • Employ enterprise-wide encryption solutions with Extensible Key Management and Hardware Security Modules.

  • Audit all actions  with the new Audit object, and manage central reporting for many servers.

  • Configure surface area  through automatic security policies.

More Information

 

Manageability

SQL Server is easier to manage and more productive than DB2. The SQL Server environment simplifies management and maintenance, reducing the need for highly specialized IT support.

  • SQL Server offers more sophisticated and integrated tools for installation, configuration, and software updates than IBM DB2.

  • Management Studio helps reduce administration overhead through policy-based management of routine database operations and maintenance across multiple servers. IBM DB2 has no multi-server management.

  • SQL Server provides advanced performance tuning and optimization functionality:

    • Resource Governor enables better hardware utilization out-of-the-box
    • Performance Data Collection and Performance Studioreduce tuning and troubleshooting time and improve data collection, reporting, and monitoring.
    • Query performance stability and predictabilityenable you to lock down query plans across hardware server replacements, server upgrades, and  deployments.
    • Built-in policy-based management enables you to manage surface area configuration and apply best practices.

Read more about SQL Server 2008 manageability capabilities.

 

Developer Productivity

Microsoft provides the world’s most popular development platform.Combining SQL Server 2008 with Visual Studio provides a single set of integrated development and management tools which has been recognized as the most productive environment for developers and database administrators. SQL Server 2008 integration with Visual Studio .NET provides a better platform for .NET developers building database-driven applications. SQL Server 2008 has several significant advantages over DB2 in embedding .NET logic in the database:

  • SQL Server provides a single integrated development environment.  DB2 requires customers to learn and support different methodologies and tools.

  • Integration between SQL Server and Developer Studio helps ensure the best optimization possible. 

  • Leverage a single set of database development and management toolsacross the entire lifecycle of an application, including conception, design, coding, testing, deployment, management, and support. DB2 requires different tools for different tasks.

  • Microsoft Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals increases developer efficiency and productivity by providing better change management throughout the application lifecycle and enhanced communication and collaboration.

  • SQL Server offers advanced development capabilities not found in DB2, or available only through paid add-ons:  .Net integration and integrated debugging provide increased productivity, Entity Data Model (EDM), synchronizing with remote devices), SQL change tracking, and Spatial data types. 

 

More information

 

Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing

SQL Server 2008 is a Business Intelligence (BI) and data warehouse platform leader. Gartner has recognized Microsoft as a leader among business intelligence and data warehousing platform vendors. SQL Server is the fastest growing Business Intelligence  and  database  vendor. It  ships more units  than Oracle and IBM combined.

 

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
Microsoft is the #1 OLAP server in the market, with 8 times the market share in BI tools compared to IBM.  SQL Server provides:

  • An integrated BI suite that is one of the most comprehensive BI solutions in the market, including out-of-the-box reporting capabilities (Reporting Services), Analytics, Data Mining and OLAP (Analysis Services), and tools to do ETL-extract, transform and load (Integration Services).

  • Seamless integration with Microsoft Office.

  • Advanced BI capabilities:

    • Reporting services: Many SQL Server reporting capabilities, such as Tablix for data tables and enhanced visualization capabilities,  are not available in IBM BI offerings.
    • Analysis services: SQL Server is the #1 OLAP engine in the market.  Excel-add in enables you to extend data mining across the organization. DB2 does not provide any similar capability.
    • Integration services: SQL Server Integration Server holds the world record in ETL performance. SQL Server Integration Services is significantly less costly than DB2, and can scale to the largest workloads.


Learn more about SQL Server:

 

DATA WAREHOUSING
All SQL Server 2008 data warehousing (DW) features are included out of the box:

  • Resource Governor  to manage resources

  • Improved partitioning, including table partition parallelism, to handle larger data sizes

  • Data Compression  and Backup Compression  to significantly reduce space, resources, and backup/restore time

  • Star join query optimizations  and other DW engine optimizations

  • Improved ETL performance, so that today Integration Services holds the world record in ETL performance, better than any IBM ETL tool.

 

Customer Highlight
 bwin, one of the largest online gaming companies, trusts SQL Server 2008 to manage 100TB of real-time transactions.


Other large data warehouse SQL Server customers:

  • First Premier Bank runs its 12-Terabyte mission critical BI Solution on SQL Server

  • TDC  Denmark Telecom leader slashes costs with 6-Terabyte Data Warehouse on SQL Server

  • Barnes & Noble  gains business insights across sales channels with SQL Server Data Warehouse

 

OLTP

SQL Server 2008 is a mission-critical platform for Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) data solutions.

  • Mainframe customers are migrating to SQL Server as a mission-critical OLTP solution.

  • SQL Server 2008 provides many capabilities for managing OLTP workloads: Resource Governor; support for relational data, XML, FILESTREAM, and spatial data; data compression; automatic recovery of suspect pages; visual designer; extended events; enhanced database mirroring; automatic, transparent data encryption; performance data collection; and policy-based management.

  • Microsoft is the first database vendor to publish TPC-E benchmark results. IBM DB2 has no benchmark results in this category.

  • Mainframe migration is now more accessible and easier to manage,with re-hosting, porting, replacement, or rewriting of existing applications.

   

Customers that migrated from Mainframe/IBM DB2 to SQL Server:

 

SAP Integration

SQL Server is integrated with SAP. Because of its integration with SAP, 42% of all new SAP customers choose SQL Server over any other database, including DB2.  The most widely adopted database for SAP overall, SQL Server: 

  • Is tuned for SAP,  including: simplified Installation, automatic optimizations and tuning, table partitioning for SAP BW, SAN-friendly design, data compression designed to work transparently with SAP BW, and star query optimizations for SAP R/3 tables. 

  • Has been tested with loads 10 times larger than the largest SAP customer loads in the world, as shown in this SAP certified benchmark. SAP customers run their largest workloads on SQL Server and many, like Pilgrim’s Pride, Fuji, and Unilever, are moving their databases to SQL Server.

  • Provides better TCO than any other database, including DB2. Wipro study of 68 SAP ERP customers shows SQL Server reduces unplanned downtime, labor costs, support costs compared with other databases.

 

SAP Customers running on SQL Server:

  • China Light and Power implemented SAP R/3 running on Microsoft Windows and recouped its investment in just 20 months with 99.98% availability.  

  • Danfoss, industrial giant, moved its SAP R/3 system to Windows and SQL Server to cut costs in half and increase processing speed by 40 percent. 

  • Fujifilm  migrated its SAP business applications to SQL Server to achieve increased stability and improved response. 

  • Klosterfrau  upgraded from SAP R/3 4.0B to 4.7, replaced its database with SQL Server, migrated 800 Gb of data in a single weekend, and cut administration effort by 30%. 

  • Koehler, German paper manufacturer, deployed SAP business applications on SQL Server, with 100% planned uptime. 

 

SQL Server Resource for SAP Customers:

 

 

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