IBM System z software announcements : DB2 11 for z/OS ESP

The latest versions of DB2 for z/OS have known a three year release cycle with an end of support 7 years later. Just a small recap :

• V6 : GA 1998, EOS 2005
• V7 : GA 2001, EOS 2008
• V8 : GA 2004, EOS 2012 (support lasted an extra year)
• V9 : GA 2007, EOS 2014 (back to normal)
• V10 : GA 2010, estimated EOS 2017

So today, IBM announced an Early Support Program for DB2 11 (ZP12-0467). Apparently we're on schedule for a GA by the end of 2013.

DB2 11 for z/OS seems to be focusing on the following 4 areas. I'll each time give you a couple of examples.

• Help save money, save time, and reduce costs.
  "Compared to DB2 10, DB2 11 clients may achieve up to 5% out-of-the-box CPU savings for various traditional online transaction processing (OLTP), heavy INSERT, and SAP workloads. Select query workloads may see even more benefits, with up to 20 to 30% CPU savings. Read intensive OLTP workloads may see up to 10% CPU savings with DB2 11".
  Also "decompressing data is much faster using DB2 11, with significant performance improvements, delivering up to 15% CPU savings when running the queries against compressed tables".

• Provide unmatched availability, reliability, and security for business critical information
  "With new capabilities you can reduce the number of REORGs, automatically clean up after index pseudo deletes, and achieve even faster performance when a REORG is needed".
  "DB2 11 improves performance for BIND and DDL options on long-running persistent threads".

• Provide enhanced analytics for business growth
  On the one hand there are improvements for QMF. on the other hand with IDAA "you can run your online transaction processing (OLTP) and data warehouse as one integrated workload in real time with great cost effectiveness". Sounds interesting !

• Offer simpler, faster migration for faster ROI
  A "new application compatibility feature helps streamline the migration process by allowing an application with incompatible SQL or XML that is no longer compatible with DB2 11 to continue to run with DB2 11 without requiring code changes".

An ESP implies that IBM intends to make this version available to a select group of clients in a closed Early Support Program which becomes available on March 7, 2013. z/OS V1.13 is a prerequisite.