The database segment is intensely competitive and each year has seen a surge of innovative strategies both on the business and technology front from different vendors. Nick Redshaw, business unit executive, Data Management Solutions, IBM Software Group, IBM Asia Pacific, spoke to Stanley Glancy on why he thinks IBM holds the edge over its competitors

How does IBM’s data management solution stand vis-à-vis competition?
We have been seeing tremendous growth consecutively for the past 21 quarters. According to Gartner reports, we are today the number one database vendor in the world with a market share of 34.6 percent. Oracle follows close behind with a market share of 32 percent, followed by Microsoft with 16 percent and Sybase with 3 percent market share. Our database management software has grown 33 percent over the year. We believe technology is key to our leadership and we have been innovating constantly. For instance, we have close to a thousand patents, the highest in this space, with 133 patents filed in the last year itself. Other than this, our strategy of providing cost-effective solutions and our partner strategy has contributed a lot to our success.

How important is IBM’s partner strategy for the company’s success?
We believe that the growth of our partner’s business is absolutely critical for our business. Unlike Oracle, we have made a conscious decision not to compete with our partners. In India, we have partnered with more than 100 ISVs (Independent Software Vendors). The ISVs are also enrolled in the IBM PartnerWorld for the developer program and develop applications for the IBM mainframe server platforms. ISVs are central to our success as ISV applications are at the heart of every solution a customer buys. Also, ISVs often set industry directions by their choice of platforms and standards for hardware and software. Our partners give us the flexibility to work across all verticals. Our ISV programs are done in such a way that each specialise in certain segments. So we partner with them and cover that vertical. In India, our overall strategy would remain the same as our global strategy. We will continue to drive portability between DB2 and Informix so that customers will have options. There will never be any forced migration to DB2. The important thing to note is that we give our local partners the opportunity to go global.

What is the focus of the new version of DB2?
People have a huge range of legacy systems, which they need to bring together. Most companies have more than one database. The IBM solution, which supports 22 platforms, helps companies manage multiple databases with just one solution. In DB2 version 8, we are extending our federation technology to include Web services. Previously, federation technology allowed customers to connect DB2 with other databases. Now, Web services support will speed access to information. If data is made available as a Web service, the company can easily fetch it from the business partner’s database and use it as if it were part of the company’s own database.

Our approach extends the core database engine capabilities to non-IBM databases. DB2 version 8 is faster and more reliable with improved support for Web services, which are designed to help companies interact via the Internet. With the new version we will be targeting mid-size businesses as well, as we see a surge of sales in this market. DB2 version 8 comes with self-healing capability, a part of our strategy for autonomic computing.

On the performance front, Version 8 offers faster queries for analytical applications. A feature called multidimensional clustering allows users to cluster information physically on disk. DB2 Version 8 can perform these queries 100 percent faster.

How has the acquisition of Informix helped IBM’s business?
The acquisition of Informix has proved beneficial for IBM. Informix has a large customer base, especially in the Asia Pacific region, which has now come over to IBM. Also, the key technologies in Informix are complementary to DB2. The acquisition has also added 2,500 highly skilled data employees from Informix. And finally, it has helped us increase our partner base in the Asia Pacific region. We are investing heavily into Informix. We will incorporate select Informix technologies into future versions of DB2, which will be our only brand. We have several products within this brand and Informix will be a part of this family. We are integrating Informix database business operations and personnel into the existing IBM Software data management division. We will maintain existing relationships with Informix customers and business partners, including support for and updating of current Informix products