Unvarnished beta tester input

Since that error, Ive managed to speak to a few more Stinger beta testers, whose input I take to be balanced and which I hope will provide some of the valuable feedback we all need as we consider the major surgery that a database update will entail. One such beta user is Tim Kuchlein, director of information systems at Clarity Payment Solutions Inc., which is in the process of deploying an on-demand infrastructure using 64-bit DB2 on JS-20 blades Linux on POWER. According to Kuchlein, the biggest appeal of Stinger is that its the first database engine IBM released that will run on these new JS-20 blades. Because the blade center allows for many more machines in a much smaller space, what with their vertical alignment, plus the fact that the blade center comes with its networking and power infrastructure built right in, Clarify is going to be able to add a lot more memory a lot more easily down the line. If they need more processing power, Kuchlein can go out and buy a P Series box. Everything will be binary-compatible, so hell be able to take the code written for one machine and put it in another without any glitches. Theres a good chance that Clarity and other businesses will need to go down that path as data centers grow. Clarity, which was seeing 15 percent growth monthly a few months back, last month saw data growth hit 40 percent. In the last 20 days of April, it was at 20 percent. Obviously, the companys seeing some pretty substantial growth in terms of data-storage requirements. "Having some head room is something were very interested in," Kuchlein told me. Of course, with the data deluge now entering our databases from Internet sources, most businesses are likely facing similar situations. Next Page: Stingers clustering technology.