MySQL and IBM launched a public beta in the past week for the DB2
for i Storage Engine for MySQL (IBMDB2I), data storage technology
IBM says will be a boost for System i shops.
The storage engine has been developed for MySQL running in IBM i, V5R4 and V6R1. IBMDB2I allows users
to create MySQL tables with a DB2 format type, and is included in MySQL
for i installation by default, though users have to enable it. The
product allows customers to run MySQL-based PHP applications and have
the data stored in DB2/400.
“Really what happens is that customers run one of these open source
applications written to PHP or some other language, that application is
written to MySQL…then through the MySQL storage engine architecture
that data gets written to DB2,” said Craig Johnson, IBM Power Systems
Product Manager. “So from the i customers standpoint, all of them have
DB2 already; they all know how to use it (and) manage it, and so their
PHP applications written to MySQL end up getting stored in the same
database they already have.”
The data that is stored in the engine is not just available to the
MySQL application, but also to other applications on the IBM
i platform.
IBMDB2I works with MySQL 5.1. Officials at IBM could not offer a date as to when the product would be generally available.
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