Announced on Thursday by IBM and SuSE Linux AG, the new Software Integration Center is located at IBMs Toronto lab. The Center will initially focus upon boosting performance in the DB2 Universal Database line but will eventually branch out to encompass other IBM middleware products that are fueling IBMs on-demand computing strategy, including WebSphere, Lotus, and MQ Series, according to Bob Picciano, director of database technology at the IBM Toronto Software Lab.
Picciano said the purpose of the newly-formed center is to accelerate deeper integration between DB2 and SuSE Linux technology to help customers more easily perform certification, maintenance, testing, migration and porting functions in-line with future DB2 software offerings running on SuSE Linux Enterprise Server Platform.
"A lot of our customers have come to us and said they really want to see what [DB2] could do" with Linux, he said. "[The Center] is going to be collaboration around ensuring that we get DB2 on any new [SUSE] platforms or distributions as quickly as possible." Any new software plug-ins for DB2 to emerge will be addressed through the partnership.
Officials from Nuremberg, Germany-based SuSE Linux say that SuSE Linux Enterprise Server stands as the first Linux distribution to be validated on all hardware platforms supported by DB2 for Linux and also validated to run DB2 Enterprise Server Edition.
Picciano said it "makes sense" to investigate deeper DB2 integration with Red Hat Inc. technology as well, although he would not say if another, similar Integration Center is in the offing.
IBM is aggressively pursuing a DB2-friendly Linux environment. In August, the company introduced its pre-configured and Linux-based DB2 Integrated Cluster Environment (DB2 ICE) offering. Capable of scaling up to 1,000 nodes, DB2 ICE is based upon IBM DB2 UDB and IBM eServer Linux Cluster 1350 (xSeries, eServer 325, BladeCenter).
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