IBM Replaces 700 SAP Installations With DB2

IBM took the opportunity at its Information On Demand (IOD) 2010 conference to boast that more than 700 SAP clients have turned to IBM DB2 database software in order to manage heavy database workloads.

IBM prides itself on displacing its competition in key business opportunities. In its most recent quarterly earnings, the third quarter of fiscal 2010, IBM senior vice president and chief financial officer for finance and transformation, said during the quarter IBM displaced its competition in more than 225 instances to the tune of about $250 million (£159 million).

DB2 Workload Capability

Moreover, as pressure increases on businesses to process increasing amounts of data faster, hundreds of global companies are choosing DB2 database software to address their most complex information-related management challenges. In fact, IBM is the preferred database software across all industries to provide more efficient and flexible support of the heavy database workload generated by SAP applications, IBM said.

In addition to the 700 new clients turning to IBM DB2, IBM has also seen significant momentum in its systems business with close to 250 Power Systems wins over Sun and HP in Q3 alone, said the company.

A growing number of companies are turning to IBM including Reliance Life, 3 UK and Banco do Brasil to bring greater efficiencies to their IT environments to lower costs, making them more energy-efficient and scalable infrastructures, IBM said in a press release describing the migrations.

Reliance Life Insurance Company, a part of Reliance Capital, is one of India’s leading private insurers providing a range of products for individual and corporate needs. The company is the fourth largest private insurance company in India with a customer base growing to more than seven million in just five years of its operation.

Better transaction performance and faster access to data was a critical business requirement for Reliance Life in order to keep up with its growing customer base and new workload demands, IBM said. Two things that led them to move to DB2 from competitive database software were the ability to backup data faster and to increase near real time information availability for better customer service. By moving to IBM DB2 on Power Systems, the company now provides more timely information to customers, advisors and employees at lower costs, IBM said.

Customer Wins

Meanwhile, 3 UK needed to handle the explosive growth of data hitting their network due to new data services and the increased use of smart phones. They were under an extremely tight timeline to choose an analytic platform that was flexible and scalable to better understand and keep pace their growing number of subscribers.

According to Darren Silvester, Information Management Architect of 3 UK, they deployed the IBM Smart Analytics System, an integrated software and hardware platform, to analyse network hotspots, detect potential congestion areas and dropped voice calls. In addition, they are able to analyse call patterns and trends over different types of networks, enabling better customer segmentation. The system is also providing valuable insight into subscriber inactivity, which assists in churn analysis.

“IT departments are handling more data faster than ever before to help optimise business results.  CIOs are using technology in new ways to extract the most value from data and address both business and IT need to eliminate wasteful costs,” said Arvind Krishna, general manager, IBM Information Management, in a statement. “The momentum we are seeing is a result of global demand for both greater insights and greater efficiency in a fast-paced business environment.”