IDUG is the International Db2 User Group which is an independent, not-for-profit, user-run organization whose mission is to support and strengthen the information services community by providing the highest quality education and services designed to promote the effective utilization of Db2. One of the core services offered by IDUG is the annual North American Db2 Tech Conference.
This year the IDUG Db2 Tech Conference was held in Charlotte, NC, starting Sunday June 23 and ending on Thursday June 27. As is typically the case, the event offered a significant number of educational opportunities in the form of presentations, longer-form education, peer-to-peer communications, special interest groups, and even the availability of taking Db2 certification exams at no charge.
The IDUG Db2 Tech Conference is definitely the place to be if you use Db2 on any platform. Nowhere else can you meet such a diverse number of users including IBMers, vendor experts, IBM Champions, IBM Gold consultants, DBA, and programmers from all over the world.
This year’s educational offerings spanned multiple topics for IBM Z and LUW users alike including topics on AI and data insights, analytics, automation, best practices, cloud, data movement, database resiliency availability and scalability, DevOps, modernization, machine learning, security, and more. And, of course, there were sessions that covered Db2 basics for newcomers. All in all, there were sessions for all types of Db2 users.
Furthermore, IDUG z/OS and LUW fundamentals courses were running parallel to the IDUG sessions. These four-days courses, available to all attendees free of charge at IDUG NA and EMEA events, provide useful training for new Db2 users and reinforcement for veterans. And fundamentals registrants are eligible to test at the end of week at no additional cost.
Wonderful Keynote Sessions
Although IDUG offers a lot of sessions, it is worth noting the thought leaders who participated in the keynote sessions each day.
On Monday, the event kicked off with the opening session featuring IBM’s data and AI product experts, Minaz Merali, vice president of product management, and Annette Brooks, vice president of development for IBM Data & AI Software. Their session, “Db2 Generative AI & watsonx: Getting the Most From Your Data,” focused on how AI and Db2 are central to today’s data management strategy for modern organizations.
The Tuesday morning keynote session, “Modernizing With a Winning Formula,” featured David Stokes, senior director, engineering & agile program management at Broadcom. With Charlotte being the home to NASCAR, Stokes’ presentation compared the management of IT and database systems to a race car pit crew, where crew members ensure the race car is balanced, operating temperature is set, and all features are enabled for maximum torque. With Db2, the “pit crew” includes database administrators, system engineers, and application developers — all working together to support overall business goals in a 24x7 economy.
Wednesday morning offered the most interactive keynote session I have ever attended as Dr. Shindale Seale of SEADE Coaching & Consulting got the audience engaged and responding to her questions. Her keynote focused on navigating complex change with a workforce composed of five different generations that have vast differences and expectations in how they approach work. This session offered a nice change of pace from the technological onslaught of a multi-day event like the IDUG Db2 Tech Conference.
Highlights of the Daily Sessions
So, what about the daily sessions?
One of the bigger newsworthy items at IDUG this year was the availability of Db2 in the cloud on AWS RDS (Relational Database Service). As cloud-savvy database professionals know, Amazon RDS is a web service that delivers DBaaS (database-as-a-service) in the AWS Cloud. Amazon offers many other DBMSes via RDS (such as Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, and others), but only recently has IBM Db2 been available. Many in the Db2 world have been waiting for this capability which was announced late in 2023, so it was rightly promoted at the event. During the first keynote, Michael Krafick from Sherwin Williams outlined how he was able to quickly and easily spin up Db2 on RDS. And later, in a highly attended session, Krafick detailed the steps he took to successfully utilize Db2 on RDS.
Some of the benefits of DB2 via Amazon RDS include:
- Easy migration from on premises to Amazon RDS without business disruption,
- Automated administrative tasks including migrations, provisioning, and more,
- Automated cross-region backups, snapshots, and failover, and
- Simplified scaling and resource management with just a few clicks or an API call.
On the Db2 for z/OS side of things, the trend was to discuss how to navigate through the various function levels and migrating to Db2 13 for z/OS. Several sessions offered help on deciphering the information on Db2 levels including code level, function level, application compatibility level — and what they mean. Watching sessions and attendees in these sessions, it sure seems like many sites are continuing to slow working their way to Db2 13. As such, the sessions on Db2 12 and 13 function levels and user success stories were well attended.
In the Db2 for z/OS Spotlight session, Haakon Roberts (director, Db2 for z/OS and tools; DE, CTO IBM z data and AI) discussed some of the future plans for new Db2 functionality but was clear that things could change moving forward.
Another trend was a number of sessions that focused on features that have been introduced over the past several releases, but that have not been as heavily used or have been misunderstood, as well as offering guidance on why it makes sense to start using them. Examples of such features include profile tables, using the REST interface, encryption, and SQL Data Insights.
I personally delivered a presentation based on some of the things that I've encountered as an independent consultant, titled “Oh, the Things I've Seen: Db2 Stories and Best Practices.” This presentation offered a fun discussion on problems and misused features including RUNSTATS, RID failures, and more in a Dr. Seuss-like way. Outdated statistics, a silent foe, caused the RID pool to overflow. Queries stumbled, indexes failed, and SQL's prowess became impaled.
Finally, the Db2 for z/OS experts panel session is always a highlight of the event, and this year’s session was quite interesting. I think the most thought-provoking aspect of the session was that the experts on the panel, in many cases, deferred to experts in the audience to answer questions more clearly. Truly, you can do so much with Db2 these days that it is difficult for any individual to be an expert on everything — and in the case, even a panel of experts!
The Expo Hall
No technical conference is complete without a vendor exposition hall where attendees can visit with software vendors, see product demos, and discuss their favorite Db2 and product issues with each vendor’s subject matter experts.
Particularly noteworthy was an increase in the number of training vendors that participated, including LearnQuest, Interskill Learning, and ProTech. It seems that interest has picked up in terms of ensuring that employees are properly trained in Db2 — and that’s a good thing!
Overall, there were lots of opportunities to mingle and discuss Db2 during break and at the expo hall, not to mention the evening events hosted by Broadcom (Tuesday) on the Nuvole rooftop lounge and IBM (Wednesday) at the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
Future Events With IDUG
If you are a Db2 user, the IDUG Db2 Tech Conference is the place to be. If you missed it this year, there is still an opportunity to attend IDUG events later this year in Valencia, Spain and Sao Paolo, Brazil — and it is never too early to start making plans for next year’s IDUG Db2 Tech Conference in Atlanta.
IDUG is a great source for Db2 education and camaraderie with other Db2 professionals. This year’s event was no exception.