News

IBM Earns W2K Datacenter Certification for DB2 7.2

• By Scott Bekker
• 07/26/2001

Although four other ISVs have completed the difficult certification process administered for Microsoft by Veritest, all the previously certified software falls into the tools category.

Microsoft had been the only vendor to get certifications for general-use applications. Both SQL Server 2000 and Exchange 2000 Server carry the Certified for Windows 2000 Datacenter Server logo.

IBM's decision to certify its flagship database software on the Windows 2000 Datacenter Server operating system represents a significant continuing endorsement for Microsoft's certification program.

IBM showed early commitment to Microsoft's certification program for Windows 2000 by beating SQL Server to certification on the Windows 2000 Server and Windows 2000 Advanced Server platforms for an earlier version of DB2 (7.1). IBM got certification for DB2 7.1 in June 2000.

The current certification of version 7.2 covers four versions of DB2 Universal Database: Enterprise Edition, Enterprise Extended Edition, Workgroup Edition, and Connect Enterprise Edition. IBM also earned the less stringent certifications for Windows 2000 Server and Windows 2000 Advanced Server for all four flavors of DB2 7.2.

To get the Datacenter Certification, an application must demonstrate the ability to run in high Physical Address Extension memory (greater than 4 GB of RAM), install and run on a 32-processor Unisys server, successfully fail over in a four-node cluster environment, and operate correctly under the control of Job Objects.

Oracle, which recently released the 9i version of its flagship database, is not expected to go through the certification process. The company does say that it will internally test to make sure its database runs properly in Microsoft's highest-end operating environment.

IBM also earned Windows 2000 Server certification for MQSeries 5.2.1 and IBM Content Manager 7.1 earlier this year.

Other vendors to achieve Windows 2000 Datacenter Server certification since Microsoft released the operating system last fall are BMC Software, Commvault Systems Inc., NetIQ Corp. and Veritas Software Corp.