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Why IBM Databases?

 

IBM Databases are designed to run your applications, analytics, and generative AI workloads across any cloud. Our portfolio of relational and NoSQL databases are designed to run all workloads, while maintaining performance and cost efficiency. We support open standards and integrations with our data platform, watsonx.data, and optimize price-performance for your use cases. Using AI, open-source technologies like Apache Iceberg, and native integrations, you can unify and share a single copy of data and metadata for analytics and AI across databases, all without the need for migration, re-cataloging or SQL usage.

Deploy across on-premises or any cloud, including IBM Cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform, providing like-for-like compatibility with your on-premises deployments and zero down-time of applications. Native integrations with our data fabric architecture and IBM watsonx™ enable a trusted data foundation to accelerate and scale AI, supported by automated lineage, metadata enrichment, governance and reproducibility of data.

Read the data leader’s guide for choosing the right database solutions for applications, analytics and artificial intelligence (AI).

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IBM Databases

Get started quickly with the right database for the job.

Type

Use Cases

Solution
Transactional
  • Modernizing apps to SaaS
  • New cloud-native apps
  • CRM and ERP 
  • AI-based applications and assistants 
  • Lower Oracle TCO

    IBM® Db2®

    Available on IBM Cloud, AWS, Azure, GCP
    • Open-source PostgreSQL, MySQL and EnterpriseDB-based applications that require enterprise versions as a fully managed service
     

      Databases for MySQL,

      Databases for PostgreSQL,

      Databases for EnterpriseDB

      Available on IBM Cloud
      Data lakehouse
      • Data warehouse augmentation 
      • Data lake modernization 
      • Data sharing 
      • Generative Al-powered insights 
      • Real-time analytics and BI
      • Operational analytics 
      • Mixed OLTP/OLAP workloads
      • Vector database for retrieval augmented generation (RAG)

      IBM watsonx.data

      • Presto for SQL query
      • Spark for analytics
      • Milvus for vector embeddings
      • Db2 Warehouse & Netezza for warehousing

      Available on IBM Cloud, AWS, Azure, GCP
      Time-series
      • Local database on hardware devices 
      • IoT applications
      • DevOps

      IBM® Informix®

      Available on IBM Cloud, AWS, Azure, GCP
      Document
      • Content management
      • Catalogs
      • Web and mobile apps
      • User profiles

      Databases for MongoDB

      Cloudant

      Available on IBM Cloud
      Messaging
      • App integration across diverse data sets for web and mobile apps and IOT devices

      Databases for RabbitMQ

      Available on IBM Cloud
      Key-value
      • Cache for high-traffic mobile and web apps
      • Store personal data for specific users
      • Session management (e-commerce systems)

      Databases for etcd

      Available on IBM Cloud
      In-memory
      • Location-based, geospatial applications
      • Analytics on real-time data

      Databases for Redis

      Available on IBM Cloud
      Full-text Search
      • Analysis of logs and machine-generated data from servers, sensors and web apps
      • In-app search

      Databases for Elasticsearch

      Available on IBM Cloud

      *Prices shown are indicative, may vary by country, exclude any applicable taxes and duties, and are subject to product offering availability in a locale.
      Our partner database services Our partner database solutions provide a unified platform for procurement, pricing and support, featuring enterprise editions of common relational databases and open source solutions, complete with warranty licenses and indemnification. Seamlessly integrate with existing IBM data, governance and AI services throughout your hybrid cloud environment to address your specific use cases. Cloudera Learn more DataStax Learn more EnterpriseDB Learn more MongoDB Learn more SingleStore Learn more
      Benefits Why choose IBM for your hybrid cloud database needs? Build gen AI apps with trusted data

       

      Use native vector database capabilities to unlock enterprise data for gen AI and Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) powered apps. Integrate with our suite of data integration, observability, security, and governance capabilities for shared metadata and automated data quality for AI.

             Highly available and secure

       

      No one knows your data like you do. Keep it that way with our decades of expertise in data security, encryption of data in motion and at rest, data masking, compliance and more. Ensure business continuity of your most critical apps with continuous and high availability, multi-AZ deployments, and disaster recovery capabilities.

             The best price-performance

       

      Pair the appropriate workload with the right analytics engine (Presto, Spark, Db2, Netezza, and more) to optimize for the best price performance and reduce your data warehouse costs by up to 50%.  

             Open for all your data needs

       

      We meet you where you are to support all workloads, data types, open standards and integrations with our data platform, watsonx.data, to scale analytics and AI with all your data.

             Deploy anywhere

       

      Accelerate resiliency, reduce costs and automate database administration management tasks by modernizing to fully managed database and hybrid cloud deployments with comparable on-premises compatibility.

      Deep expertise

       

      We offer decades of industry expertise, use cases, and IBM Consulting services paired with decades of technical innovation in data, AI, governance and security to future-proof your business for the next generation of workloads.
      Built with open source technologies

      Our database offerings are designed with open source technologies and built for open source compatibility to enable flexibility of data, table formats, query engines and open-governance, eliminating vendor lock-in and enabling portability of your data and workloads across the enterprise.

      Take advantage of open source query engines like Presto and Spark, open source vector databases, Iceberg open table format and open data formats like Parquet, Avro and ORC, facilitating seamless sharing of data and metadata throughout your organization.   

      Learn more about the open source components of watsonx.data, Db2 Warehouse and Netezza.

       
      SaaS and hybrid cloud database deployments Prioritize innovation and automate your database management. Achieve like-for-like compatibility with IBM and Oracle databases on-premises, without any downtime or requiring changes to applications. Organizations facilitate this seamless transition when they move to SaaS or hybrid cloud database solutions. Fully managed SaaS

      Access IBM databases as a fully managed service on multiple cloud providers, including IBM Cloud®, Amazon Web Services (AWS), including Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) for Db2 (link resides outside ibm.com) and Azure. Automate database management tasks and gain control over scalability, high availability, continuous updates and cost-effective, consumption-based pricing in the cloud.

             Cloud-managed container

      Deploy IBM databases as containers on cloud-managed Red Hat® OpenShift® or Kubernetes services available on AWS and Microsoft Azure cloud services.

             Self-managed infrastructure or IaaS

      Obtain IBM database software through traditional installation on either on-premises infrastructure or cloud-based infrastructure-as-a-service.
      Case studies
      South Fulton Police

      Read how Georgia’s South Fulton Police Department uses watsonx.data open data lakehouse to automate data research and management, allowing more time for public service.

       Owens-Illinois

      Learn how Owens-Illinois switched from Oracle to IBM Db2, resulting in seven-figure reductions in total cost of ownership and transactional workload response time improvements of at least 20% to 30%.

      Conestoga Wood Specialties

      Discover Conestoga’s smooth transition from on-premises to the cloud with IBM Netezza Performance Server as a fully managed service.
      Puma

      Learn how Puma is supporting 400% more users with always-on, high availability and a scalable database using IBM® Db2® pureScale®.
      Etihad Airways

      Learn how the airline has delivered digital transformation and personalization for it’s passengers.

      Booking.com

      Concerned about proprietary formats and vendor lock-in on its single-cloud platform, Booking.com manages migrating its critical workloads, such as booking reservations and financial reports, to an open source cloud provider.
      Resources White paper

      How to choose the right databases for applications, analytics and AI.

       How to reduce your Oracle database costs with Db2

      Learn how you can reduce your Oracle database costs with flexible licensing and pricing, scalability, and better price performance when moving from Oracle to Db2.

       5 misconceptions about cloud data warehouses

      Read the most common misconceptions that cause companies to hesitate to move from on-premises data warehouses to a hybrid cloud database management strategy.

       What is a relational database?

      Learn what a relational database is, how it works and how it compares to other database options.

       Now available: watsonx.data

      Scale AI workloads, for all your data, anywhere.

      IBM databases on AWS

      Tackling AI’s data challenges with IBM databases on AWS.
      Next steps

      Set up a no-cost, one-on-one call with an IBM expert to explore database solutions.
      Join the IBM Data Management Community Join the Cloud Platform as a Service community
      Footnotes

      1 When comparing the published 2023 list prices normalized for VPC hours of watsonx.data to several major cloud data warehouse vendors. Savings can vary depending on configurations, workloads and vendor.

      2 IBM like-for-like on-premises compatibility when moving to SaaS or hybrid deployments. Data provided by Conestoga Wood Specialties that they experienced zero downtime or changes to applications when modernizing from Netezza on-premises to SaaS on AWS.

      3 Data provided by Owen’s Illinois when migrating from Oracle to Db2.