It's that time of the year again when our thoughts turn to gifts we'd like to receive. Laying aside the usual contributions of socks or sweaters with pictures of reindeer, the IDUG volunteers turned their mind to what they'd like from "The DB2 Santa Claus" (or other international seasonal gift bringer). Incidently, maybe we should put the name "DB2 Santa Claus" forward to IBM for them to use when they get fed up with "IBM Analytics Division" ;-)
Here are some of the thoughts of our committee members (CC=Content Committee, EMEA = EMEA CPC, NA = North American CPC) -
Joe Geller ((CC) : I started early this year. 6 months ago I asked Santa for new versions of both DB2 z/OS and LUW. Santa said "sure, but not in time for this Christmas". Why? Because every new version has lots of terrific features - performance, more powerful SQL, ease of use. They also add extra excitement to the IDUG conferences.
Terry Johnson (NA) : I would just like cash! I would love for our HQ to be able to call upon you for additional sponsorship money for my team's conference. I am not asking this for myself, but for all of those good girls and boys who come to the Christmas Tree Lighting in May (Okay maybe it is the May Pole lighting), hoping to see soo many more educational presents under that tree.
Dan Luksetich (CC): I wish that the decision makers would fully understand the cost of moving data for analysis.
Philip Nelson (CC and EMEA) : I wish for JSON construction functions, similar to the XML construction functions we already have, on both DB2 for LUW and DB2 for z/OS. Why ? This would be a big leap forward in integrating DB2 with many new applications (mobile, RESTful web services, jQuery Data Tables). I think this would be a bigger leap forward than even a native JSON data type.
David Simpson (CC) : Partition level reorg to implement pending DDLl changes on DB2 for z/OS.
Steve Thomas (EMEA) : I'd like REORG (and any other utilities producing Inline Statistics) to be able to use Statistics Profiles. It saves you having to code complex syntax or worse to run a separate RUNSTATS afterwards to get the Stats containing the Optimizer needs.
Thanks to all who provided their suggestions. Please add comments to this article with your own DB2 wishes. Or better raise them with IBM through the RFE (Request For Enhancement) process, or vote on an existing request if a suitable one exists. Together we will make DB2 better in the years ahead.
All that remains now is to wish all IDUG members all best wishes for the holiday season and for the New Year ahead. I hope you'll get some time to spend with your family and friends (some things are more important than DB2). And I look forward to seeing you all at an IDUG event in 2016 D.V.
Philip Nelson