Conference ulysse::rdb_vms_competition

1034.0. "IBM/DB2 - Story FYI" by IRNBRU::FYFE (Still running...) Mon Dec 02 1991 14:30

        From Computer Weekly 28th.Nov.'91
	

	NatWest warns IBM: double DB2 speed by autumn


	National Westminster bank (one of the largest in U.K.) has told 
	IBM that it must double the speed of its much maligned DB2 database
	by autumn next year.
		The bank, which has 250 IT staff working on the biggest DB2
	project in Europe, says the databse can only handle 100 transactions
	per second at present which is too slow. It must reach 250 transactions
	a second by third quarter next year when workloads will peak.
	It says it will  be achieved. "IBM has given me no reason to believe it
	can't be done," says Ike Richards, NatWest's chief manager in charge of
	the DB2 project.
	Any improvements in the database's performance will be welcomed by
	DB2 users who, without NatWest's influence, have been unable to
	persuade IBM to greatly increase the product's speed. 
		NatWest says that unless the target performance is reached, it
	will have to consider reducing the scale of the project or splitting
	the database into smaller systems. This would be a blow to IBM which
	uses NatWest as a DB2 performance reference site.
	  "To sustain our business we have got to be hitting 250 tps," says
	Richards, who describes the system as twice as big as any other DB2
	project in Europe.
	To help the bank achieve a world speed record for DB2, which has long
	been criticised by users world-wide for being too slow, NatWest has set
	up a performance task group.
		The mixed-discipline group, comprising staff from technical
	support, software, hardware and IBM's own employees, tracks down any
	design humps which slow down the system. These are then flattened, says
	Richards.
	"It is the core of our business. We have got to make the project work.
	The problems are a combination of what we are trying to achieve and
	just sheer size. The speed of implementation is quite spectacular. We
	are loading 50 branches on the system every week until July."
		The DB2 project known as Information System Service, has been 
	running in various guises for about seven years with the aim of
	transferring information on 10 million customers on a single database.
	NatWest says it is working closely with IBM's design and development
	teams in the U.S. "IBM has a considerable interest in making the
	project work so there's a close partnership.