IBM Puts the Enterprise Power of DB2 in the Palm of Your Hands, for Free
August 20, 1999 — Bridging the worlds of e-business, business intelligence and pervasive computing, IBM announced general availability of DB2* Everywhere, at no charge, with free downloading from the Web. New agreements with Palm Computing, a 3COM company, and Puma Technology are designed to help DB2 Universal Database developers create applications for handheld devices quickly and easily.
This new version of DB2 brings the power of enterprise computing to a rapidly growing community of mobile workers who rely on handheld computing devices and personal digital assistants. With DB2 Everywhere, professionals in insurance, healthcare, transportation, education and a host of other fields can boost their productivity by accessing corporate data and applications, anytime, anywhere.
Making DB2 Everywhere available for free will help introduce key players in the pervasive computing market to IBM's ground-breaking technology. According to the McKenna Group, the pervasive computing market could be worth $120 billion in the next 3-5 years.
"For dynamic e-business, nothing is more crucial than immediate, reliable access to critical data. That's why DB2 has become the foundation for e-business solutions," said Janet Perna, general manager, data management, IBM Software Solutions. "With DB2 Everywhere, we're putting this advanced database technology into the hands – literally – of the fastest-growing community of technology users: mobile professionals."
Industry analysts agree the market is set to explode, and IBM is staking out a leadership role: International Data Corp. (IDC) predicts 18.9 million handheld PC companion devices will be shipped worldwide in 2003. On August 3, Bear Stearns told investors that IBM is "well positioned to benefit from proliferation…of devices such as PDAs and smart cell phones onto the network because it can provide foundation technology, platform infrastructure, and services."
Business partners are already reaping the benefits of DB2's powerful technology on mobile devices. Vision Associates, an IBM partner based in White Plains, NY, has developed eScholar – a data warehouse solution for K-12 education. Integrated with DB2 Everywhere and IBM Mobile Connect*, eScholar allows teachers to access their schools' databases wherever they are, using a Palm Computing connected organiser rather than a PC in a distant office.
"Teachers may require information on student attendance records," said Shawn Bay, CEO of Vision Associates, "or they might want to know which math students are reading below grade level, to give them more attention during word problems. If they're trying to do this in the school office, they're not where they should be, which is in front of their students."
Partnerships Ease Application Development
IBM is teaming up with other leading companies to provide end-to-end, integrated solutions. Support for the popular Palm OS operating system links IBM with one of the industry leaders in creating world-class handheld computing solutions.
"The availability of DB2 Everywhere will further drive the growth of the Palm Computing platform within the critical enterprise data access market," said Mark Bercow, vice president of strategic alliances and platform development at Palm Computing. "Being able to treat Palm organisers just like any other client on the network offers IBM DB2 customers the tools needed to stay competitive within the increasingly mobile workforce."
For rapid application development, DB2 Everywhere will ship later this year with the Satellite Forms Enterprise Edition** from Puma Technology. Satellite Forms is the leading visual development tool for devices based on the Palm Computing Platform. With Satellite Forms and DB2 Everywhere, developers can quickly create sophisticated handheld applications that seamlessly integrate with enterprise data from DB2 and Lotus Notes*.
"We are pleased to support IBM's Everywhere with our Satellite Forms Enterprise Edition," said Brad Rowe, Puma president and CEO. "The ability to access mission-critical information via handheld devices and view the data in a customised, user-friendly manner is invaluable. Satellite Forms' robust performance and support for server synchronisation software combined with DB2 Everywhere will allow corporations to provide their mobile professionals with anytime, anywhere access to the enterprise data which they require."
ABOUT DB2 EVERYWHERE
DB2 Everywhere is a relational database management system with a footprint around 100K. A sophisticated query by example application makes it simple to query and review data. DB2 Everywhere meets the needs of mobile workers managing enterprise data on handheld devices on tasks such as inventory and healthcare monitoring. In such environments, applications must be "lightweight" in their demands on system and application resources, while still able to access and synchronise a broad spectrum of data.
ABOUT IBM
With more than one million DB2 server licenses and 40 million users, IBM is the market-share leader in the worldwide database industry according to Dataquest Inc., a unit of GartnerGroup, Inc. More information on IBM data management can be found at http://www.software.ibm.com/data.
IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. IBM software offers the widest range of applications, middleware and operating systems for all types of computing platforms, allowing customers to take full advantage of the new era of e-business. The fastest way to get more information about IBM software is through the IBM home page at http://www.software.ibm.com.
* Indicates trademark or registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. All other trademarks are the properties of their respective companies.
** All other trademarks are the properties of their respective companies.
CONTACT:
Shan Sood, IBM
Tel: +44 (0)181 818 4459
e-mail: soods@uk.ibm.com
Claire Hibbitt, Brodeur A Plus
Tel: +44 (0)1753 790700
e-mail: chibbitt@brodeuraplus.com