DB2 LOBs: the teenage years

Previous versions of DB2 Common Server had large objects (LOBs) that were neither large nor functional. Their size was limited to 32,700 bytes and, until recently when support for SUBSTR and CONCAT was added, there was no function available on these objects at all. DB2 LOBs were infants. However, with the latest release of DB2 Common Server, Version 2.1, LOBs have matured considerably supporting significantly larger sizes and many new language features. To give the reader a feeling for the extent of this new language support, we compare our new SQL LOB language features with that of three other major relational database competitors: Sybase, Informix and Oracle. Users will find the new DB2 LOBS easy to load and store, easy to search, and easy to integrate into the DB2 user-defined functions (UDFs) and user-defined types (UDTs). In addition, when used in serial mode, the performance of LOB I/O rivals that of file systems and, when used in parallel mode, is a clear winner. DB2 LOBs have now entered the teenage years.