IBM launches 'pureScale': Front runs Oracle's database attack

IBM on Friday will launch a new database technology dubbed pureScale, which is designed to up the ante in transaction processing. The news comes ahead of Oracle's OpenWorld powwow next week. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is expected to take a bevy of shots at IBM's database capability as it touts integrated Exadata hardware-database systems with its to-be-acquired Sun Microsystems.

Given the Oracle barrage that's on deck, IBM figured it would front run its database rival a bit.

With its DB2 pureScale on IBM Power Systems technology, Big Blue is taking its database architecture used on its mainframes to the IT masses.

PureScale was designed by IBM's Toronto software lab and its Power Systems lab in Austin. In a statement, IBM says its architecture allows customers to add and remove processing power by adding servers while only paying for the software they need for peak workloads.

In many respects, IBM's move is an answer to Oracle's Exadata effort. Increasingly hardware and databases will be bundled together and optimized for peak horsepower. IBM notes that DB2 pureScale improved productivity by more than 80 percent in a test with 100 Power servers. How? DB2 pureScale cuts the communications back and forth within the system to lower computing power.

DB2 pureScale will be available on Power 550 Express and Power 595 systems in December.

Also see: Ellison wants to model new Oracle after T.J. Watson Jr.'s IBM