We are excited to announce that Db2 12.1 is now available, marking a major milestone in the evolution of IBM’s flagship database platform. Db2 12.1 brings a host of powerful new capabilities designed to help businesses leverage the latest in AI-driven insights, improve operational efficiency, and enhance overall performance. Building on the rich history of reliability, scalability, and security of IBM Db2, Db2 12.1 introduces groundbreaking features that harness the power of AI, enabling businesses to meet the demands of modern data workloads.

The latest release, IBM Db2 12.1, rolls out more than 200 new features, including:

Db2 12.1 integrates advanced AI optimizer capabilities, allowing businesses to harness the power of AI directly within their database operations and elevating query performance through automated performance tuning, predictive analytics and intelligent query optimization.

Db2 12.1 creates a logical separation between one or more database schemas, easily isolating different sets of tables from each other, enabling DBAs to easily manage and segment data objects under a single database for better resource management.

On Linux®, Pacemaker replaces TSAMP as the advanced, scalable, open source technology for cluster management for high availability, leading to faster failure recovery times and better operational management.

Db2 12.1 enhances backup performance by initiating multiple threads to process a single tablespace, leading to faster backups.

Db2 12.1 introduces support for Db2 drivers running on Apple Silicon, providing broader flexibility to developers and DBAs to interact with the Db2 database with the choice of devices. Db2 12.1 also introduces support for Visual Studio 2022, enabling customers to seamlessly work with Db2 from that integrated development environment.

Security is a top priority in Db2 12.1, with several new features designed to keep sensitive data safe and ensure compliance with the most stringent regulatory requirements. Db2 12.1 enables establishment of trusted context through stored procedures, allows audit exceptions for applications within trusted context and enables secure sockets layer for securing data in transit in a high availability disaster recovery solution. With these features, Db2 demonstrates commitment to meet security standards across industries.

Db2 12.1 enhances federation capabilities by expanding support for a wider range of data sources, including Snowflake, Oracle 23ai, MariaDB, MongoDB and SAP, while delivering comprehensive performance improvements.

Db2 12.1 delivers native cloud object storage performance enhancements for large-scale environments.

Db2 12.1 enhances overall columnar table performance through a series of upgrades, including schema evolution with DROP and RENAME support for online updates, improved UPDATE and JOIN operations, an enhanced logical backup/restore experience and optimized online table movement by using ADMIN_MOVE_TABLE. As a result, users benefit from faster query responses, reduced storage costs and enhanced overall database performance.

Db2 12.1 introduces a new IBM Db2 Starter Edition to the Db2 family. It provides a selective set of capabilities to help businesses use Db2’s core data management capabilities for new applications and services. With the addition of IBM Db2 Starter Edition, Db2 12.1 establishes a progressive portfolio providing customers to flexibility to choose a fit-for-purpose Db2 edition based on their use case.

We’re thrilled to see how our customers will use these new capabilities to drive their businesses forward. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to innovate and evolve Db2 to meet the needs of the next generation of enterprise workloads.

Ready to explore Db2 12.1? Download the Db2 Community Edition and start building today!