IBM Adopts 'Migrate From Oracle' Technology

As Oracle acquires Sun Microsystems, IBM is adopting technology from a small database company, EntepriseDB, that will make it easier for DB2 users to migrate away from the Oracle database system.

The move is unusual in that database companies typically offer some sort of migration assists, to lure customers off of rival systems. But IBM turned to a company based on the open source database PostgreSQL and implemented its ability to work with Oracle's PL/SQL stored procedures, Oracle data types, and Oracle database calls into its Postgres Plus Advanced Server.

EnterpriseDB spokesmen have claimed that an Oracle application can run unchanged with its Postgres Plus. Now Oracle applications will work "as is" with DB2 Release 9.7 as well, said Arvind Krishna, IBM's VP of database servers.

"Our clients are increasingly taking advantage of DB2 to lower costs, while improving the performance and reliability of their business applications," he said in a statement announcing the technology adoption. Through the use of the EnterpriseDB migration capabilities, a database administrator with existing Oracle skills may continue to use them with DB2. The EnterpriseDB technology allows Oracle's proprietary PL/SQL queries and stored procedures to work against the DB2 system.

EnterpriseDB is a commercial company based on PostgreSQL, an open source database project that has achieved full ANSI standard SQL compatibility, unlike the more popular open source system MySQL. It's a continuation of the database work initiated at the University of California at Berkeley by Michael Stonebraker and others, following the launch of Ingres as a commercial system.

EnterpriseDB CEO Ed Boyajian said IBM's adoption of its Oracle-compatibility technology "is a great validation for us." The Postgres Plus system is a commercial product priced at $1,995 for a two-socket server and $4,495 per socket for larger than two-way servers. It's built on top of the PostgreSQL open source project and has claimed full Oracle compatibility since August 2006.

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