DB2 and Hadoop an Unlikely Combo

I recently came across a great SHARE presentation that examines the relationship between DB2 for z/OS. "Big Data Strategies with DB2 for z/OS" provides a nice overview of Big Data with Hadoop before going into some technical benefits of using built-in DB2 user-defined functions (UDF) delivered with Infosphere BigInsights to process Hadoop data from DB2 for z/OS applications.

Here's a sample of the SQL to read Hadoop data:

            SELECT TX.*

            FROM TABLE ( hdfs_Read( ‗http://172.16.134.134:8080/data/sample.csv ‘)

                         AS TX (Seller varchar(20)
                                   , Year INT
                                   , Total decimal(15,2));

 

The capability to enrich operational data with big data sources such as Twitter and Facebook provides powerful benefits to existing applications running DB2 for z/OS, and it will be interesting to see where IBM takes this relationship over the next year or two. I can see some customers bringing the data from Hadoop into DB2 for z/OS and accessing it from DB2 accelerators, while others will choose to store DB2 for z/OS data in Hadoop and conduct local analysis on existing big data. Providing a facility to manage the movement of data and controls around the governance of data being accessed on these different systems will, I believe, be key in the ongoing development of Hadoop support on DB2 for z/OS.

The Impact of Social Media

I want to take a moment to point out some interesting work that my employer, CA Technologies, is producing on the subject of social networking. The CA Technology Exchange on Social Networking Issues offers some excellent insights on various topics.

 

Here's a complete list of articles, which are written by CA executives. They're all accessible, via PDF download, from the above link:

 

• For Social Natives, Digital Touch IS Touch
• From Big Data Comes Small Worlds: How the Technology Powering Social Networks Impacts You
• Dig'in Social Media – The Data Mining of Social Media with Hadoop and his Friend Mahout
• Information Sharing and Advocacy in the Social Enterprise
• Crowdsourcing: Save Money and Improve Time to Market
• Usable User Content – How Social Networks are Transforming Technical Communication
• Social Media for Social Change and the IT Challenge
• Strategies for Managing the Knowledge in Social Networks
• Impact of Social Media on Education
• Service Management goes Social
• Using Social Media to Improve Efficiency and Productivity in IT Organizations
• Enterprise Social Networking
• Managing the Component Model: The Structural Facet

 

The first item on that list, "For Social Natives, Digital Touch IS Touch," was written by Jacob Lamm. Jacob describes the differences between generations as it pertains to social media, and more generally, human interaction. He explains that older generations feel physical touch is important when establishing real relationships, while younger people feel that the contacts they've made online are just as real as relationships built in person.

A topic close to home for me, being a product manager, is presented in a piece by Patty Blount ("Usable User Content – How Social Networks are Transforming Technical Communication"). Enterprises are moving towards making their user guides and technical information available via Internet searches. They're also creating public communities where customers can post questions and get feedback not only from the company support staff, but also from other customers.

As I noted some time ago, Twitter and Facebook and other social media can provide valuable educational and informational resources for DB2 pros. If you're interested in the broader impact of social media on the IT world, I encourage you to check out this series.