Computerworld - Don Haderle, the former IBM fellow considered to be the father of the DB2 database, has joined Ants Software Inc. as the founding member of its new technical advisory board.
The move is seen as a vote of confidence for the small Burlingame, Calif.-based database maker, which claims to have a unique approach to storing data that boosts performance, as well as easy migration from popular databases including Oracle, Microsoft Corp.’s SQL Server and MySQL.
It is that “chameleon-like” ability of Ants to emulate other popular databases that Haderle, who is retired, said lured him to the advisory role. He will assist with Ants’ product and customer strategy.
“If SQL is like standard English, then each database speaks its own regional dialect,” Haderle said. Because ANTs can “speak other databases’ dialects,” it is compatible with the data types, functions and SQL extensions, allowing it to draw upon the pool of applications that work with those particular databases. That is an important benefit to many customers who worry that switching from one of the big commercial databases to a less expensive alternative will leave them without application support, he said.
A 37-year employee of IBM, Haderle, 62, led the technical team that created DB2 from the 1970s through the early 1990s. He is credited with more than 50 database patents and disclosures. He retired from IBM last year after serving 14 years as vice president and chief technology officer at the information management division of IBM.
Ants, which claims 18 corporate customers, said its method of storing information avoids the need to lock rows of data, as most SQL databases do, while maintaining data integrity. That enables increased transaction speeds, especially in online transaction processing environments where bottlenecks may occur when many users try to read or write to the same data fields at the same time.
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