IBM's Venom data compression bites back costs

Big Blue is set to release the next version of its DB2 database server, called Viper, by early summer. On Monday, the company will detail the automatic data compression feature, according to a press release.

The Venom compression technology is inherited from IBM's mainframe databases and will lower the amount of storage hardware required, according to the company.

"When you compress data to memory storage, then you don't have to harden to disk as frequently," Bob Picciano, vice president of data servers at IBM, said earlier this month.

Although DB2 Viper is not yet released, its features, including the data compression, are being tested with customers now.

"We're seeing on average that clients will save 55 percent to 60 percent of the storage they would have to have in an Oracle system. The same with a DB2 system," Picciano said.

IBM said in a statement that the Venom data compression technology will help the company better compete against traditional database rivals Oracle and Microsoft, as well as storage vendor EMC. IBM competes against EMC in storage hardware and software.