DB2 is the only database many of us have ever known.  This article shows you how you can broaden your database options.

By Joe Pluta

If you're an i programmer, you've been using DB2 from the beginning of your career (unless, of course, you started like me back in the cave computer days of the System/3). You didn't know you were using DB2; in fact, you didn't know that your database had a name, and you didn't care because it just worked. That in fact was one of the great selling points of the platform: the integrated database and by extension the nearly bare-metal speed of compiled languages like RPG, which could take advantage of that database. Nowadays, though, a single standalone database like DB2 for the i isn't enough for many shops. Commercial databases like SQL Server and Oracle have found their way into many shops. A more recent phenomenon is the appearance of databases such as MySQL and PostgreSQL, especially as components of open-source packages.