IDUG has returned to the beautiful city of Prague for the third time in its history, and I was honoured and delighted to be asked to open this year’s conference at Monday morning’s keynote. Speaking of history, between them, Db2 and IDUG have managed to accumulate rather a lot of it: 2023 marks the 40th anniversary of Db2 for z/OS, the 35th anniversary of IDUG and the 30th anniversary of Db2 for LUW. With the planets aligning so fortuitously, it seemed appropriate for me to use my talk to reflect on the four decades of incredible innovation and change in our industry.
Image Courtesy of Roland Schock
Evolution of IDUG
We covered many of the key technology impacts that have shaped our world, from the birth of the relational database in the 1970s, through the development of “extended relational” capabilities and the advent of NoSQL, to the Agile/DevOps movement and the impact of Artificial Intelligence today. Since the first conference in Chicago in 1988, IDUG has been there to support Db2 users and help them to understand and exploit the latest developments, so we also covered IDUG’s own evolution and how it has helped Db2 professionals around the world to adapt to their ever-changing roles.
So many products and technologies have become obsolete and died off in the past 30-40 years, so we shouldn’t underestimate the amazing achievement represented by these anniversaries. It’s a massive testament to the talented engineers in IBM’s development labs, the incredible IDUG volunteers who give up so much of their time to continue IDUG’s mission, and of course the professionals all around the world who work daily to successfully support and deploy critical Db2 business applications.
A New Wave of First Time Attendees
Speaking of Db2 professionals, it was incredibly encouraging to see how many people identified themselves as first-time attendees at the opening session – around 10% of the total audience! Many of those were definitely not born when Db2 first saw the light of day, and the fact that they are here learning so much next to their older and more experienced colleagues is a very encouraging sign for the decades to come.