IBM is giving its DB2 database away for free to universities in a drive to increase familiarity with it among professionals. In a few years weÆll have generations of graduates leaving universities around the world already using and writing applications for DB2, said Mike Blake, a marketing consultant, for IBM Software UK. With universities around the world strapped for cash, it isnÆt surprising that IBM says it has had more interest in the program than it can supply and now has around 1,800 universities taking up the offer.
The DB2 database has seen rapid growth over the last two years and now challenges Oracle for pole position in worldwide market share. IBM puts a lot of this success down to its support for the Windows NT operating system which is itself, despite widespread concern about its scalability, reliability, robustness and security, seeing growing popularity in the medium enterprise market. A spokesperson for IBM said the majority of its increases in DB2 sales were accounted for by shipments of NT compliant versions, though no breakdown figures were available.
