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DBMS > IBM Db2 vs. Informix vs. Microsoft Access vs. mSQL

System Properties Comparison IBM Db2 vs. Informix vs. Microsoft Access vs. mSQL

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameIBM Db2 infoformerly named DB2 or IBM Database 2  Xexclude from comparisonInformix  Xexclude from comparisonMicrosoft Access  Xexclude from comparisonmSQL infoMini SQL  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionCommon in IBM host environments, 2 different versions for host and Windows/LinuxA secure embeddable database from IBM, positioned besides IBM Db2 as a relatively low-cost product optimized for OLTP and Internet of Things dataMicrosoft Access combines a backend RDBMS (JET / ACE Engine) with a GUI frontend for data manipulation and queries. infoThe Access frontend is often used for accessing other datasources (DBMS, Excel, etc.)mSQL (Mini SQL) is a simple and lightweight RDBMS
Primary database modelRelational DBMS infoSince Version 10.5 support for JSON/BSON documents compatible with MongoDBRelational DBMS infoSince Version 12.10 support for JSON/BSON datatypes compatible with MongoDBRelational DBMSRelational DBMS
Secondary database modelsDocument store
RDF store infoin Db2 LUW (Linux, Unix, Windows)
Spatial DBMS infowith Db2 Spatial Extender
Document store
Spatial DBMS
Time Series DBMS infowith Informix TimeSeries Extension
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score127.49
Rank#8  Overall
#5  Relational DBMS
Score18.85
Rank#35  Overall
#22  Relational DBMS
Score105.40
Rank#11  Overall
#8  Relational DBMS
Score1.67
Rank#151  Overall
#70  Relational DBMS
Websitewww.ibm.com/­products/­db2www.ibm.com/­products/­informixwww.microsoft.com/­en-us/­microsoft-365/­accesshughestech.com.au/­products/­msql
Technical documentationwww.ibm.com/­docs/­en/­db2informix.hcldoc.com
www.ibm.com/­support/­knowledgecenter/­SSGU8G/­welcomeIfxServers.html
developer.microsoft.com/­en-us/­access
DeveloperIBMIBM, HCL Technologies infoEffective May 1st, 2017, HCL took on development, technical support, and product management teams, and works jointly with IBM on product strategy, marketing, and sales.MicrosoftHughes Technologies
Initial release1983 infohost version198419921994
Current release12.1, October 201614.10.FC5, November 20201902 (16.0.11328.20222), March 20194.4, October 2021
License infoCommercial or Open Sourcecommercial infofree version is availablecommercial infofree developer edition availablecommercial infoBundled with Microsoft Officecommercial infofree licenses can be provided
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenononono
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

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Implementation languageC and C++C, C++ and JavaC++C
Server operating systemsAIX
HP-UX
Linux
Solaris
Windows
z/OS
AIX
HP-UX
Linux
macOS
Solaris
Windows
Windows infoNot a real database server, but making use of DLLsAIX
HP-UX
Linux
OS X
Solaris SPARC/x86
Windows
Data schemeyesyesyesyes
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesyes infoSince Version 12.10 support for JSON/BSON datatypesyesyes
XML support infoSome form of processing data in XML format, e.g. support for XML data structures, and/or support for XPath, XQuery or XSLT.no
Secondary indexesyesyesyesyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLyesyesyes infobut not compliant to any SQL standardA subset of ANSI SQL is implemented infono subqueries, aggregate functions, views, foreign keys, triggers
APIs and other access methodsADO.NET
JDBC
JSON style queries infoMongoDB compatible
ODBC
XQuery
JDBC
JSON API infoMongoDB compatible
MQTT (Message Queue Telemetry Transport)
ODBC
RESTful HTTP API
ADO.NET
DAO
ODBC
OLE DB
JDBC
ODBC
Supported programming languagesC
C#
C++
Cobol
Delphi
Fortran
Java
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby
Visual Basic
.Net
C
C++
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
Ruby
C
C#
C++
Delphi
Java (JDBC-ODBC)
VBA
Visual Basic.NET
C
C++
Delphi
Java
Perl
PHP
Tcl
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresyesyesyes infosince Access 2010 using the ACE-engineno
Triggersyesyesyes infosince Access 2010 using the ACE-engineno
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesSharding infoonly with Windows/Unix/Linux VersionShardingnonenone
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesyes infowith separate tools (MQ, InfoSphere)Multi-source replication
Source-replica replication
nonenone
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsnononono
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemImmediate Consistencynone
Foreign keys infoReferential integrityyesyesyesno
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of dataACIDACIDACID infobut no files for transaction loggingno
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesyesno
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyesyesyes infobut no files for transaction loggingyes
In-memory capabilities infoIs there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.yesno
User concepts infoAccess controlfine grained access rights according to SQL-standardUsers with fine-grained authentication, authorization, and auditing controlsno infoa simple user-level security was built in till version Access 2003no

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More resources
IBM Db2 infoformerly named DB2 or IBM Database 2InformixMicrosoft AccessmSQL infoMini SQL
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