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DBMS > IBM Db2 vs. Informix vs. Microsoft SQL Server

System Properties Comparison IBM Db2 vs. Informix vs. Microsoft SQL Server

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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 SQL Server  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 dataMicrosofts flagship relational DBMS
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 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
Document store
Graph DBMS
Spatial DBMS
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score144.89
Rank#7  Overall
#5  Relational DBMS
Score22.48
Rank#33  Overall
#20  Relational DBMS
Score930.06
Rank#3  Overall
#3  Relational DBMS
Websitewww.ibm.com/­analytics/­db2www.ibm.com/­products/­informixwww.microsoft.com/­en-us/­sql-server
Technical documentationwww.ibm.com/­support/­knowledgecenter/­SSEPGGinformix.hcldoc.com
www.ibm.com/­support/­knowledgecenter/­SSGU8G/­welcomeIfxServers.html
docs.microsoft.com/­en-US/­sql/­sql-server
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.Microsoft
Initial release1983 infohost version19841989
Current release12.1, October 201614.10.FC5, November 2020SQL Server 2022, November 2022
License infoCommercial or Open Sourcecommercial infofree version is availablecommercial infofree developer edition availablecommercial inforestricted free version is available
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenonono
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

Providers of DBaaS offerings, please contact us to be listed.
Implementation languageC and C++C, C++ and JavaC++
Server operating systemsAIX
HP-UX
Linux
Solaris
Windows
z/OS
AIX
HP-UX
Linux
macOS
Solaris
Windows
Linux
Windows
Data schemeyesyesyes
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesyes infoSince Version 12.10 support for JSON/BSON datatypesyes
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.yes
Secondary indexesyesyesyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLyesyesyes
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
JDBC
ODBC
OLE DB
Tabular Data Stream (TDS)
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++
Delphi
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
R
Ruby
Visual Basic
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresyesyesTransact SQL, .NET languages, R, Python and (with SQL Server 2019) Java
Triggersyesyesyes
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesSharding infoonly with Windows/Unix/Linux VersionShardingtables can be distributed across several files (horizontal partitioning); sharding through federation
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesyes infowith separate tools (MQ, InfoSphere)Multi-source replication
Source-replica replication
yes, but depending on the SQL-Server Edition
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsnonono
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemImmediate ConsistencyImmediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integrityyesyesyes
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of dataACIDACIDACID
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesyes
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyesyesyes
In-memory capabilities infoIs there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.yesyes
User concepts infoAccess controlfine grained access rights according to SQL-standardUsers with fine-grained authentication, authorization, and auditing controlsfine grained access rights according to SQL-standard

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Navicat Monitor is a safe, simple and agentless remote server monitoring tool for SQL Server and many other database management systems.
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More resources
IBM Db2 infoformerly named DB2 or IBM Database 2InformixMicrosoft SQL Server
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