As 2024 draws to a close it's the perfect time to take stock of the events of this year.

We have continued to deliver two function levels per year with FL505 and FL506, providing new features such as the ability to add an implicitly hidden ROWID column to existing tables to simplify data partitioning and the virtual elimination of application impact when using LOAD REPLACE to clear out data partitions. On top of that more than a dozen new enhancements were delivered via APARs outside of function levels, including most recently zIIP offload for the COPY utility. You can read all about them here: https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/db2-for-zos/13?topic=13-new-function-apars-db2

None of these advancements would have been possible without close collaboration with you, our clients and users, through interaction based upon reported cases, conversations at conferences and events, Aha! ideas, CAC meetings (both in person and virtual), and your active participation in sponsor user programs. I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your passion, engagement and investment that ensures that we understand your challenges and that the solutions we provide meet your needs both functionally and in terms of the quality that you expect and demand from us and IBM as a whole.

A highlight of the year as always has been the numerous opportunities for face-to-face conversations at various conferences, including the Data Tech Summit at SVL in October where we welcomed 269 attendees from around the world to the home of Db2.

In 2025, many will be migrating to V13 before V12 reaches end of support. From our perspective we are looking forward to another productive and exciting year with the delivery of more compelling enhancements as we continue to implement our strategy and create the Db2 of the future.  

Thank you again and very best wishes for 2025.

#Db2forz/OS