My 2025 was off to a fast start with the IDUG Db2 India conferences in February in the bustling cities of Bangaluru and Pune. This was my first visit to India, and it was a great opportunity to learn about the culture and people and connect to both Db2 customers and the IBM Db2 development group in India.

As expected, Bangaluru welcomed me from the start with the electric taxi ride out of the new airport terminal. I realized the size of the city as the ride continued, passing through bright lights on the ad billboards on both sides of the road, which was lined with high rise business buildings. The day before the IDUG conference started, I had an opportunity to visit the IBM India Software Lab, situated in the Embassy GolfLinks Business Park.

Though I have heard from colleagues about this business park, it was still a surprise to actually see how many companies reside in the nearly 20-year-old complex. Names like Fidelity, Kyndrly, Apexon, Salesforce, Citrix Systems, ServiceNow, Dell Technologies, JPMorgan Chase, and other familiar company names are noticeable throughout the area. More than two-thirds of the 37-acre site are occupied by foreign and Indian companies in the technology sector.

IDUG chose the Marriott Whitefield as the conference location this year. Although the hotel was only 15 km away from the Embassy GolfLinks Business Park, the morning ride with fully congested traffic on small roads took nearly an hour. With about 200 attendees, the first session started with the Db2 for z/OS Trends and Directions topic by our Db2 for z/OS Director of Development, Haakon Roberts. Similar to IDUG EMEA in 2024, his announcement on the plans for the next version of Db2 caught the most attention from customers, vendors, and IBMers. He especially highlighted the importance of conversion from legacy table spaces to the strategic universal table space types for better space management and performance, and the session was well received and accepted.

The audience’s attention and interest remained through the next sessions: Machine Learning and AI, Data Gate, database design, and application development. Several questions from the young professionals on my session, What Can You Do with the Db2 Profile Tables, demonstrated their interest and understanding levels.

During the lunch break, I interacted more with customers and realized that the attendees are among hundreds of DBAs and system programmers at financial institutions such as Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Fidelity, and others, and they have been working on Db2 for z/OS in Bangaluru for several years.

In Pune, the IDUG sessions were repeated for another day, with a similar number of attendees from both Db2 for z/OS and Db2 for LUW. Even though the conferences were held briefly with only one day in each city, the IDUG coordinators did a great job of arranging everything with the same standards as at other locations in North America and Europe.

I flew back to Bangaluru to spend more time with the Db2 for z/OS development group in the IBM India Software Lab. This new group, which was added to the existing groups focusing on regression test, system test, performance test and infrastructure tools, aims to grow IBM’s investment in India, similar to the workforce investments by Db2 customers there.

In the two weeks of my visit, I watched the news coverage on the Minister of Home Affairs visit in Pune (coincidentally at the IDUG conference hotel), the newly sworn-in Chief Minister of New Delhi, and the speech of India’s Prime Minister on the north state investments. As a developing country on the fast track for success, India has much to do, and many people in the younger generations are ready and energetic. Considering my own experience traveling to and from the IDUG conferences, I hope addressing the road condition, traffic, and infrastructures would be among some of the top priorities. Certainly, frameworks which allow long term collaboration will benefit all stakeholders. Overall, I was encouraged by the technology development progress and the usage expansion of Db2 for z/OS in India, and I look forward to returning and hearing more from our customers.