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DB2 has been renowned for its powerful data compression capabilities and with the release of DB2 11.5, IBM has further enhanced this feature by introducing Adaptive Compression. This new feature allows DB2 to adjust its compression techniques based on the characteristics of the data being compressed, resulting in superior storage savings. In this blog post, we will delve into the setup and benefits of DB2 Adaptive Compression, and compare it with similar technologies from other database management systems such as SQL Server 2019, MySQL 8.0, Azure SQL, and Azure Synapse.

To enable Adaptive Compression in DB2 11.5, a DBA would perform the following set of actions. First, ensure that the database is configured to use automatic storage. Then, create a table space with the COMPRESS YES option. Upon creating a table in this table space, DB2 automatically applies Adaptive Compression. Here is a sample code snippet in DB2:

-- Create tablespace with compression enabled

CREATE TABLESPACE my_tablespace MANAGED BY AUTOMATIC STORAGE COMPRESS YES;

-- Create a table in the compressed tablespace

CREATE TABLE my_table (id INT, name VARCHAR(100)) IN my_tablespace;

Adaptive Compression in DB2 offers several benefits. It provides significant storage savings by compressing both row and page data, thereby reducing storage costs and improving query performance. Additionally, it provides real-time compression, meaning data is compressed on-the-fly as it is inserted into the database without compromising performance.

Now, let's compare DB2's Adaptive Compression with similar technologies in other database management systems. SQL Server 2019, for instance, has a feature called Page Compression. To enable Page Compression on a table in SQL Server, the following T-SQL code would be used:

-- Enable page compression on a SQL Server table

ALTER TABLE my_table REBUILD PARTITION = ALL WITH (DATA_COMPRESSION = PAGE);

In comparison to DB2's Adaptive Compression, SQL Server's Page Compression also provides substantial storage savings. However, it does not offer real-time compression and could introduce a performance overhead during the compression process.

MySQL 8.0, on the other hand, does not offer a built-in data compression feature. However, it does support compressed MyISAM and InnoDB tables, which can be created using the ROW_FORMAT=COMPRESSED option. Azure SQL and Azure Synapse also offer data compression features, but these are more tuned towards columnstore data, a different data storage and processing paradigm.

In conclusion, DB2's Adaptive Compression provides superior storage savings and maintains high performance, making it an ideal choice for DBAs dealing with large volumes of data. While similar technologies are available in other database management systems such as SQL Server 2019, MySQL 8.0, Azure SQL, and Azure Synapse, DB2's Adaptive Compression stands out due to its real-time compression capability and adaptability to the data it is compressing.