IDUG NA 2026

IBM Bob makes a huge difference to understanding, modernising and administering systems developed with Db2 (both LUW and z/OS) as the underlying database. I will talk about my real-world experiences bringing IBM Bob into my workflow and the benefits it made in terms of efficiency and quality of the outcomes. I will also explain why I turned from an AI sceptic to enthusiast once I got hold of the right tools.
After struggling to get value out of other AI assistants when modernising and administering Db2 applications (both LUW and z/OS), I turned to IBM Bob when it became available. Having become an "AI assistant cynic" I quickly became a real enthusiast. IBM Bob understands the technology I am working with and provides real value, but in a way that leaves me always in control. This presentation describes my journey from initial experimentation to real world business value. I'll describe how IBM Bob facilitated system understanding, assisted with structural change and application modernisation.

Amazon RDS for Db2 addresses growing demand for Db2 cloud migration by delivering a fully managed service with push-button deployment — provision a production-ready Db2 instance in minutes, not days. Automated patching, backups, scaling, and failover eliminate undifferentiated heavy lifting. This deep dive covers RDS for Db2 through the Well-Architected Framework: Operational Excellence, Security, Reliability, Performance Efficiency, and Cost Optimization. Attendees learn how a managed service reduces admin burden, improves uptime, and frees teams to focus on innovation. Leave with a blueprint for modernizing Db2.
Self-managed Db2 means manual patching, complex HA, and rising costs. Amazon RDS for Db2 fixes that — deploy production-ready Db2 in minutes with a fully managed service.This deep dive covers RDS for Db2 through the Well-Architected Framework: Operational Excellence (automated patching, backups, monitoring), Security (encryption, IAM, VPC), Reliability (Multi-AZ, cross-region DR), Performance Efficiency (right-sizing, storage tuning), and Cost Optimization (Reserved Instances, TCO savings vs. self-managed).Live demos and customer patterns show how to provision, secure, and optimize RDS for Db2 for production. Migrating from Linux or AIX? Optimizing an existing deployment? Leave with a well-architected blueprint for Db2 as a managed service on AWS.

Interested in exploring IBM SQL Data Insights without the effort of installing it on your system or building models from scratch? This session introduces Industry Starter Kits designed to help Db2 for z/OS users quickly evaluate and experience the power of AI-driven insights using pre-built models, sample industry data, and ready-to-run AI queries.
The session features real-world use cases across industries such as finance and insurance, demonstrating how SQL Data Insights can analyze Db2 table data to uncover hidden relationships, detect anomalies, identify unusual transactions, and generate meaningful business insights that may be difficult to find using traditional SQL techniques alone. Attendees will learn how to deploy and load pre-built AI models, execute AI-driven SQL queries, and understand and interpret the results returned by those queries using familiar Db2 workflows and interfaces.
By walking through the industry use cases included in the starter kits, attendees will gain a clearer understanding of what SQL Data Insights is capable of and how AI-driven SQL analysis can be applied to their own Db2 environments. The session is intended to spark ideas for new use cases and help users envision how their existing Db2 data can be analyzed in entirely new ways.
Whether you are new to SQL Data Insights or looking for an easier way to get started, this session provides a practical, hands-on approach to jump-starting your AI journey on Db2 for z/OS.

Db2 now has a complete AI application stack — Vector Storage, Vector Similarity Search, Vector Index, and LLM Integration. Once you know what this stack can do, the natural next question is: what can you build with it? That is exactly what this session addresses. Drawing on industry research and global enterprise adoption data, we examine AI use cases that organisations have already deployed at scale and validated in production. For each, we explain the business problem it solves, how Db2's AI stack maps to the solution, and what implementation looks like — using data most Db2 customers already have. Business leaders will leave with a clear, evidence-backed starting point for AI investment. Developers and architects will leave with a concrete path from proven use case to working implementation. The stack is ready. The use cases are proven. Come find out which ones to build next.