WEBSPHERE JDBC DRIVER

Mitigate application risk

There is no risk involved with staying with the DataDirect JDBC driver because your WebSphere application uses the same proven driver as it always has.

Eliminate hidden costs

With DataDirect, you simply re-install the driver and all of your previous configuration work will stay in effect with no additional developer effort.

No developer learning curve

Developers continue to use the same DataDirect driver so there is no costly learning curve.

Advanced features

DataDirect provides robust functionality, including application failover, industry-standard security features, and full support for JDBC 4.0, all available with Type 5 connectivity. You can leverage most of the DataDirect features without making code changes.

JDBC certification

DataDirect's JDBC driver routinely passes the JavaEE CTS (Certification Test Suite) in addition to DataDirect's unrivaled JDBC Verification Suite, which ensures high-quality data connectivity.

Award-winning technical support

IBM and DataDirect have a long history of supporting the DataDirect JDBC driver in the WebSphere environment. DataDirect provides 24/7 technical support focused exclusively on data connectivity.

Application issues

Problems arise due to functional differences between the drivers, configuration and tuning discrepancies, and different capacities of the drivers that affect memory, performance and scalability.

Hidden costs

The costs associated with developing, testing, and deploying a different driver involve:

• Learning how to use the new driver
• Installing and configuring the new driver
• Identifying, troubleshooting, and fixing application errors
• Re-qualifying the application with the new driver

Developer learning curve

Your developers, QA personnel, and IT operations must learn the intricacies of a new driver. Learning what capabilities are supported, how to configure and tune the driver, and how to troubleshoot can take considerable time.

Costly code changes

Code changes may be necessary due to functional discrepancies between the drivers. In some cases the DataDirect driver may provide essential functionality unavailable with the other driver. In that case, you'll have to code around the missing feature.

Lack of advanced functionality

Drivers from other vendors lack functionality or implement features using a proprietary, non-standard approach that locks you into a specific database.

JDBC certification

Other JDBC drivers aren't certified using the JavaEE CTS (Certification Test Suite). Nor are their internal testing suites as extensive as DataDirect's JDBC Verification Suite. This lack of certification and extensive testing can negatively impact the reliability of your application.

Technical support issues

You're likely to encounter difficulties resolving an issue that involves a competitive combination of IBM and Microsoft or Oracle.

Application Risk
DataDirect's production-proven reliability poses no risk to your WebSphere application.

Using Oracle's JDBC driver with WebSphere routinely causes memory, thread, and connection issues that have resulted in application failures. These problems are often not experienced until production time due to increased load, greatly exacerbating risk.

Performance
DataDirect is the proven performance and scalability leader based on SPECjAppServer benchmarks.

Average performance with severe limitations for some query conditions.

Advanced Features
DataDirect provides robust functionality, including application failover, industry-standard security features, and full support for JDBC 4.0, all available with Type 5 connectivity. You can leverage most of the DataDirect features without making source code changes.

The Oracle driver is feature incomplete. And some features are only supported with a non-Type 4 driver, requiring deployment of the Oracle native client. Other features are implemented using a proprietary, non-standard approach which limits development flexibility.

JDBC Certification
The DataDirect JDBC driver routinely passes the JavaEE CTS (Certification Test Suite) in addition to DataDirect's unrivaled JDBC Verification Suite, which ensures high-quality data connectivity.

The Oracle driver fails the JavaEE CTS. Nor are Oracle's internal testing suites as extensive as DataDirect's JDBC Verification Suite. This lack of certification and extensive testing can negatively impact the reliability of your application.

Technical Support
DataDirect and IBM have a long history of supporting DataDirect's Oracle JDBC driver within the WebSphere environment.

You're likely to encounter difficulties resolving an issue that involves the combination of competitors IBM and Oracle.

Application Risk
There is no application risk because your WebSphere application continues to use the same proven driver.

Can have a significant impact on your application, possibly affecting application behavior and leading to issues with stability, performance, or security. The effort involved in mitigating these risks is significant.

Developer Learning Curve
There is no learning curve to overcome because the developer continues to use the same DataDirect driver.

Your developers, QA, and IT operations must learn the intricacies of a new driver. Database vendors interject proprietary code into their JDBC drivers and not all JDBC driver implementations are the same. Learning what capabilities are supported, how to configure and tune the driver, and how to troubleshoot the driver can take considerable time.

Installation and Configuration Costs
With DataDirect, you simply re-install the driver and all of your previous configuration work will stay in effect with no additional developer effort.

The installation process may be simple, but configuring the driver may not be. Replicating any configuration or performance tuning work previously done with the DataDirect driver may not be possible with another driver, or significant work may be required.

Testing and Re-Qualification
The DataDirect drivers are already baked into your application regression tests. You will need to re-run your tests in order to test the new version of IBM WebSphere Application Server 7.x, but no additional effort will be required to test the DataDirect JDBC driver. If by some small chance there is an error, you can rely on focused, award-winning support from DataDirect.

Some bugs, such as those relating to the difference in driver behavior, are difficult to find. Frequently, those bugs don't appear until actual production, where you run the risk of application downtime impacting user productivity / satisfaction and potentially violating service level agreements.

At the very least you'll need to run a complete set of regression tests that isolate and test every database operation that is supported by the application — and you'll need to do that under load, which will greatly affect the cost of the regression tests. In some cases the errors won't result in obvious application failure, they may be more insidious, such as a data corruption error that goes undetected.

Once you've identified application errors, you'll have to troubleshoot the bug to determine whether it needs to be rectified by a configuration change or by costly application code changes. This will then re-start the regression process, requiring this cycle of test, detect, and correct to be repeated until all discrepancies are eliminated.

Costly Code Changes
Code changes are completely unnecessary since you continue using the same proven JDBC driver from DataDirect.

In addition, you can leverage many advanced DataDirect features such as Application Failover without any code changes, since these features are enabled via simple configuration options.

Code changes may be necessary due to functional discrepancies between the drivers. In some cases the DataDirect driver may provide essential functionality unavailable with the other driver. In that case, you'll have to code around the missing feature.

Advanced Features
DataDirect provides robust functionality, including application failover, industry-standard security features, and full support for JDBC 4.0, all available with Type 5 connectivity. You can leverage most of the DataDirect features without making code changes.

Drivers from other vendors lack functionality or implement features using a proprietary, non-standard approach that locks you into a specific database.

JDBC Certification
The DataDirect JDBC driver routinely passes the JavaEE CTS (Certification Test Suite) in addition to DataDirect's unrivaled JDBC Verification Suite, which ensures high-quality data connectivity.

Other JDBC drivers aren't certified using the JavaEE CTS (Certification Test Suite). Nor are their internal testing suites as extensive as DataDirect's JDBC Verification Suite. This lack of certification and extensive testing can negatively impact the reliability of your application.

Technical Support
DataDirect and IBM have a long history of supporting DataDirect's JDBC driver within the WebSphere environment.

IBM and Microsoft are direct competitors in nearly every technology category. If you run into issues with the Microsoft driver, you'll be relying on issue resolution from competing vendors. If you have a critical application that is experiencing reliability or downtime issues, the last thing you want is a support situation where IBM and Microsoft may not be on the same page.