Until recently, data warehouse technologies were completely out of reach for small to mid-sized companies (SMEs), primarily because of price. With IBM's mid-market DB2 offering, the cost is sufficiently low to stimulate interest for companies with data integration and data management challenges. However, the need for specialized expertise will inflate implementation costs for SMEs without the in-house skills.

Large Enterprise Warehouse Sales Are Scarce

Data warehouse vendors also have their challenges. Most large businesses have some version of a data warehouse or mart and have invested millions of dollars in the warehouse technology. Since leveraging these investments is top priority, every opportunity for reuse is embraced. In doing so, migration to other technologies is not looked upon kindly, so new warehouse sales are few. Like IBM, the obvious next step for large warehouse vendors is to enter the SME market.

IBM Balanced Warehouse Solution for SME

IBM offers three DB2 options with starting prices between $10K and $24K. Table 1 outlines the details of each option...