DB2: the Viper is coming | The Register

"How much impact will Viper have? There are a lot of applications (more than many companies realise) that need to combine XML and SQL data, and IBM is about to have a clear lead in the market in these areas. Then add Viper's SAP-specific characteristics: even with the previous release, DB2 was increasing its share of the SAP market and it has picked up not just new customers but those migrating from other platforms—this trend is likely to continue. On top of that, compression will reduce the total cost of ownership as will, in their own ways, the new automated management features and the automatic storage support. Finally, consider the performance benefits of adding range partitioning to multi-dimensional clustering for query environments."