DB2 DBA, Data-Warehousing and BI training

Question

I want to take DB2 DBA certification and also want to learn Data-Warehousing and Business Intelligence. I want to know:

(1) Whether DB2 DBA certification is demanding or not. I am a .NET developer since last three years and IT experience is even more. I worked on Oracle, MySQL, SQL Server and used DB2 also for some applications. For such a (weird) profile, is there any chance that companies call me for an interview for the DB2 job?

(2) In Data-Warehousing and BI, I see things like Cognos, Informatica and ETL. Among Cognos and Informatica, which one to choose?

(3) Can I practice Data-Warehousing and BI on my home PC?

Answer 1

1. While the concepts are the same, the administration of all these DBMS products is different. While you can move your SQL knowledge relatively easily from one to another, that's not the case for specific DBA activities. DB2 DBA certification is not a walk in the park but, if you have it, it will come in very handy for interviews (it's because it's not easy that it's relatively highly valued).

2. IBM owns Cognos so that is their preferred tool of choice for BI and analytics if you're using DB2. I would go with that.

3. You can practice of course, provided you get a licence for the software you want to use. If you look at the IBM web pages, you'll find they frequently have freebies, trails and demos you can download.