The IBM® Db2® Analytics Accelerator (Accelerator) is a logical extension of Db2 for IBM z/OS® that provides a high-speed query engine that efficiently and cost-effectively runs analytics workloads. The Accelerator is an integrated back-end component of Db2 for z/OS. Together, they provide a hybrid workload-optimized database management system that seamlessly manages queries that are found in transactional workloads to Db2 for z/OS and queries that are found in analytics applications to Accelerator. Each query runs in its optimal environment for maximum speed and cost efficiency.

The incremental update function of Db2 Analytics Accelerator for z/OS updates Accelerator-shadow tables continually. Changes to the data in original Db2 for z/OS tables are propagated to the corresponding target tables with a high frequency and a brief delay. Query results from Accelerator are always extracted from recent, close-to-real-time data.
An incremental update capability that is called IBM InfoSphere® Change Data Capture (InfoSphere CDC) is provided by IBM InfoSphere Data Replication for z/OS up to Db2 Analytics Accelerator V7.5. Since then, an extra new replication protocol between Db2 for z/OS and Accelerator that is called IBM Integrated Synchronization was introduced. With Db2 Analytics Accelerator V7.5, customers can choose which one to use.

IBM Integrated Synchronization is a built-in product feature that you use to set up incremental updates. It does not require InfoSphere CDC, which is bundled with IBM Db2 Analytics Accelerator.

In addition, IBM Integrated Synchronization has more advantages:

• Simplified administration, packaging, upgrades, and support. These items are managed as part of the Db2 for z/OS maintenance stream.
  
• Updates are processed quickly.
  
• Reduced CPU consumption on the mainframe due to a streamlined, optimized design where most of the processing is done on the Accelerator. This situation provides reduced latency.
  
• Uses IBM Z® Integrated Information Processor (zIIP) on Db2 for z/OS, which leads to reduced CPU costs on IBM Z and better overall performance data, such as throughput and synchronized rows per second.
  
• On z/OS, the workload to capture the table changes was reduced, and the remainder can be handled by zIIPs.
  
• With the introduction of an enterprise-grade Hybrid Transactional Analytics Processing (HTAP) enabler that is also known as the Wait for Data protocol, the integrated low latency protocol is now enabled to support more analytical queries running against the latest committed data.