IBM DB2 Universal Database for Linux powers deckchair.com's record-breaking travel search engine

deckchair.com, a travel Web site that offers customers a new dimension in flight choice, has chosen IBM DB2 Universal Database for Linux to power its record-breaking travel search engine. The site, which has emerged from the re-build is just as simple to use, is enhanced by the world's largest travel search engine and provides unrivalled choice of both chartered and scheduled flights, all bookable online. IBM DB2 Universal Database for Linux from SuSe* running on IBM Netfinity servers proved the perfect match and, true to its reputation for innovation, deckchair.com has become the first e-commerce Web site to adopt this ground-breaking new platform.

The site which has emerged from the re-build is just as simple to use, is enhanced by the world's largest travel search engine and provides unrivalled choice of both chartered and scheduled flights, all bookable online. While robust and scalable technology was top of the shopping list, what really counted with deckchair.com chairman, Sir Bob Geldof, was IBM's supportive, practical response to the needs of a growing dot.com: "The IT giants have always struck me as being deeply arrogant and their behaviour generally obnoxious. When we began working with IBM the experience pleasantly contradicted me.

We've had genuine interest in our projects, a willingness to get our ideas to work, good value and, most critically, nice people. Whatever I had heard about IBM it no longer seems to be the company I imagined it was 20 years ago. ", Commenting on the solution, IBM UK Chief Executive, Kevin Loosemore said: "deckchair.com was quick to realise that only IBM could provide a solution that could give them real competitive edge in the fast growing online travel booking marketplace. Now the deckchair.com site is setting the pace for the rest of the industry. IBM was also able to make this solution affordable for an Internet start-up thanks to flexible leasing arranged by IBM Global Financing. ", Portability was crucial to the choice of technology as deckchair.com CEO James Page explained: "Because Linux is an open source software solution it has enabled deckchair.com to run on any hardware configuration.

This allows the company the opportunity to look for a combination of best price/performance, hardware and software. ", Scalability was another critical factor in deckchair.com's choice of IBM DB2 Universal Database for Linux. deckchair.com offers all the major airlines as well as charter flights to give the consumer the widest possible choice. Visits to the site have doubled since the company started a national advertising campaign and the deckchair.com team found that no other solution came close to enabling their Java application to match this level of demand. IBM Vice President, Software Steve Cowley commented: "As the world's biggest database using DB2 Universal Database for Linux running on a Netfinity server,deckchair.com is demonstrating clearly that this is a highly scalable and flexible solution for e-commerce. ", Speed of access is a further vital ingredient of Web site success and the combination of DB2 Universal Database for Linux running on Netfinity with deckchair.com's own advanced applications has brought booking time on deckchair.com down to just three minutes. deckchair.com also uses an IBM RS/6000 to exchange information with the Worldspan mainframe, the centralised travel industry database based in Atlanta. Each RS/6000 box can process about 100 messages per second - equivalent to 100 travel agents pressing the return key once per second. According to analysts, Jupiter Communications, travel is expected to be the largest commercial market on the Internet by 2003, accounting for one third of the entire Internet commercial sector. Independent Travel News has also predicted that online booking will be worth £300 million by 2002.