Re: INFORMIX IS A DISTRIBUITED DATABASE?

In article <al162211.766801663@openlab77>, al162211@academ01.mty.itesm.mx (Ethel Emilia Rodriguez Castillo) writes: |> I will thank you if you have some information about: |> |> - Is informix a distribuited database? It can be. In pre-6.0 releases, I-Net or I-Star could be purchased to allow communication between engines on separate systems. In 6.0 and beyond, this comes bundled with the engine. Essentially, it allows you to access Informix databases on separate systems, concurrently. |> - Does it use transparency? Depends on what you mean by transparency. In accessing tables on different databases, even different systems, there is syntax that allows one to specify hostname and database name when accessing tables. It is possible to set up synonyms in your local database that allow your application to access those remote database tables via the synonym. If you define a synonym 'x' for table 'a' on database 's' on table 'z', 'SELECT col1 FROM x' will access that remote table 'a'. |> - What is his adventage to respect others database? It's kind of like the debate a while ago about whether Microsoft Word or WordPerfect was the better word processor. Both had tons of bells and whistles, they leapfrogged each other for years, both were 'good' wordprocessors. For a long time, Informix had the advantage with its Informix-4GL language. Fairly easy to program, sophisticated enough to implement moderately complex systems, most other database vendors had nothing like it. Others, arguable, had 'better' engines, i.e. more bells and whistles at the database level. Informix now has stored procedures, triggers, relational integrity constraints, etc. With 6.0, the DBA features are getting better, after a long period of time where they were not adequate. I believe in 6.0 SMP is supported pretty well, and 7.0 or 8.0 implements a massively parallel architecture. For applications where one is supporting massive databases with large numbers of users, doing complex queries on SMP or massively parallel system architectures, Informix is making the effort. The DBA tools need to continue to get better, the SQL Server (Sybase/Microsoft) DBA tools on Windows NT are awesome, Informix needs to make some strides in this area. However, for small to medium installations, one must question their pricing policy, with the pricing now done on a 'per seat' basis. Many of my small clients are going to have a problem when it comes time to updrade their existing systems. Others may disagree. Others can also comment on other advanced features that may or may not be offered for Informix or a competitor, replication services, etc., but the above are what push my buttons. Hope this helped. DCT