Why Choose Informix

I have just joined a .com portal that must migrate from an old Ingres database (on Sco Unix) to a scalable, fast platform. The entire portal is driven by the database, with 35,000 page hits/per day, and the possibility of 200,000 e-commerce transactions per month. We're considering Oracle and DB2, but haven't thought much about Informix. Can anyone tell me why we should consider going with Informix? Thanks for your help!

In article <37308346.A6C48B4C@lioninc.com>, Todd Boewe <tboewe@lioninc.com> wrote: >I have just joined a .com portal that must migrate from an old Ingres >database (on Sco Unix) to a scalable, fast platform. The entire portal >is driven by the database, with 35,000 page hits/per day, and the >possibility of 200,000 e-commerce transactions per month. We're >considering Oracle and DB2, but haven't thought much about Informix. >Can anyone tell me why we should consider going with Informix? >Thanks for your help! Raw speed. For our particular application (turnkey intelligent network systems) at the time we did the benchmarking, Informix was far faster than Sybase and O-word. Ignore the marketing and TPC-* hype that O-word (and everyone else) publishes. They've got lots of ways to cook the industry-approved benchmarks. You can only determine whose technology is most effective for your own work by trying your own application out against the candidates. Informix has evaluation copies available for download from Intraware. Visit www.informix.com for instructions on how to get one. Jim -- W. Jim Jordan, Nortel Networks, Stop 29CA3A08 PO Box 3511 Stn C, Ottawa, ON K1Y 4H7 Canada wjjordan@nortelnetworks.com Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of Nortel Networks. Inbound spam filtering is in place. Don't send what I won't see.

I dunno, I think I'd also decide based on familiarity - each DBMS has a longish and different learning curve. Todd Boewe wrote: > I have just joined a .com portal that must migrate from an old Ingres > database (on Sco Unix) to a scalable, fast platform. The entire portal > is driven by the database, with 35,000 page hits/per day, and the > possibility of 200,000 e-commerce transactions per month. We're > considering Oracle and DB2, but haven't thought much about Informix. > Can anyone tell me why we should consider going with Informix? > > Thanks for your help! -- Richard C. Auslander Database Manager AirFlash, Inc. 1733 Woodside Rd., Suite #110 Redwood City, CA 94061 (650) 556-7928 www.airflash.com

You also need to check the reliabilty of the product, especially the version you're going to be implemented. Jim Jordan wrote: > > In article <37308346.A6C48B4C@lioninc.com>, > Todd Boewe <tboewe@lioninc.com> wrote: > >I have just joined a .com portal that must migrate from an old Ingres > >database (on Sco Unix) to a scalable, fast platform. The entire portal > >is driven by the database, with 35,000 page hits/per day, and the > >possibility of 200,000 e-commerce transactions per month. We're > >considering Oracle and DB2, but haven't thought much about Informix. > >Can anyone tell me why we should consider going with Informix? > > >Thanks for your help! > > Raw speed. For our particular application (turnkey intelligent network > systems) at the time we did the benchmarking, Informix was far faster > than Sybase and O-word. > > Ignore the marketing and TPC-* hype that O-word (and everyone else) > publishes. They've got lots of ways to cook the industry-approved > benchmarks. You can only determine whose technology is most effective > for your own work by trying your own application out against the > candidates. Informix has evaluation copies available for download from > Intraware. Visit www.informix.com for instructions on how to get one. > > Jim > -- > W. Jim Jordan, Nortel Networks, Stop 29CA3A08 > PO Box 3511 Stn C, Ottawa, ON K1Y 4H7 Canada wjjordan@nortelnetworks.com > Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of Nortel Networks. > Inbound spam filtering is in place. Don't send what I won't see.

Todd Boewe wrote: > > I have just joined a .com portal that must migrate from an old Ingres > database (on Sco Unix) to a scalable, fast platform. The entire portal > is driven by the database, with 35,000 page hits/per day, and the > possibility of 200,000 e-commerce transactions per month. We're > considering Oracle and DB2, but haven't thought much about Informix. > Can anyone tell me why we should consider going with Informix? You mentioned the most important reason: scaleability. Nothing scales as well as Informix Dynamic Server (IDS) and if you outgrow your 40-way Sun E10000 SMP box you can bring up a whole cluster of them and spread your data amoung the lot using IDS with Extended Parallel Option (XPO) which uses a shared nothing architecture to implement a truly clustered distributed database which your web site and applications can treat as a single HUGE server. This is so much faster than Oracle's shared lock and disk architecture it's not even a fair comparison. And reliable? Ask the Oracle salesperson what happens when one node of an Oracle distributed server goes down! Informix? Restart the missing server on any remaining node with access to the dead node's drives and you are fully operational. Until that happens everything keeps working you just cannot access the dead server's data until the replacement comes up a few seconds later. Art S. Kagel

I am short on time and patience when selecting a database engine and server. Each database vendor and hardware vendor has a lot of nice technical info but experience with your specific application means more than the tech info. In my experience, a good selection for accounting apps would be Oracle but for a an application with say a table with 10 to 20 million rows and complex indexes from several columns, and a heavy query load while new rows are being continually inserted-- then I would say Informix will be the best and most reliable database engine. In my experience, Informix on HP servers with disk arrays would be the choice. Looking at the telecommunications industry as an example, the platform of choice seems to be HP. Also, an engineer at Informix mentioned that much of their development work is on HPUX. If the decision at your organization is not already made, hope you can take a close look at Informix and HP. Also, these vendors may already have some experience porting your old application. Richard

Working on both System i got the following, very personal Impression. Informix is quite Simple and usefull for Medium Installtions. Oracle needs more Attendance, is much more complex but but gives you a lot of Flexibility. It requires lot more of Knowledge, but if you've got this ... Of course this only my humble Oppinion. Ahh yes, it doesnt mean i think one is better than the other. Cris

I've always had good experience with Informix support; I think support should be a major consideration that's often overlooked. BTW, I wonder if you'll get the same number of glowing recommendations for Oracle in the oracle forum... In article <37308346.A6C48B4C@lioninc.com>, Todd Boewe <tboewe@lioninc.com> wrote: > I have just joined a .com portal that must migrate from an old Ingres > database (on Sco Unix) to a scalable, fast platform. The entire portal > is driven by the database, with 35,000 page hits/per day, and the > possibility of 200,000 e-commerce transactions per month. We're > considering Oracle and DB2, but haven't thought much about Informix. > Can anyone tell me why we should consider going with Informix? > > Thanks for your help! > > --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- ---Share what you know. Learn what you don't.---