Re: When you think of databases and IBM what comes to mind?
The RoadShow is also coming to New York July 28 & 29 at the IBM offices on Madison Avenue. Look to the next Insider for details. Art Art S. Kagel Oninit (www.oninit.com) IIUG Board of Directors (art@iiug.org) Disclaimer: Please keep in mind that my own opinions are my own opinions and do not reflect on my employer, Oninit, the IIUG, nor any other organization with which I am associated either explicitly or implicitly. Neither do those opinions reflect those of other individuals affiliated with any entity with which I am affiliated nor those of the entities themselves. On Fri, Jun 12, 2009 at 10:49 AM, Norma Jean Sebastian < nsebastian@flinnsci.com> wrote: > Per Gumby, “To give you an example... There's an upcoming road show for > Informix. Chicago was by-passed …. But what do I know…”… > > > > Gumby, I surely must have misunderstood what you meant by this. Chicago is > NOT being bypassed for the Informix RoadShow… > > > > If anyone else would like to attend the Informix roadshow in Chicago > scheduled for July 14-15 this summer as indicated in the email from the IIUG > dated 6/4 and mentioned in the Chicago User group meeting yesterday…. Here > is the IBM sign-up link… > > > > > https://www-926.ibm.com/events/swgeer/swgeer06.nsf/signin?openform&seminar=kwomboe7ryt4j&lang=en > > > > Also, I am not on the IIUG BoD anymore because of economic issues/job > issues…. I happily served my full year and reluctantly stepped down. > > > > Norma Jean > > > > > > *From:* informix-list-bounces@iiug.org [mailto: > informix-list-bounces@iiug.org] *On Behalf Of *Ian Michael Gumby > *Sent:* Friday, June 12, 2009 7:18 AM > *To:* Serge; informix-list@iiug.org > *Subject:* RE: When you think of databases and IBM what comes to mind? > > > > > > > From: srielau@ca.ibm.com > > Subject: Re: When you think of databases and IBM what comes to mind? > > Date: Fri, 12 Jun 2009 07:52:27 -0400 > > To: informix-list@iiug.org > > > > What you got was a drumbeat. What you ask for is a cacophony. > > DB2 9.7 is going live June 19. > > > > Cheers > > Serge > > Serge, > > I could care less about DB2 9.7. Hopefully the launch goes out much better > than the 8.0 launch. > > The point is that this was the question posed by Arvin the Marvin ( > ArvindK@us.ibm.com) and his answer was DB2. > When pressed on their 'go to market strategy', Arvin the Marvin didn't give > a good answer. (You can listen to the replay to hear what he said.) > > When he gave an example of a high ratio of number of instances managed per > DBA, his example was Wal*Mart (not named) where there are 15,000 instances > managed by 8 DBAs. I believe 5 of these DBAs are 4 ESEs and 1 TAM. (Going > from memory since I wrote the contract extension in 2003.) > > So I find his comments a bit disenginous when he's promoting strictly DB2 > when IBM also sells IDS that also fits the synopsis of the meeting invite > and also has a better 'hands off' maintenance cost than any other database > on the market. Some would say that IDS is closer to a 'lights out' > management solution than any other database on the market with the same > feature set. > > IDS also has a better HA/ER message which goes to improved uptime and > redundancy and safety, especially in regualatory concerns. Then there's the > extensibility that comes in handy when dealing with a myriad of different > data streams so IDS has a better message when it comes to 'Infosphere'. > > The point is that IBM is not providing a clear clean message when it comes > to database strategy. > > Am I accusing IBM of playing favorites? Yeah on the surface that appears to > be the case. IBM's S&D organization is trained to sell DB2. Not IDS. There > are a couple of individual contributors who are in the trenches selling IDS, > however... not many. IBM has had ample time to correct the lack of parity in > the salesforce however this hasn't happened. > > Marketing budget? I can't address that. > > At best, one could argue in IBM's defense that this appearance of lack of > parity boils down to the incompetence of a couple of individuals in WW Sales > and Marketing of IDS. > > Really, without spending a lot of money, IDS could actually be better > marketed. > > To give you an example... There's an upcoming road show for Informix. > Chicago was by-passed because Rob Beal and Carlton Doe were presenting to > the local usergroup. That was yesterday. And as always, I ended up getting > snagged where I had more important things to do. How many people showed up? > I heard through the grapevine that there were 10 people, including NJ who's > on the IIUG BoD. > > Considering that Sears and Lake County are the largest customers that are > serviced by the local sales team... (Hyatt is serviced by CSC and the GSI > team supports CSC, Peapod is not covered by the local account team since > they are now a wholely owned subsidary of a Dutch grocery chain... The list > goes on...) The message isn't getting out to customers who are in the region > that run IDS. Moto's support is being done from Florida these days and > again that's Channels/ISV and not the local sales team. > > Do you start to see the problem? Maybe it would be easier if you and Jerry > K actually stepped out of your respective labs and spent time in the field > doing customer calls. > > The point is Serge, all of this is solvable even under IBM's draconian > budget constraints. > But hey! Look on the bright side. They haven't relocated Markham Labs to > India or Brazil yet. (And yes, that would mean if you were relocated you'd > be on their pay scale, not your existing one....) > > > But hey! What do I know? Its not like I've covered Central North, Eastern > US, and all of North America while at Informix/IBM working with the sales > teams... Oh wait. I did. ;-) > > -G > > -G > > ------------------------------ > > Hotmail® has ever-growing storage! Don’t worry about storage limits. Check > it out.<http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/Storage?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Tutorial_Storage_062009>; > > _______________________________________________ > Informix-list mailing list > Informix-list@iiug.org > http://www.iiug.org/mailman/listinfo/informix-list > >