PRESS: Informix in the News

List of Informix related articles. Format: PUBLICATION "Article Name" Summary of Article [Date, Location in Publication, Author] Informix in the News --------------------------------- (1/1/97) INFORMATIONWEEK "Informix breakthrough" Last week, Informix disclosed it has inked deals with six banking and investment firms, helping the company keep pressure on competitors in the hot market for data warehouses. Customers include First Union National Bank, Great Western Financial, Merrill Lynch, State Street Bank & Trust and Visa International. According to Al Prescott, chief architect of data warehousing with Great Western Financial, Informix is "emerging as our vendor of choice for data warehousing going forward." Bill Niemi, principal technology consultant at Fidelity, says Informix provides a rich environment for analytical processing. Bruce Golden of Informix notes data warehousing is the fastest growing piece of Informix's business, and expects all of the new customers to eventually migrate to INFORMIX-Universal Server. (12/23/96, pg. 20, John Foley) FEDERAL COMPUTER WEEK "Informix ships Universal Server" With the introduction of INFORMIX-Universal Server, Informix made good on the promise to deliver an object-relational database product in the fourth quarter of 1996. DataBlade modules, which create a "queryless environment" in which a user clicks on images or text to search a database, are the distinguishing features of INFORMIX-Universal Server. "Three or four years ago, the technology wasn't there ... now you have a unified architecture where one engine can search videos, spatial text and images," said Michael Keeler, president of ECOlogic, Inc. Steve Hendrick, an analyst at International Data Corp., notes Informix's Universal Server provides a well-defined infrastructure for managing extended data objects. (12/16/96, pg. 29, John Moore and Allan Holmes) WEB WEEK "Informix ships its Universal Server" Most analysts agree that Informix has fulfilled its promise to ship INFORMIX-Universal Server. According to Stan Dolberg, an analyst with Forrester Research, Informix has the best-focused approach to making object-relational technology work. "We still don't know whether Oracle8 is going to be a thorough rethinking of the architecture," said Dolberg. "Informix bit the bullet and rebuilt from the ground up. That really set the stage for the Illustra acquisition and the changes they're introducing now." Steve Sommer, vice president of marketing for Informix, was pleased with how analysts responded to INFORMIX-Universal Server. "It's very rare to see this type of consensus from the analyst community ... we think we have a 12- to 24-month lead over our competition." (12/16/96, pg. 9, David Carr) INFORMATIONWEEK "The new database wars" This article discusses how Informix, IBM, Oracle and Sybase are approaching object-relational database technology. Informix's Universal Server uses DataBlade modules, which are linked as threads into the database server. DataBlade functions can be written in C, C++ or SQL, with support for Java in the first quarter of 1997. Informix offers the largest selection of data extensions -- with 29 DataBlades available. Informix has set up a DataBlade certification program, which reviews the architecture and quality of DataBlade modules developed by third-parties. (12/23/96, pg. 45, Julie Anderson) LAN TIMES "Database battle continues" Universal Server arguments are continuing between Informix and Oracle, as each vendor is denouncing the other's server. Informix officials claim Oracle Universal Server is "inherently slow," while Oracle officials dismiss Informix as being confused, and claim INFORMIX-Universal Server is "fundamentally unsafe." Both companies use add-on software modules, but each has its own ideas about where these modules should be placed. Informix touts its design as highly extensible, while Oracle has gone to great lengths to point out the dangers inherent in Informix's all-in-the-database approach. (12/18/96, pg. 41, Brent Dorshkind) INFORMATIONWEEK "Databases for NT" Informix, Oracle and Sybase are all rolling out new releases for Microsoft's NT operating system. By year's end, Informix will ship single-user, workgroup and enterprise versions of OnLine Dynamic Server for NT that are on par with its Unix offerings. Sybase recently introduced SQL Server for Windows NT, Professional Edition. "Database servers on NT are going to be a really strong growth market in 1997," said Evan Bauer, an analyst with Giga Information Group. (12/23/96, pg. 56, John Foley) INFOWORLD ON-LINE "Data General's clustered server to run Informix's Parallel Server" Data General's DG/UX Clusters hardware, which include as many as eight Aviion servers, will work with INFORMIX-OnLine Extended Parallel Server (OnLine XPS). According to Data General officials, the combination of DG/UX Clusters and OnLine XPS offers higher performance than proprietary systems. (12/19/96, on-line, staff writer) COMPUTERGRAM INTERNATIONAL "Informix Corp's" According to Howard Graham of Informix, the company expects INFORMIX-Universal Server to bring in substantial revenue in 1997 -- "more than a few percentage points of total turnover." Steve Sommer of Informix expects Informix's technological lead in the area of universal servers to attract new customers to its traditional database products. (12/12/96, pg. 2, staff writer) NETWORK WORLD "Top 200 Network World 1996" This article provides financial data about the industry's 200 largest vendors. Informix is listed as one of the companies with the largest increase in profits from 1991-1996, at 56 percent. Informix is ranked #62 in 1995 revenue. (12/23/96, pg. 6, staff writer)