Gary Speaks!

I see Gary's getting frustrated now. We call this the "Hamilton Effect", in honour of erstwhile IIUG President Jerry Hamilton. Jerry imbibed the IBM Kool-Aid as thirstily as anyone, came quite quickly to realise that IBM had no intention whatsoever of promoting Informix, and then became one of the most zealous critics!: IIUG Insider (Issue #115) January 2010 Happy new year to all IIUG members! I wish you all a wonderful year. However I am not sure it is going to be a good year for Informix. Last January I wondered if IBM will continue the momentum of growing and improving Informix. Today I have no answer to this question. IBM is acting like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. On one hand Informix is dramatically improving. Every fix pack is loaded with new features. Mach 11 and the warehouse capabilities are positioning Informix ahead of any other database including DB2. The Panther release is due this year. It is going to be a huge improvement (if you want to know more about it join the EVP program. You can read more about it in the following section). However if you talk to IBM executives or read the press, Informix does not exist. It looks as if things are set back to 2001. Once again we need to say loud and clear that Oracle and MS SQL server are alternatives to Informix. They are inferior but if forced we will migrate to one of them. DB2 is not an option. Gary Ben-Israel IIUG Insider Editor gary@iiug.org

On Feb 1, 11:18 am, "Captain Pedantic" <theharlequi...@hotmail.com> wrote: > I see Gary's getting frustrated now.  We call this the "Hamilton Effect", in > honour of erstwhile IIUG President Jerry Hamilton.  Jerry imbibed the IBM > Kool-Aid as thirstily as anyone, came quite quickly to realise that IBM had > no intention whatsoever of promoting Informix, and then became one of the > most zealous critics!: > > IIUG Insider (Issue #115) > January 2010 > > Happy new year to all IIUG members! > I wish you all a wonderful year. However I am not sure it is going to be a > good year for Informix. > Last January I wondered if IBM will continue the momentum of growing and > improving Informix. Today I have no answer to this question. IBM is acting > like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. > On one hand Informix is dramatically improving. Every fix pack is loaded > with new features. Mach 11 and the warehouse capabilities are positioning > Informix ahead of any other database including DB2. The Panther release is > due this year. It is going to be a huge improvement (if you want to know > more about it join the EVP program. You can read more about it in the > following section). > However if you talk to IBM executives or read the press, Informix does not > exist. It looks as if things are set back to 2001. > Once again we need to say loud and clear that Oracle and MS SQL server are > alternatives to Informix. They are inferior but if forced we will migrate to > one of them. DB2 is not an option. > Gary Ben-Israel > IIUG Insider Editor > g...@iiug.org Unfortunately, that's the feeling here in the trenches... all of my projects want to move either to Oracle (ok,ok, it's because there is a site license here) or to Postgres (the open source version)... and it is because of the ridiculous pricing scheme, plus the ominous feeling that IBM is doing nothing to improve Informix. I guess now the IBM has Walmart, Verizon, Home Depot, VISA, Safeway, et al, in their pockets, and know it would be prohibitive for these power houses to migrate to any other vendor, well, they don't care anymore... I've been so disappointed by IBM's lack of interest in promote Informix, that for the first time in 14 years of being an Informix DBA, I'm actually considering turning to the dark side... ok, I won't voluntarily become an Oracle DBA, but if my projects decide to go that way, I won't make a fuss and get a black helmet, a respirator, turn my light sable to red, rename my google account to Darth Fandelau and do DBA work on Oracle databases for living... However, I will still believe that Informix is best. Ramon

On 1 Feb., 22:53, fandelau <fande...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Feb 1, 11:18 am, "Captain Pedantic" <theharlequi...@hotmail.com> > wrote: > > > > > I see Gary's getting frustrated now.  We call this the "Hamilton Effect", in > > honour of erstwhile IIUG President Jerry Hamilton.  Jerry imbibed the IBM > > Kool-Aid as thirstily as anyone, came quite quickly to realise that IBM had > > no intention whatsoever of promoting Informix, and then became one of the > > most zealous critics!: > > > IIUG Insider (Issue #115) > > January 2010 > > > Happy new year to all IIUG members! > > I wish you all a wonderful year. However I am not sure it is going to be a > > good year for Informix. > > Last January I wondered if IBM will continue the momentum of growing and > > improving Informix. Today I have no answer to this question. IBM is acting > > like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. > > On one hand Informix is dramatically improving. Every fix pack is loaded > > with new features. Mach 11 and the warehouse capabilities are positioning > > Informix ahead of any other database including DB2. The Panther release is > > due this year. It is going to be a huge improvement (if you want to know > > more about it join the EVP program. You can read more about it in the > > following section). > > However if you talk to IBM executives or read the press, Informix does not > > exist. It looks as if things are set back to 2001. > > Once again we need to say loud and clear that Oracle and MS SQL server are > > alternatives to Informix. They are inferior but if forced we will migrate to > > one of them. DB2 is not an option. > > Gary Ben-Israel > > IIUG Insider Editor > > g...@iiug.org > > Unfortunately, that's the feeling here in the trenches... all of my > projects want to move either to Oracle (ok,ok, it's because there is a > site license here) or to Postgres (the open source version)... and it > is because of the ridiculous pricing scheme, plus the ominous feeling > that IBM is doing nothing to improve Informix. I guess now the IBM has > Walmart, Verizon, Home Depot, VISA, Safeway, et al, in their pockets, > and know it would be prohibitive for these power houses to migrate to > any other vendor, well, they don't care anymore... I've been so > disappointed by IBM's lack of interest in promote Informix, that for > the first time in 14 years of being an Informix DBA, I'm actually > considering turning to the dark side... ok, I won't voluntarily become > an Oracle DBA, but if my projects decide to go that way, I won't make > a fuss and get a black helmet, a respirator, turn my light sable to > red, rename my google account to Darth Fandelau and do DBA work on > Oracle databases for living... > However, I will still believe that Informix is best. > > Ramon I couldn't agree more (:- Yet another year has gone and nothing has really changed. Please see my blog post from one year ago: http://www.informix-zone.com/node/673 I could just repost it today and it would still be late-breaking. However it is good to see that the IIUG now seems to take a more critical position regarding IBM's approach to "market" Informix. There is no time left to further "cheerlead" IBM. We have seen how serious B. Spang and Co. really are about Informix. I guess this year he will be wearing a 'Panther' T-Shirt at the IIUG conference and telling everybody that he is the biggest fan of IDS there is. Yes he is: Exactly for 3 conference days and for the rest of the year he talks about the "top-selling" DB2 (LUW) and it's fabulous PureScale extension that nobody has seen in a real world installation, that requires expensive hardware to run on, that is only available for AIX and has probably many more limitations (:- It is a shame.

> From: eric@herber-consulting.de > Subject: Re: Gary Speaks! > Date: Tue, 2 Feb 2010 01:56:36 -0800 > To: informix-list@iiug.org > > However it is good to see that the IIUG now seems to take a more > critical position > regarding IBM's approach to "market" Informix. > The IIUG has long recognized that it doesn't pay to bite the hand that feeds you. Of course the IIUG has started to come in to its own by hosting their own conference and remains the biggest IDS cheerleader. > There is no time left to further "cheerlead" IBM. We have seen how > serious > B. Spang and Co. really are about Informix. I guess this year he will > be wearing a > 'Panther' T-Shirt at the IIUG conference and telling everybody that he > is > the biggest fan of IDS there is. > Bernie is 'heritage' IBM. Did you expect more? > It is a shame. > Not really. There are bigger things to be-itch about with respect to IBM's mismanagement. IBM doesn't care if they sign big deals that lose money just to placate their top 5 customers. IBM is truly a services company. IBM's IGS (whatever they call themselves these days) is the only reason for existence. SWG (That's IBM's Software Group) is just along for the ride. IBM makes more money selling consulting services on Oracle than they do on IBM's software. ;-) Naw, I don't know IBM's numbers. I just made that up. (But you can check their SEC filings and see the numbers by division and even pillar.) -G _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail: Free, trusted and rich email service. http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/201469228/direct/01/

Hello Eric, you could start a poll "Does IBM Management needs a kick in the ass" Yes/No i would vote!!!!!! Superboer On 2 feb, 10:56, eherber <e...@herber-consulting.de> wrote: > On 1 Feb., 22:53, fandelau <fande...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > On Feb 1, 11:18 am, "Captain Pedantic" <theharlequi...@hotmail.com> > > wrote: > > > > I see Gary's getting frustrated now.  We call this the "Hamilton Effect", in > > > honour of erstwhile IIUG President Jerry Hamilton.  Jerry imbibed the IBM > > > Kool-Aid as thirstily as anyone, came quite quickly to realise that IBM had > > > no intention whatsoever of promoting Informix, and then became one of the > > > most zealous critics!: > > > > IIUG Insider (Issue #115) > > > January 2010 > > > > Happy new year to all IIUG members! > > > I wish you all a wonderful year. However I am not sure it is going to be a > > > good year for Informix. > > > Last January I wondered if IBM will continue the momentum of growing and > > > improving Informix. Today I have no answer to this question. IBM is acting > > > like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. > > > On one hand Informix is dramatically improving. Every fix pack is loaded > > > with new features. Mach 11 and the warehouse capabilities are positioning > > > Informix ahead of any other database including DB2. The Panther release is > > > due this year. It is going to be a huge improvement (if you want to know > > > more about it join the EVP program. You can read more about it in the > > > following section). > > > However if you talk to IBM executives or read the press, Informix does not > > > exist. It looks as if things are set back to 2001. > > > Once again we need to say loud and clear that Oracle and MS SQL server are > > > alternatives to Informix. They are inferior but if forced we will migrate to > > > one of them. DB2 is not an option. > > > Gary Ben-Israel > > > IIUG Insider Editor > > > g...@iiug.org > > > Unfortunately, that's the feeling here in the trenches... all of my > > projects want to move either to Oracle (ok,ok, it's because there is a > > site license here) or to Postgres (the open source version)... and it > > is because of the ridiculous pricing scheme, plus the ominous feeling > > that IBM is doing nothing to improve Informix. I guess now the IBM has > > Walmart, Verizon, Home Depot, VISA, Safeway, et al, in their pockets, > > and know it would be prohibitive for these power houses to migrate to > > any other vendor, well, they don't care anymore... I've been so > > disappointed by IBM's lack of interest in promote Informix, that for > > the first time in 14 years of being an Informix DBA, I'm actually > > considering turning to the dark side... ok, I won't voluntarily become > > an Oracle DBA, but if my projects decide to go that way, I won't make > > a fuss and get a black helmet, a respirator, turn my light sable to > > red, rename my google account to Darth Fandelau and do DBA work on > > Oracle databases for living... > > However, I will still believe that Informix is best. > > > Ramon > > I couldn't agree more (:- > > Yet another year has gone and nothing has really changed. Please see > my > blog post from one year ago: > > http://www.informix-zone.com/node/673 > > I could just repost it today and it would still be late-breaking. > > However it is good to see that the IIUG now seems to take a more > critical position > regarding IBM's approach to "market" Informix. > > There is no time left  to further "cheerlead" IBM. We have seen how > serious > B. Spang and Co. really are about Informix. I guess this year he will > be wearing a > 'Panther' T-Shirt at the IIUG conference and telling everybody that he > is > the biggest fan of IDS there is. > > Yes he is: Exactly for 3 conference days and for the rest of the year > he talks > about the "top-selling" DB2 (LUW) and it's fabulous PureScale > extension that > nobody has seen in a real world installation, that requires expensive > hardware > to run on, that is only available for AIX and has probably many more > limitations (:- > > It is a shame.

On 2 Feb., 14:53, Superboer <superbo...@t-online.de> wrote: > Hello Eric, > > you could start a poll > > "Does IBM  Management needs a kick in the ass" > > Yes/No > > i would vote!!!!!! > > Superboer > Nice idea :-) Looking at the financial results of IBM Information Management for the last two quarters, I think they already got that kick in the ass. However the scary thing is that when listening to B. Spang's interviews it seems that they didn't learn anything from that kick (:-

Hello Eric, You really have to kick them where it hurts and make sure that it is more then once that they get hit.... Superboer. On 2 feb, 15:12, eherber <e...@herber-consulting.de> wrote: > On 2 Feb., 14:53, Superboer <superbo...@t-online.de> wrote: > > > Hello Eric, > > > you could start a poll > > > "Does IBM  Management needs a kick in the ass" > > > Yes/No > > > i would vote!!!!!! > > > Superboer > > Nice idea :-) > > Looking at the financial results of IBM Information Management for > the last two quarters, I think they already got that kick in the ass. > > However the scary thing is that when listening to B. Spang's > interviews > it seems that they didn't learn anything from that kick (:-

In article <4025c053-f281-40ab-b7f1-4088f17769ee@f17g2000prh.googlegroups.com>, fandelau says... >that IBM is doing nothing to improve Informix. I guess now the IBM has >Walmart, Verizon, Home Depot, VISA, Safeway, et al, in their pockets, safeway moved to sql server years ago (somewhere in 2003) DHL moved to Oracle and then remigrated to sql server.

eherber schrieb: > On 2 Feb., 14:53, Superboer <superbo...@t-online.de> wrote: >> Hello Eric, >> >> you could start a poll >> >> "Does IBM Management needs a kick in the ass" >> >> Yes/No >> >> i would vote!!!!!! >> >> Superboer >> > > Nice idea :-) > > Looking at the financial results of IBM Information Management for > the last two quarters, I think they already got that kick in the ass. > > However the scary thing is that when listening to B. Spang's > interviews > it seems that they didn't learn anything from that kick (:- > > > > Hi Eric, yup & opening Pandora's Box - the cloudspeak - makes them walking on a steep and slippery road. Just compare the prices of Amazon for 1 hour 1 node using {PostgreSQL | MySQL} + 1 TB of EC2 to ORACLE on this node (faktor 3.5) or IDS (factor 4.5) So whoever, if *anyone* uses public cloud for PROD, (on bright rainy days w/o thunderstorms or dark clouds that is) does it because there is a chance to need many nodes ..... Who will pay 9K bucks per hour when a persistency layer is available for 2k bucks per hour? The few compamies considering PC (as in public cloud) as potential solution do not speak about databases, they speak about JAVA and other sh*t and persistency. The days of the databases are long gone and if you show such folk performance, they simply do not believe you. dic_k -- Richard Kofler SOLID STATE EDV Dienstleistungen GmbH Vienna/Austria/Europe

On 2 Feb., 16:17, dba6...@gmail.com wrote: > In article <4025c053-f281-40ab-b7f1-4088f1776...@f17g2000prh.googlegroups.com>, > fandelau says... > > >that IBM is doing nothing to improve Informix. I guess now the IBM has > >Walmart, Verizon, Home Depot, VISA, Safeway, et al, in their pockets, > > safeway moved to sql server years ago (somewhere in 2003) > DHL moved to Oracle and then remigrated to sql server. I can't comment on Safeway, but AFAIK DHL is still runing on IDS. At least I talked to a guy from DHL (Czech Republic) at the IIUG conference in 2007 and they had over 500 instances running on IDS and I believe they are still on IDS. There is also a large data warehouse installation running on IDS at DHL Germany. But you are right that the trend is moving to Oracle or SQL Server when leaving IDS. Unfortunately this trend will continue as IBM goes on to treat IDS as Cinderella. IBM doesn't only loose the valuable Informix business it also looses the opportunity to cross sell other products from their portfolio into these accounts.

On Feb 2, 3:12 pm, eherber <e...@herber-consulting.de> wrote: > On 2 Feb., 14:53, Superboer <superbo...@t-online.de> wrote: > > > Hello Eric, > > > you could start a poll > > > "Does IBM  Management needs a kick in the ass" > > > Yes/No > > > i would vote!!!!!! > > > Superboer > > Nice idea :-) > > Looking at the financial results of IBM Information Management for > the last two quarters, I think they already got that kick in the ass. > > However the scary thing is that when listening to B. Spang's > interviews > it seems that they didn't learn anything from that kick (:- As far as I can see, these days IBM's big database guys are preoccupied with rivaling Oracle/Sun (including their Exadata 2 Database Machine) with DB2/AIX Pure Scale Database machine. They are trying to respond to Larry E.'s bugging that IBM does not have "database machine" (besides DB2 on mainframe). Long term, perhaps we can see evolution to model that ruled decades ago: customer buys all HW/SW from one vendor. Oracle is promoting such an idea after Sun acquisition. I've heard of an Operation Avalanche, that should provide IBM to catch many Oracle customers to migrate to DB2 9.7, the version that can execute PL/SQL. IBMers are perhaps worried that having 2 major RDBMS products for the same (distributed) platforms might "confuse customers" etc, like some "analysts" say. Or they feel the need to concentrate on one product in direct market battle. But the same IBM has successful examples of growing market for several competitive products, for example growing AIX's market share steadily while promoting mostly Linux. What worries me is that no one relevant is speaking of Informix database machine. Like probably most here, I can see clear benefits of using IDS for database appliances, clusters etc. But it remains to be seen if IDS's producer is interested in such development. IMHO, it's really not smart to take for granted that Informix customers will all migrate to DB2, although IBM has done some things to increase such probability. It's interesting to notice that back after Informix acquisition, IBM was equal to Oracle in RDBMS market share, or even 1-2% ahead. Last time I took a look at those figures, Oracle's market share was larger that IBM's and Microsoft's together. Personally, I wonder if it is smart to invest further in refreshing or advancing Informix skills. It would be fair that Informix customers as well as techies get a honest information of what to expect in the future. Darko

> From: darko.krstic@gmail.com > Subject: Re: Gary Speaks! > Date: Tue, 2 Feb 2010 09:57:40 -0800 > To: informix-list@iiug.org > > What worries me is that no one relevant is speaking of Informix > database machine. Like probably most here, I can see clear benefits of > using IDS for database appliances, clusters etc. But it remains to be > seen if IDS's producer is interested in such development. IMHO, it's > really not smart to take for granted that Informix customers will all > migrate to DB2, although IBM has done some things to increase such > probability. > LOL... Its evident that IDS customers are not migrating to DB2, but away from IBM. > It's interesting to notice that back after Informix acquisition, IBM > was equal to Oracle in RDBMS market share, or even 1-2% ahead. Last > time I took a look at those figures, Oracle's market share was larger > that IBM's and Microsoft's together. > Yes, There's a reason for this. And its in part the reason why Oracle's acquisition of Sun shouldn't have gone through. ;-) > Personally, I wonder if it is smart to invest further in refreshing or > advancing Informix skills. It would be fair that Informix customers as > well as techies get a honest information of what to expect in the > future. > The only honest answer is YMWV. Companies are not adopting IDS unless they have a compelling reason. Like the app that they want only runs on IDS. Or there was a compelling price/performance argument. Any IDS DBA who hasn't boned up on their other RDBMS are about to be boned themselves. And not in a good way... ;-) IBM's SWG/IM pillar is going to see rough roads ahead. While there's climate debate, IBM's 'white space' is growing. _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail: Free, trusted and rich email service. http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/201469228/direct/01/

"darko" <darko.krstic@gmail.com> wrote in message news:dfbb6269-8477-420d-9f78-167ddb739822@q16g2000yqq.googlegroups.com... >> IBMers are perhaps worried that having 2 major RDBMS products for the >> same (distributed) platforms might "confuse customers" etc, like some >> "analysts" say. Or they feel the need to concentrate on one product in >> direct market battle. And the wrong one at that! >> ... it'sreally not smart to take for granted that Informix customers >> will all migrate to DB2, although IBM has done some things to increase >> such probability. I've been running an informix-based consultancy for nine years next month. We have lost many Informix customers down the years. We have never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever lost one to DB2. It's always Oracle or, most likely, SQL Server. In fact, I have only ever heard one one comapny, which makes elevators, that has ever done that migration, and they were allegedly given huge sweetners by IBM.

On Feb 2, 9:43 pm, "Neil Truby" <neil.tr...@ardenta.com> wrote: > "darko" <darko.krs...@gmail.com> wrote in message > > news:dfbb6269-8477-420d-9f78-167ddb739822@q16g2000yqq.googlegroups.com... > > >> IBMers are perhaps worried that having 2 major RDBMS products for the > >> same (distributed) platforms might "confuse customers" etc, like some > >> "analysts" say. Or they feel the need to concentrate on one product in > >> direct market battle. > > And the wrong one at that! > > >> ...  it'sreally not smart to take for granted that Informix customers > >> will all migrate to DB2, although IBM has done some things to increase > >> such probability. > > I've been running an informix-based consultancy for nine years next month. > We have lost many Informix customers down the years.  We have never, ever, > ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever lost one to DB2.  It's always > Oracle or, most likely, SQL Server.  In fact, I have only ever heard one one > comapny, which makes elevators, that has ever done that migration, and they > were allegedly given huge sweetners by IBM. Well, my company had decided to do in-house development of new apps for DB2 and WebSphere, while most existing ones are targeting Informix. And the packaged applications in our region are available for Oracle or/and SQL Server mostly. We have already acquired a few Oracle-based ones, and it is probably that sooner or later I will have to deal with SQL Server also. I can hardly expect to meet new application with Informix back-end. Having dealt with Informix, DB2 and Oracle for years, I can say that they are all very good products. But in my experience, Informix consumes the least resources and is the easiest to tune for good performance and uptime longer than a year. It especially shines in OLTP duties. DB2 is improving considerably with 9.x versions. Now you can even drop a column without recreating the whole table :-) Speaking more seriously, DB2 is very good DW platform and very decent OLTP player (but Informix is ahead in that aspect). Still, IMHO, it seems easier to use one's Informix skills to migrate to Oracle than to DB2. Perhaps Informix will have a destiny similar to Oracle Rdb - when Oracle acquired it, it was in some aspects ahead of Oracle Database (I think that Oracle got cost based optimizer technology through Rdb acquisition from Digital); today Rdb is still maintained for the needs of existing customers, but probably not marketed to new customers except in very rare and specific conditions. Darko

On 2 Feb., 18:57, darko <darko.krs...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Feb 2, 3:12 pm, eherber <e...@herber-consulting.de> wrote: > > > > > On 2 Feb., 14:53, Superboer <superbo...@t-online.de> wrote: > > > > Hello Eric, > > > > you could start a poll > > > > "Does IBM  Management needs a kick in the ass" > > > > Yes/No > > > > i would vote!!!!!! > > > > Superboer > > > Nice idea :-) > > > Looking at the financial results of IBM Information Management for > > the last two quarters, I think they already got that kick in the ass. > > > However the scary thing is that when listening to B. Spang's > > interviews > > it seems that they didn't learn anything from that kick (:- > As far as I can see, these days IBM's big database guys are > preoccupied with rivaling Oracle/Sun (including their Exadata 2 > Database Machine) with DB2/AIX Pure Scale Database machine. They are > trying to respond to Larry E.'s bugging that IBM does not have > "database machine" (besides DB2 on mainframe). Long term, perhaps we > can see evolution to model that ruled decades ago: customer buys all > HW/SW from one vendor. Oracle is promoting such an idea after Sun > acquisition. Hmm, I can now see a DB2 z/OS, I can see a DB2 iSeries, I can see a DB2 LUW and I can see a DB2 AIX pureScale. Talking about DB2 on LUW (including AIX) I can see DPF (Database Partitioning Feature), I can see HADR (High Availability Data Replication), I can see pureScale (AIX limited) and I can see xkoto Gridscale (third party). However I can't currently see how the scaling and high availability features on the LUW/AIX platform fit together if they do at all. Nor could I see how customers with heterogenous hardware environments could deploy a single IBM DB2 solution for scalability and high availability. On the other side I see IDS MACH11. A homogeneous software based high availability and scalability solution that runs on EVERY platform that IDS is supported on. That doesn't require third party software or expensive hardware components. That has already many references in the field. Given the above and then reading B. Spang's interviews and realizing that he doesn't even mention IDS with a single sentence makes me really musing (:- > > I've heard of an Operation Avalanche, that should provide IBM to catch > many Oracle customers to migrate to DB2 9.7, the version that can > execute PL/SQL. IBMers are perhaps worried that having 2 major RDBMS > products for the same (distributed) platforms might "confuse > customers" etc, like some "analysts" say. Or they feel the need to > concentrate on one product in direct market battle. But the same IBM > has successful examples of growing market for several competitive > products, for example growing AIX's market share steadily while > promoting mostly Linux. You are right. IBM could do this. In fact they could position DB2 against Oracle and Informix against MS SQL Server. However for Informix to compete with SQL Server a free entry version (like the DB2 Community Edition) would be necessary in order to seed the market. We would need a competetive pricing for the SMB market. IDS would need some deeper MS SQL Server compatibility features (like DB2 PL/ SQL). An IBM sponsored developer program focused on MS SQL programmers would be needed and IBM had to start a serious marketing campaign that creates product awareness for IDS in the market. A serious academic initiative might also be helpful here as well as a broad range of IDS certified IBM IT specialists to support the sales teams. It could be that easy :-) > > What worries me is that no one relevant is speaking of Informix > database machine. Like probably most here, I can see clear benefits of > using IDS for database appliances, clusters etc. But it remains to be > seen if IDS's producer is interested in such development. IMHO, it's > really not smart to take for granted that Informix customers will all > migrate to DB2, although IBM has done some things to increase such > probability. Actually there is some kind of IDS appliance available now: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/informix/cluster/ Unfortunately we haven't seen any press release from IBM about it yet nor did B. Spang mention it when talking about appliances. > > It's interesting to notice that back after Informix acquisition, IBM > was equal to Oracle in RDBMS market share, or even 1-2% ahead. Last > time I took a look at those figures, Oracle's market share was larger > that IBM's and Microsoft's together. Good point. How could it be after three years of double-digit IDS growth and a "top-selling" DB2 product ? Maybe B. Spang could give us the answer :-) > > Personally, I wonder if it is smart to invest further in refreshing or > advancing Informix skills. It would be fair that Informix customers as > well as techies get a honest information of what to expect in the > future. Yes, definitely. It would not only be fair to Informix customers and techies, it would also be fair to the many Informix business partners, ISV's and distributors that rely on Informix to earn their living.

On 2 Feb., 18:03, Richard Kofler <richard.kof...@chello.at> wrote: > eherber schrieb: > > > > > On 2 Feb., 14:53, Superboer <superbo...@t-online.de> wrote: > >> Hello Eric, > > >> you could start a poll > > >> "Does IBM  Management needs a kick in the ass" > > >> Yes/No > > >> i would vote!!!!!! > > >> Superboer > > > Nice idea :-) > > > Looking at the financial results of IBM Information Management for > > the last two quarters, I think they already got that kick in the ass. > > > However the scary thing is that when listening to B. Spang's > > interviews > > it seems that they didn't learn anything from that kick (:- > > Hi Eric, > yup & opening Pandora's Box - the cloudspeak - makes them > walking on a steep and slippery road. > Just compare the prices of Amazon for 1 hour > 1 node using {PostgreSQL | MySQL} + 1 TB of EC2 > to ORACLE on this node (faktor 3.5) or IDS (factor 4.5) > > So whoever, if *anyone* uses public cloud for PROD, > (on bright rainy days w/o thunderstorms or dark clouds that is) > does it because there is a chance to need many nodes ..... > Who will pay 9K bucks per hour when a persistency layer is > available for 2k bucks per hour? > The few compamies considering PC (as in public cloud) as > potential solution do not speak about databases, they speak about > JAVA and other sh*t and persistency. The days of the databases > are long gone and if you show such folk performance, they simply > do not believe you. > > dic_k > -- > Richard Kofler > SOLID STATE EDV > Dienstleistungen GmbH > Vienna/Austria/Europe Yes, Richard you are right. What would be needed would be a free IDS entry version at least for the Cloud. But even with that it will be hard to convince today's programmers to use IDS - a product that they never heard of :-)