Commentary on Coppereye from the UK Register

Excerpts from http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/22/informix_datablade/ (my editing): CopperEye and IBM have announced a new Datablade for Informix users...... This is the first major new technology that IBM has announced for Informix users since it acquired the company in 2001. To some it may seem to be none too soon. However, these things take time - IBM and CopperEye have been working on this Datablade for at least nine months. The announcement shows that IBM means what it says when it states that it will continue to develop Informix. This should be reassuring for users. CopperEye started life by offering an Oracle-based implementation as its main product. However, the Oracle integration didn't go as smoothly as the company would have liked and it moved to focusing on the API version of the product. This was all well and good but it meant that the company had no serious big name partner. Even so, it managed to acquire some big name customers and expand into the United States. However, with this partnership with IBM the company is well-positioned to expand further. IBM will not resell the product (though that could always change) but will provide access particularly to its Informix ISVs, which seems like a golden opportunity for CopperEye. Finally, there is the impact on IBM itself. One of the notable features of the forthcoming Stinger release of DB2 is the amount of detail that has been ported from the Informix platform to the DB2 environment, most notably with the introduction of the High Availability Disaster Recovery (HADR) wizard-driven environment, and the release of the Geodetic Extender which is directly equivalent to the Geodetic Datablade that is available within Informix environments. Now, if IBM can port the Geodetic Extender (which treats the earth as a sphere, whereas the existing Spatial Extender treats it as flat) then this raises the obvious possibility that it could similarly migrate the CopperEye Datablade. No doubt IBM will wait to see how successful it is on the Informix platform but if it succeeds as it should, then my guess is that we will see it used in conjunction with DB2 in the not too distant future.

You forgot the first paragraph, so I put it back for you. Curious who would want this product, or want to spend this kind of money on it. Seems like a lot of money to spend on Informix, which is essentially a dead product. By Philip Howard, Bloor Research Published Tuesday 22nd June 2004 09:47 GMT CopperEye and IBM have announced a new Datablade for Informix users. The CopperEye Datablade is immediately available in Europe and will be available in the US later in the year. It runs on Informix v9.3 and up, and supports AIX, HP-UX, and Solaris and other platforms. Pricing varies by customer environment, but typically ranges from '30K - '360K ($54.6K -$655.1K), CopperEye says. "Neil Truby" <neil.truby@ardenta.com> wrote in message news:2js8ndF14onuvU1@uni-berlin.de... > Excerpts from http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/22/informix_datablade/ > (my editing): > > CopperEye and IBM have announced a new Datablade for Informix users...... > > This is the first major new technology that IBM has announced for Informix > users since it acquired the company in 2001. To some it may seem to be none > too soon. However, these things take time - IBM and CopperEye have been > working on this Datablade for at least nine months. The announcement shows > that IBM means what it says when it states that it will continue to develop > Informix. This should be reassuring for users. > > CopperEye started life by offering an Oracle-based implementation as its > main product. However, the Oracle integration didn't go as smoothly as the > company would have liked and it moved to focusing on the API version of the > product. This was all well and good but it meant that the company had no > serious big name partner. Even so, it managed to acquire some big name > customers and expand into the United States. However, with this partnership > with IBM the company is well-positioned to expand further. IBM will not > resell the product (though that could always change) but will provide access > particularly to its Informix ISVs, which seems like a golden opportunity for > CopperEye. > > Finally, there is the impact on IBM itself. One of the notable features of > the forthcoming Stinger release of DB2 is the amount of detail that has been > ported from the Informix platform to the DB2 environment, most notably with > the introduction of the High Availability Disaster Recovery (HADR) > wizard-driven environment, and the release of the Geodetic Extender which is > directly equivalent to the Geodetic Datablade that is available within > Informix environments. > > Now, if IBM can port the Geodetic Extender (which treats the earth as a > sphere, whereas the existing Spatial Extender treats it as flat) then this > raises the obvious possibility that it could similarly migrate the CopperEye > Datablade. No doubt IBM will wait to see how successful it is on the > Informix platform but if it succeeds as it should, then my guess is that we > will see it used in conjunction with DB2 in the not too distant future. > >

"Data Goob" <datagoob@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:Of6Cc.112813$es4.1058@fe42.usenetserver.com... > You forgot the first paragraph, so I put it back for you. > Curious who would want this product, or want to spend this > kind of money on it. Seems like a lot of money to spend > on Informix, which is essentially a dead product. I didn't forget it, I posted an excerpt, as I clearly said. I wanted to focus on the "future of Informix" bit. But you raise a different, and interesting point. There are still some big Informix customers out there, to whom '30k would be a drop in the ocean to spend in return for some serious performance. A couple of ours are iinterested in principle at any rate. But the number of such large installations, in the UK at least, is not that high.. From what I know of the product it will be ideal for data warehousing and other large data volumes where an index build is relatively frequent: this doesn't to my mind gel with The Register's assertion that the ISV community will be fertile ground for the company ... It's interesting that they choose now to release something on Informix. Some might think they're five years too late. But I think we in the Informix community should really welcome the fact that someone is developing new stuff for "our" product.

We're using it for data archiving, load the blade, tidy the data, remove the blade - and you don't get charged for the full license. Data Goob wrote: > > You forgot the first paragraph, so I put it back for you. > Curious who would want this product, or want to spend this > kind of money on it. Seems like a lot of money to spend > on Informix, which is essentially a dead product. > > By Philip Howard, Bloor Research > Published Tuesday 22nd June 2004 09:47 GMT > CopperEye and IBM have announced a new Datablade for Informix users. The CopperEye Datablade is immediately available in Europe and > will be available in the US later in the year. It runs on Informix v9.3 and up, and supports AIX, HP-UX, and Solaris and other > platforms. Pricing varies by customer environment, but typically ranges from '30K - '360K ($54.6K -$655.1K), CopperEye says. > > "Neil Truby" <neil.truby@ardenta.com> wrote in message news:2js8ndF14onuvU1@uni-berlin.de... > > Excerpts from http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/22/informix_datablade/ > > (my editing): > > > > CopperEye and IBM have announced a new Datablade for Informix users...... > > > > This is the first major new technology that IBM has announced for Informix > > users since it acquired the company in 2001. To some it may seem to be none > > too soon. However, these things take time - IBM and CopperEye have been > > working on this Datablade for at least nine months. The announcement shows > > that IBM means what it says when it states that it will continue to develop > > Informix. This should be reassuring for users. > > > > CopperEye started life by offering an Oracle-based implementation as its > > main product. However, the Oracle integration didn't go as smoothly as the > > company would have liked and it moved to focusing on the API version of the > > product. This was all well and good but it meant that the company had no > > serious big name partner. Even so, it managed to acquire some big name > > customers and expand into the United States. However, with this partnership > > with IBM the company is well-positioned to expand further. IBM will not > > resell the product (though that could always change) but will provide access > > particularly to its Informix ISVs, which seems like a golden opportunity for > > CopperEye. > > > > Finally, there is the impact on IBM itself. One of the notable features of > > the forthcoming Stinger release of DB2 is the amount of detail that has been > > ported from the Informix platform to the DB2 environment, most notably with > > the introduction of the High Availability Disaster Recovery (HADR) > > wizard-driven environment, and the release of the Geodetic Extender which is > > directly equivalent to the Geodetic Datablade that is available within > > Informix environments. > > > > Now, if IBM can port the Geodetic Extender (which treats the earth as a > > sphere, whereas the existing Spatial Extender treats it as flat) then this > > raises the obvious possibility that it could similarly migrate the CopperEye > > Datablade. No doubt IBM will wait to see how successful it is on the > > Informix platform but if it succeeds as it should, then my guess is that we > > will see it used in conjunction with DB2 in the not too distant future. > > > > -- Paul Watson # Oninit Ltd # Growing old is mandatory Tel: +44 1436 672201 # Growing up is optional Fax: +44 1436 678693 # Mob: +44 7818 003457 # www.oninit.com #