Re: Informix Users Conference

In article <22mm7jINN3qq@emory.mathcs.emory.edu>, khovanes@crackers.b30.ingr.com (Kenny Hovanes) writes: |> Well, I was at the conference and here is a very quick summary of |> what I saw.... |> |> 1) Informix doesn't seem to be very excited about windows NT. The first |> discussion talk of the day was by Phil White (ceo of Informix) and Mike |> Maples (microsoft VP), and talked about the impact of NT on the computing |> environment as a whole. |> I got a VERY different feeling...I seems to me, and in a later private discussion I had with Phil in an elevator, that "Informix's" position is that NT WILL be around and that Informix, following "the industry trends" will port all their apps to NT (in fact the SE engine was running on a DEC Alpha on the vendor floor). |> 2) The sessions covered were interesting, but a lot of the time they seemed |> to be directed from a marketing point of view. The sessions really could |> have been a lot more technical, but hey, it's just the second conference |> they have had. |> I'd agree with this... |> 3) On the following day, there was a round table discussion about NT and OO |> by some guys Informix selected. I forget the names, but my god, they are |> very hostile toward NT. And this seems to fit the Informix point of view. |> My impression from informix was that NT will go away, and they seem to |> be betting the farm. Unix seems to be the commitment, and UNIX only. |> Sure Informix will play around with NT and offer the SE, but Online isn't |> supposed to be around until late 94 or early 95. This gives me the idea |> they want to see what happens, while Oracle and Sybase are porting their |> stuff already. The second session was VERY interesting. The three consultants, Richard Finkelstein of Performance Computing, Peter Kastner of the Aberdeen Group, and Tony Percy of the Gartner Group had much to say about Windows, NT, Client/Server, and OOP. They mostly agreed that the trade rags have greatly exagerated the use of OOP and Client/Server in the industry. Also, the ALL agreed (much to the applause of the audience) that Windows is a poor environment (buggy, crashes). |> |> 4) The food was okay, but seemed to be a little on the bland side. The first |> days lunch was cold, and they kinda ran out. The second day was a little |> better, but still was a little unorganized. |> |> 5) Interoperatibility between databases is a non-issue. Literally every |> demo I saw in the booth sections was designed to communicate with at least |> 10 or more databases. So you can now keep which ever database engine you |> want, and use these utilities to create the form drivers. |> |> 6) Sequent had several machines, and seemed to be a real power house. I guess |> the strategic agreements Informix and Sequent have signed has payed off. |> Informix must have mentioned them at least in every session. |> |> 7) The technical ability of the Informix people doing the demos was kinda low. |> I was trying to get some decent information, but the general answer I got |> was pretty lame. Mind you, I port all the Informix products to our hardware |> platform, so I was asking more technical things than they might have |> expected. |> |> 8) The Informix 6.0 release will be one hell of a release, but expect a |> signifigant price increase. They will be wrapping the networking tools |> into the engine as a bundled product, so you will undoubtably have to |> pay for it. |> |> 9) Informix Online 6.0 sounds like a very good product. It seems to really |> address the tape and backup utilities everyone has been complaining |> about for years, but they might be anticipating customer response wrong. |> I kinda got the impression it will cost a lot to get the upgrade. |> |> 10) In addition the 6.0 online engine is going to use it's own threader, |> instead of the os threader. Hmmmmm, this might be a problem. |> |> 11) I did like to work they did on the manuals. It was nice. All the sessions |> had all the slides preprinted and in a binder for pickup before the |> conference even started. Except that many used pink print on blue backgrounds...great for the overheads, invisible on the Xerox copies... |> |> I guess that's a lot of the stuff they did. One thing I found a little |> frustrating was... A lot of the speakers were not native english speaking. |> Mind you, I'm not getting down on foreigners (god forbid, it's not politically |> correct anyway 8-), but a good grasp of the english language would be nice |> if you plan to talk in front of an english speaking audience. |> |> I might post some more, but for now that's it. If you have specific questions |> please email me personally. |> |> Ken |> |> -- |> ___________________________________________________________________________ |> | Ken Hovanes | | |> | Intergraph Corp. | I prefer Hostess Fruit Pies, to | |> | (205) 730-3781 | Pop-Tarts because they | |> | khovanes@crackers.b30.ingr.com | don't require so much cooking. | |> | or khovanes@ingr.com | | |> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mike Reetz boulder.colorado.edu!morse!reetz UNIX(tm) Operations Manager or reetz@ncar.ucar.edu (<== BEST) UCAR - University Corporation For Atmospheric Research