Insider #60: Highlights: Logo contest, Cool SMI queries, IDS Training, Chat wit the lab, Calendar

IUG Insider (Issue #60) June 2005 Highlights: Logo contest, Cool SMI queries, IDS Training, Chat wit the lab, Calendar Welcome to the International Informix Users Group (IIUG) Insider! Designed for IIUG members and Informix user group leaders, this publication contains timely and relevant information for the IBM Informix community. Contents: * Editorial... * Tell The World Your Informix Story * Tales from Informix's 25 years * IIUG Insider Logo contest * Denver 2005 Informix presentations downloads * Quick Tips: Just a few cool SMI queries - by Art S. Kagel * Note from the IIUG President * Southeast Informix Users Group full-day technical seminar * IDS Training * Informix Chat with the Lab: Upgrading from v7.x to v10 * Event-driven fine-grained auditing with Informix Dynamic Server * FourGen and Gillani iDistribute available on IDS10 * M Systems International, Inc. enters its 10th year in business with record sales * An outside view to the conference * Calendar of events * Developer corner * Useful Links * Closing and Credits =================================================================== Editorial... =================================================================== 96% of our active users are receiving the IIUG Insider. It consolidates data from many sources and brings it to your desktop in a single document. But I would like it to be more then a collection of external data. It would be a much better newsletter if it contained your stories, requests and comments. If you have a story, a technical article or a request, send it to gary@iug.org. This will add content that is valuable to all of us and cannot be found elsewhere. Please do not hesitate to use this channel of communication to IBM. If you read through the April issue you can see that a letter by Ramon Ray the end of March was addressed by IBM management. But there is more to it the just an answer - it is a direct channel of communication between IBM management and the end user that puts IBM in touch with the pulse of the Informix user community. Help us to make a better Insider. Thank you. Gary Ben-Israel IIUG Insider Editor IIUG Board of Directors =================================================================== Tell The World Your Informix Story =================================================================== Are you are an Informix Dynamic Server (IDS) user with a great story? Here's your chance to share your story, get your company some well deserved recognition as a savvy user of database technology, and promote Informix all at the same time. How? By nominating your company to be an IDS reference. There are several ways you can be a reference. You can give quotes about your IDS experiences, you can do a complete case study about your IDS environment and business model or you can even participate in press releases and speak with reporters. References representing multiple industries, from small businesses to multinationals, and a variety computing environments are all welcome. If you are interested in learning more about nominating your company and you already have legal/PR approval to be a reference for IBM, please send an email to woodsc@us.ibm.com. Let's share your successes and spread the word about IDS! Carolyn Woods IBM Database Technology Awareness IBM IIUG Board Liasion =================================================================== Tales from Informix's 25 years =================================================================== DB2 Magazine May 2005 Tales from Informix's first 25 years by Stuart Litel Over the years, I've noticed that virtually all Informix users will agree with the following statements: * No database on the market is easier to administer or more reliable than Informix. * No one ever bought Informix software for the advertising. * If Informix had sold sushi, it would've called it "raw dead fish." * In the old days, the number one job of an Informix DBA was to learn how to read the newspaper; today, it's to surf the Web. A few years back I ran into an old friend who took over a full-time Informix position at a company where I'd done the original consulting. When I started consulting there, the company was doing about $10 million of business, with all the back-office accounting on a homegrown Informix 4GL solution. When it hired a full-time employee, it had grown to a $100 million; today, it's a household name and a $1 billion company. When I last saw this friend, he told me he managed six employees: one Informix DBA and five Oracle DBAs. I asked whether the company was changing to Oracle. It turns out the entire company runs on Informix except for one purchased solution that runs on Oracle; that system needs so much database attention that it takes five people to keep it going. For everyone who smiled at that story, here are more thoughts about why we all love Informix: * The database can always be online, even when doing a backup. * You don't have to turn the database off to add, alter, or drop a table. * If offers two-way bi-directional replication, without triggers or special SQL - the database simply does the replication for you. * Informix can scale from a single-user mom-and-pop shop implementation to handle millions of transactions daily. (I recently hosted a video presentation about a large Informix implementation, which you can see at http://www.watchit.com/informix.) Recently, I met with some users of a different database software. One customer had an Informix-based solution the company wanted to replace with that "O"ther database. The user, an IT director in a world-famous city, told me, "We don't like to use Informix because there's nothing to do, it's for amateurs." I held my tongue, but I'm letting it go now. I've heard of an Informix system that's been up for more than 1,561 days. How many systems "for amateurs" do you see that have been doing online transaction processing for more than 1,500 days (or even 150 days) without a restart? Informix (even under IBM) has never had great marketing (the cold, dead fish approach), but it's getting better. The last nine months have been a breath of fresh air from IBM. Now it's time for us to stand up and be counted. We have something special. I'm currently searching for the following: * Any company that gave up its Informix database for technical reasons. * Any person or company that doesn't believe Informix will be here for another 25 years. I'm taking bets, and my money is on a 50th anniversary. * Ideas about how to convince everyone that Informix can beat any database on equal terms, in speed, reliability, availability, and cost of ownership. Are you wondering why I called this column "10-10-25"? It's a good year: IBM announced Informix Dynamic Server 10, it's the 10th anniversary of the International Informix Users Group (IIUG), and the 25th anniversary of Informix. Stuart Litel is CTO of Kazer Inc. and President of the International Informix User Group. =================================================================== IIUG Insider Logo contest =================================================================== Send us a logo for the IIUG Insider and win an IIUG polo shirt! The IIUG is pleased to announce a contest for a new logo for the Insider. The winner will receive credit for their

> A few years back I ran into an old friend who took over a full-time Informix position at a company where I'd done the original consulting. When I started consulting there, the company was doing about $10 million of business, with all the back-office accounting on a homegrown Informix 4GL solution. When it hired a full-time employee, it had grown to a $100 million; today, it's a household name and a $1 billion company. > > When I last saw this friend, he told me he managed six employees: one Informix DBA and five Oracle DBAs. I asked whether the company was changing to Oracle. It turns out the entire company runs on Informix except for one purchased solution that runs on Oracle; that system needs so much database attention that it takes five people to keep it going. > OK, Stuart - I'll take the bait. Care to reveal which company this is ? Did your friend explain specifically why a single Oracle database system requires 5 DBA's ? Did you ask ? I would be interested in knowing what your friend attributed this to, because, even with a full 24x7 shift requirement in a mission critical environment, I can't think of any database system, Oracle or otherwise, that would need 5 DBAs to look after it. Is this, perchance, the same source of the information that told you "Until a few years ago, SAP had Informix embedded inside as it was needed regardless of which database the user employed." Speaking of friends, a friend once told me that the trick with BS is that it had to be more B than S to be successful. I couldn't possibly comment.

On Thu, 30 Jun 2005 19:07:27 -0700, Mark Townsend <markbtownsend@comcast.net> wrote: > >> A few years back I ran into an old friend who took over a full-time Informix position at a company where I'd done the original consulting. When I started consulting there, the company was doing about $10 million of business, with all the back-office accounting on a homegrown Informix 4GL solution. When it hired a full-time employee, it had grown to a $100 million; today, it's a household name and a $1 billion company. >> >> When I last saw this friend, he told me he managed six employees: one Informix DBA and five Oracle DBAs. I asked whether the company was changing to Oracle. It turns out the entire company runs on Informix except for one purchased solution that runs on Oracle; that system needs so much database attention that it takes five people to keep it going. >> > >OK, Stuart - I'll take the bait. Care to reveal which company this is ? >Did your friend explain specifically why a single Oracle database system >requires 5 DBA's ? Did you ask ? I would be interested in knowing what >your friend attributed this to, because, even with a full 24x7 shift >requirement in a mission critical environment, I can't think of any >database system, Oracle or otherwise, that would need 5 DBAs to look >after it. > >Is this, perchance, the same source of the information that told you >"Until a few years ago, SAP had Informix embedded inside as it was >needed regardless of which database the user employed." > >Speaking of friends, a friend once told me that the trick with BS is >that it had to be more B than S to be successful. I couldn't possibly >comment. Oh, so you've seen the most recent Oracle marketing scheme? JWC