Re: Informix Directions

Michael Segel wrote in message <34D6545E.B5781BE2@segel.NO.SPAM.KINGOFMYDOMAIN.SPAM.NO.com>... >Tim Schaefer wrote: >> >> I'm currently hearing that Informix is abandoning the small business market >> and heading for the big systems only. >> >> Is this true? >> >While I am refraining from making a comment, I should point >out Mr. Finocchio's interview at Informix's web site. > >The exercise is left up to the reader. > >Has anyone found out if Informix has set a date for their >shareholder's meeting in May? > >-Mikey > >-- >#include <std_disclaimer.h> /* Mike Segel (MS385) */ >#include <No_Spam.h> >#ifdef OFFENDED_BY_CONTENT >The author takes no responsibility for this post. >Any resemblence to a coherent rational thought is purely coincidence. >-The Management. >#endif It's interesting. Bob talks several times about concentrating on the high end, and at the same time using NT. This is most interesting, because why would you use NT for the high end? 747 jets fly because a big enough engine is bolted on, but not everyone is thinking 747 just to fly. Informix where are you going with this? Several folks wrote me off-line. I'm surprised nobody else would talk about it in c.d.i. There appears to be a major misstep coming, and maybe not many see it. SQL Server 7.x is around the corner. This will dominate the landscape for the foreseeable future. If NT is owned once again by Microsoft, ub, how is Informix going to compete? I know how developers think. They will use what is in front of them, the easiest to acquire and work with. SQL Server will be in all the subscription CDs for the developer channel. Shops that want the all-MS bent will use SQL Server no matter how good something else is, simply because it's in front of them. Books will appear, and litter the book store with the new SQL Server. Nothing will come out for Informix. Informix has abandoned the small end, where all data bases are evaluated, so they don't plan for the sand under their feet to slip once the water from these other products hits the shore. With the onslaught of Oracle, what is in store for your developer community? Are developers going to stick with Informix when there's no job market for Informix? And then where will the DBA come from for the data base product nobody is using? Quite honestly I could still care less about extensible data types. I've found more than enough functionality in the basic data types in the 7.x engine for typical business needs. Generally it's a good idea to work with the lowest common denominator when designing systems. For mainstream computing, I doubt if I will ever use or see an ORDMS. In fact, SE is quite attractive for many things. If I look for SE-based functionality, there are plenty of other data base products available that will erode the interest in Informix. The interest wanes, and thus the mindshare, and then the marketshare, and thus, the end of Informix. Imagine how it works. Informix on the high end. SQL Server/Oracle/Whatever on the low end. Developers working with the low end want the same thing on the high end. So they develop on the low end something they know will scale up. Is this calculus? I'll do you a favor Informix. After you've thought small for a while, and then go out of business, I'll talk about you over drinks as one of the companies with one of the best data base products that ever was. About how your inability to see where the market is headed cost you your company. I'll talk about how your abandonment of the developer community alienated you from many shops, who found flying the friendly skies of Oracle and SQL Server was a safer move. Even though these products will perform less, and cost more in the long run, the folks that use them know they won't go wrong with management, because management understands where these products are headed, and trust the marketplace more than anything else. The developers and management agree, and the sale is done. Since you marketed only to management instead of the developer community, who in the final analysis will actually use the software, and make the final recommendation to management, you forgot half of the equation that Oracle and Microsoft figured out long ago. Best wishes to you, Informix, whatever it is you're doing, and wherever it is that you're going. Instead of ending up with mindshare and marketshare and a household name, you'll end up in the same byline as Ingres, and all the others that couldn't get it right. Tim === Tim Schaefer tschaefe@mindspring.com http://www.inxutil.com ICQ:6358805 #include <flatline.h>