Re: IDS version eligibility

I'm afraid I don't understand your question. I don't think the support model is different from Informix to DB2. When you purchase the product, your first year of maintenance is included in that price. So lets say you bought your Database engine (Either DB2 or IDS), on June 1, 2004. Thats your anniversary date. Until June 1, 2005 you have the right to upgrade your DB license to the next supported release. So in your example, if you own DB2 version 8.1.xxx, you have access to all the fix packs and upgrades. Now if version 8.2 were to go GA (General Availability) prior to June 1, 2005, you should have access to it. You need your support contract if you want to continue getting support past your anniversary date (1 year later). The thing that doesn't make sense is why you wouldn't have a support contract in place in the first place. Alexey Sonkin wrote: > Hi, everybody, > > With the recent enormous increase of the price for IBM/Informix support, > the following question arises: > What maximum databases server version the customer is eligible for > if he stops paying support fees? > > Previously, with the purchase if IDS, the customer also got a one-year > support > contract. That is, customer was eligible for all IDS versions released > during the > first year after purchase. > That means, if customer purchased 9.30uc1, most probably he is eligible to > upgrade to 9.30uc3. > > Now IBM is changing the support model to that available for DB2 customers. > AFAIK if DB2 customer bought version 8.1.0.0, he is eligible to upgrade to > any release level (like 8.1.5.0, that is any 8.1.x.x) withing the same base > version, > but not legible to upgrade to 8.2.x.x - support contract is required for > that upgrade. > > This model is very similar to MS support model: customer with SQL Server > 2000 > can download any service pack for free, but is not eligible to upgrade to > the next > 'Yukon' (not released yet) unless he purchases an expensive support > contract. > > Does it mean, that with DB2 support model, customer will be eligible to > upgrade > to any 'release level' of the current version (like from 9.30uc1 to 9.30uc7) > without > support contract, and support contract is only required to upgrade to 9.40? > > P.S. > What actually happened (please, correct me, if I'm wrong) > Previosly, there were 3 support levels for Informix customers: > 1. Assurance (upgrades without tech support) - 5% lic/year > 2. Tech support (upgrades + support) - 10% lic/year > 3. 24x7 support (upgrades + support + 'special' 24x7 advanced support) > - 30% lic/year > > Very few customers really needed extremely expencive 24x7 support; > for most customers, levels (1) or (2) worked perfectly. > > Now we have only level 3 at somewhat cheaper price - 20% lic/year. > That means, that for most customers IDS support became 2 or 4 times more > expensive. > > > ------------------------------------------ > Alexey Sonkin > > > > sending to informix-list