Considering moving away from Informix
A small UK company questioned whether to keep paying annual Informix Assurance/OpenLine maintenance (roughly £2,700/yr) on SE 5.10, 4GL RDS 4.20 and SQL 4.20, since it had barely used support and received no notices of fixes or upgrades, and wondered if migrating to another database was wiser. No formal resolution, just advice: consider pay-per-incident support, register free on Informix's TechInfo site for patch/update notifications (minor upgrades free, major ones often only cost the support difference), buy support direct from Informix rather than an unresponsive reseller, and weigh migration/rewrite costs since Oracle/Sybase aren't cheaper — though MySQL/PostgreSQL were mentioned as free self-supported options.
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Hi, We have been quoted the following - price in UK sterling without VAT: Renewal of annual Informix Assurance for SE V5.10 32 User Runtime for year commencing 01.07.2000 price: 865.00 Renewal of annual Informix Assurance for 4GL RDS V4.20 32 User Runtime for year commencing 01.07.2000 price: 585.00 Renewal of annual Informix Assurance for SQL V4.20 32 User Runtime for year commencing 01.07.2000 price: 585.00 Renewal of annual Informix OpenLine (with Telephone Support via reseller) for SE V5.10 Single User Dev. for year commencing 01.07.2000 price: 215.00 Renewal of annual Informix OpenLine (with Telephone Support via reseller) for 4GL RDS V4.20 Single User Dev. for year commencing 01.07.2000 price: 245.00 Renewal of annual Informix OpenLine (with Telephone Support via reseller) for SQL V4.20 Single User Dev. for year commencing 01.07.2000 price: 215.00 For a SME like ourselves the costs of renewing these licenses is very high. In the last two years I have not called the reseller or Informix for support other than to procure an upgrade for Year 2000 compliancy of the software. Also, in the last two years, I have not received any communication from the reseller or Informix with regards to available fixes, upgrades or other product information. In this respect, I do not feel that my company is getting value for money. Given that these costs are supposed to be met annually, it is beginning to look a very expensive development platform and I am seriously considering moving to another environment. Would anybody out there care to comment on the costs of licence renewal? Am I being unreasonable? If I paid up, should I be entitled to move to a newer release without incurring further costs? Any view/comments would be extremely very welcome. Cheers ta, Sticky Pudding.
If you haven't used support for that long, it might be more financially feasible to use the pay-per-instance support. Frankly, it does seem somewhat expensive for SE 5.x, but then, what do I know... In article <397455ec.23187383@news.globalnet.co.uk>, xxx@xxx.xxx wrote: > Hi, > > We have been quoted the following - price in UK sterling without VAT: > > Renewal of annual Informix Assurance for SE V5.10 32 User Runtime for > year commencing 01.07.2000 price: 865.00 > Renewal of annual Informix Assurance for 4GL RDS V4.20 32 User Runtime > for year commencing 01.07.2000 price: 585.00 > Renewal of annual Informix Assurance for SQL V4.20 32 User Runtime for > year commencing 01.07.2000 price: 585.00 > Renewal of annual Informix OpenLine (with Telephone Support via > reseller) for SE V5.10 Single User Dev. for year commencing 01.07.2000 > > price: 215.00 > Renewal of annual Informix OpenLine (with Telephone Support via > reseller) for 4GL RDS V4.20 Single User Dev. for year commencing > 01.07.2000 price: 245.00 > Renewal of annual Informix OpenLine (with Telephone Support via > reseller) for SQL V4.20 Single User Dev. for year commencing > 01.07.2000 price: 215.00 > > For a SME like ourselves the costs of renewing these licenses is very > high. > > In the last two years I have not called the reseller or Informix for > support other than to procure an upgrade for Year 2000 compliancy of > the software. > Also, in the last two years, I have not received any > communication from the reseller or Informix with regards to available > fixes, upgrades or other product information. In this respect, I do > not feel that my company is getting value for money. > > Given that these costs are supposed to be met annually, it is > beginning to look a very expensive development platform and I am > seriously considering moving to another environment. > > Would anybody out there care to comment on the costs of licence > renewal? Am I being unreasonable? > > If I paid up, should I be entitled to move to a newer release without > incurring further costs? > > Any view/comments would be extremely very welcome. > > Cheers ta, Sticky Pudding. > -- # unrm / ksh: unrm: not found # man cpio Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.
Anonymous troll: Bonk, bonk, get back under your bridge. -- --------------------------------------------------------- Steven Hauser email: hause011@tc.umn.edu URL: http://www.tc.umn.edu/~hause011 ---------------------------------------------------------
Hi, Some years ago, we were at the same cross-road situation. If I remember well, we took the following points into account : 1. Prices comparaison with similar products, licences, support, etc. 2. Migration cost : transforming programs, or even re-writting the entire business application. 3. We had a rather stable production situation. We weren't sure that we could get a similar situation with a new environment, at least at the beginning. We made our choice, and today we run IDS, getting our customers satisfied (what else can you ask ?). Hope it helps. Regards, OM. <xxx@xxx.xxx> a 'crit dans le message : 397455ec.23187383@news.globalnet.co.uk... > Hi, > > We have been quoted the following - price in UK sterling without VAT: > > Renewal of annual Informix Assurance for SE V5.10 32 User Runtime for > year commencing 01.07.2000 price: 865.00 > Renewal of annual Informix Assurance for 4GL RDS V4.20 32 User Runtime > for year commencing 01.07.2000 price: 585.00 > Renewal of annual Informix Assurance for SQL V4.20 32 User Runtime for > year commencing 01.07.2000 price: 585.00 > Renewal of annual Informix OpenLine (with Telephone Support via > reseller) for SE V5.10 Single User Dev. for year commencing 01.07.2000 > > price: 215.00 > Renewal of annual Informix OpenLine (with Telephone Support via > reseller) for 4GL RDS V4.20 Single User Dev. for year commencing > 01.07.2000 price: 245.00 > Renewal of annual Informix OpenLine (with Telephone Support via > reseller) for SQL V4.20 Single User Dev. for year commencing > 01.07.2000 price: 215.00 > > For a SME like ourselves the costs of renewing these licenses is very > high. > > In the last two years I have not called the reseller or Informix for > support other than to procure an upgrade for Year 2000 compliancy of > the software. > Also, in the last two years, I have not received any > communication from the reseller or Informix with regards to available > fixes, upgrades or other product information. In this respect, I do > not feel that my company is getting value for money. > > Given that these costs are supposed to be met annually, it is > beginning to look a very expensive development platform and I am > seriously considering moving to another environment. > > Would anybody out there care to comment on the costs of licence > renewal? Am I being unreasonable? > > If I paid up, should I be entitled to move to a newer release without > incurring further costs? > > Any view/comments would be extremely very welcome. > > Cheers ta, Sticky Pudding.
xxx@xxx.xxx wrote: > > Hi, > > We have been quoted the following - price in UK sterling without VAT: > > Renewal of annual Informix Assurance for SE V5.10 32 User Runtime for > year commencing 01.07.2000 price: 865.00 > Renewal of annual Informix Assurance for 4GL RDS V4.20 32 User Runtime > for year commencing 01.07.2000 price: 585.00 > Renewal of annual Informix Assurance for SQL V4.20 32 User Runtime for > year commencing 01.07.2000 price: 585.00 > Renewal of annual Informix OpenLine (with Telephone Support via > reseller) for SE V5.10 Single User Dev. for year commencing 01.07.2000 > > price: 215.00 > Renewal of annual Informix OpenLine (with Telephone Support via > reseller) for 4GL RDS V4.20 Single User Dev. for year commencing > 01.07.2000 price: 245.00 > Renewal of annual Informix OpenLine (with Telephone Support via > reseller) for SQL V4.20 Single User Dev. for year commencing > 01.07.2000 price: 215.00 > > For a SME like ourselves the costs of renewing these licenses is very > high. > > In the last two years I have not called the reseller or Informix for > support other than to procure an upgrade for Year 2000 compliancy of > the software. Well, that alone was worth several thousand pounds UKS! > Also, in the last two years, I have not received any > communication from the reseller or Informix with regards to available > fixes, upgrades or other product information. In this respect, I do > not feel that my company is getting value for money. Just go to the Informix WEB Site, get a TechInfo login (free) and subscribe to tech updates. You will get email whenever significant problems are discovered, worked around, or solved. Then you can use your upgrade privelege to upgrade. Minor upgrades are free, most major version upgrades only require paying the difference in support. > Given that these costs are supposed to be met annually, it is > beginning to look a very expensive development platform and I am > seriously considering moving to another environment. Bad idea. > Would anybody out there care to comment on the costs of licence > renewal? Am I being unreasonable? Yes. Oracle and Sybase are not cheaper and SQL Server, mysql, and PostGreSQL are not as capable. > If I paid up, should I be entitled to move to a newer release without > incurring further costs? Yes depending on the nature of the upgrade. > Any view/comments would be extremely very welcome. > > Cheers ta, Sticky Pudding. Art S. Kagel
Hello Sticky Pudding, A few years ago we had the same problem. We paid x amount of dollars and no news from anybody. What we found out is that the reseller never paid Informix for the support (obviously support goes through the reseller). What we ended up doing is to leave the reseller and go directly with Informix. The price might be higher but you get more information about the new release. Pay per instance might be a good alternative (like mars1972 wrote). Do not bother change your environment, it will give you more headaches. Ciao Francois lahaye.hogue@videotron.ca xxx@xxx.xxx a 'crit dans le message <397455ec.23187383@news.globalnet.co.uk>... >Hi, > >We have been quoted the following - price in UK sterling without VAT: > >Renewal of annual Informix Assurance for SE V5.10 32 User Runtime for >year commencing 01.07.2000 price: 865.00 >Renewal of annual Informix Assurance for 4GL RDS V4.20 32 User Runtime >for year commencing 01.07.2000 price: 585.00 >Renewal of annual Informix Assurance for SQL V4.20 32 User Runtime for >year commencing 01.07.2000 price: 585.00 >Renewal of annual Informix OpenLine (with Telephone Support via >reseller) for SE V5.10 Single User Dev. for year commencing 01.07.2000 > >price: 215.00 >Renewal of annual Informix OpenLine (with Telephone Support via >reseller) for 4GL RDS V4.20 Single User Dev. for year commencing >01.07.2000 price: 245.00 >Renewal of annual Informix OpenLine (with Telephone Support via >reseller) for SQL V4.20 Single User Dev. for year commencing >01.07.2000 price: 215.00 > >For a SME like ourselves the costs of renewing these licenses is very >high. > >In the last two years I have not called the reseller or Informix for >support other than to procure an upgrade for Year 2000 compliancy of >the software. > Also, in the last two years, I have not received any >communication from the reseller or Informix with regards to available >fixes, upgrades or other product information. In this respect, I do >not feel that my company is getting value for money. > >Given that these costs are supposed to be met annually, it is >beginning to look a very expensive development platform and I am >seriously considering moving to another environment. > >Would anybody out there care to comment on the costs of licence >renewal? Am I being unreasonable? > >If I paid up, should I be entitled to move to a newer release without >incurring further costs? > >Any view/comments would be extremely very welcome. > >Cheers ta, Sticky Pudding.
The free systems MySQL and PostrgreSQL are both getting pretty good now. You support them yourself - but then you do get all the source code. Some independent people also do paid support. All depends on your needs I guess... Best regards, Paul Paul Sherwin Consulting 22 Monmouth Road, Oxford OX1 4TD, UK Phone +44 (0)1865 721438 http://www.psherwin.strayduck.com Mobile +44 (0)7931 578334 mailto:psherwin@strayduck.com Pager +44 (0)7666 797228