RE: When It Couldn't Get Any Better
Take what Mark said with a very large grain of salt. Janet Perna legally couldn't kill Informix. As much as DA Maroon and others want to believe it, Janet made some statements to certain people about the future of Informix. Were she to overtly kill or attempt to kill Informix, there would have been a very expensive and messy class action lawsuit. Now that doesn't mean that Janet couldn't try to induce people to switch to DB2. You had/have two factors. There are several very large IBM and IDS users and a lot of OEM use of IDS which has kept it alive. IDS also has done well in the partner/channels space. Of course, the Informix sales team that covered the partners/channels were much better than the IBM sales team... Oh there's a lot that can be said, but alas, there's a lot that shouldn't be said. ;-) > From: spam@onlinedomus.net > Subject: Re: When It Couldn't Get Any Better > Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2008 19:05:13 +0000 > To: informix-list@iiug.org > > mark.scranton@gmail.com wrote: > > On Feb 28, 11:28 am, DA Morgan <damor...@psoug.org> wrote: > >>> Not that I'm flaming certain marketing folks within the IM pillar. They > >>> have their hands tied and are trying to do things that they can't do > >>> "through channels". > >> Why does it never occur to this group that IBM is not a stupid company > >> and is doing precisely what it decided to do when it acquired Informix. > >> > >> You may not like it that your personal playtoy is where it is. But IBM > >> didn't acquire Informix because it saw a great strategic opportunity > >> in having a second, competing, database product. > >> > >> In all of the years Informix has been an IBM product the behavior of > >> IBM has been consistent. And consistency is a clear indication that > >> they are perfectly pleased with where things are. > >> -- > >> Daniel A. Morgan > >> University of Washington > >> damor...@x.washington.edu (replace x with u to respond) > > > > Well said Daniel. I was there from the start - on the Informix team, > > writing a Redbook to help people transition from IDS to DB2 (we told > > them it wouldn't happen), and on the Worldwide team that did the IDS > > 10 tour(s). I agree about the consistency from IBM, whether we like it > > or not. I personally know that the initial plan was to move all IDS > > customers to DB2. That became clear over time that it wasn't going to > > happen, so everything started to change. Slowly, but it did. One of > > our poster-people (all pun intended) said that "Janet couldn't utter > > IDS"...well - I stood in Tokyo on the same stage with Janet - and all > > I talked about was IDS. So did Janet. At that point, it wasn't clear > > to all that IDS was here to stay, but tide was starting to turn > > already. IBM HAS adopted IDS as the OLTP engine - that has been made > > clear. This is a HUGE victory considering one of my first goals handed > > down by mgmt was to "help the IDS customers understand the value of > > transititioning to DB2." Of course, I didn't do that at all. All I > > said in the 18 cities tour I did right after the acquisition was > > "learn as much as you can about DB2, and then you can make an educated > > decision." Wasn't exactly what was wanted, but as always it was > > honest, technically pure, and gave the customers credit and respect > > for what they have learned (and loved) about the IDS architecture over > > the years. > > > > Mark Scranton > > Xtivia Inc. > > After reading your post I have the clear feeling that something has changed... > DA said exactly the opposite. And of course, people changed... > Anyway... My point it that things changed... and they are changing... and the > product is changing... > But of course, by DA point of view, we should not be talking about Informix as > a product by now... It should have been gone a few years ago... Keep trying... > But to be successful you should bring Oracle customers here... I'd say only > them will believe you by now... > > > Regards. > > > -- > Fernando Nunes > Portugal > > http://informix-technology.blogspot.com > My email works... but I don't check it frequently... > _______________________________________________ > Informix-list mailing list > Informix-list@iiug.org > http://www.iiug.org/mailman/listinfo/informix-list _________________________________________________________________ Connect and share in new ways with Windows Live. http://www.windowslive.com/share.html?ocid=TXT_TAGHM_Wave2_sharelife_012008