Re: IBM Data Management Technical Conference, Las Vegas, w/c 26th October

"Neil Truby" <neil.truby@ardenta.com> wrote in message news:bobc4v$1c4ovo$1@ID-162943.news.uni-berlin.de... > I saw a post last week asking for news from the conference, and asking who > was there. > > Well, I was there, as a member of the IIUG Board of Directors, helping man > the IIUG stand at the conference's EXPO. The Informix User group Leadership > Council (IUGLC) met on the Saturday prior to the Conference but, as I was > unable to get to Las Vegas until the Sunday, I can't comment on that. > > My *personal* impressions of the conference were: > > - A decent amount of Informix content, relatively well scheduled. Unlike > last year's conference the Informix content was well integrated into the > overall conference. > - I would say, from the Informix sessions I attended, that there was little > new, ie little that could not have been said last year. This is of course a A brief comment ... The reason for this is that we are still a bit too far from the 9.5 release to talk too much about new product content. So this was a very difficult conference for us to plan. Last year's conference was after 9.4 feature code freeze, so it was safe to talk about feature content. However, we are still over two months away from 9.5 feature code freeze, so it is still a bit too far out to get too much into new feature content. There is a significant amout of feature work being done in the 9.5 product, but we are still just a bit too far away from feature code freeze to discuss it too much. > reflection of the relatively dormant state of Informix product set > development: the engines are being enhanced but there is little IBM activity > around the associated development toolsets nor (as debated ad nauseam > previously) any direct advertising or much promotion of the Informix product > set. > - Having said that, there was one session on IDS 9.40 success stories, and a > number of sessions on the integration of Informix with other IBM products. > - There seems to be a general acceptance now that the battle for the > promotion and advertising of Informix as a separate product set is lost, and > that the IIUG needs to concentrate on advocacy with IBM on making the lot of > the remaining users as comfortable as possible. > > There were a couple of interesting workgroups, covered by confidentiality > agreements unfortunately, concerning the integration of I4GL into EGL; and > the impressions that Informix users and partners have on IBM's efforts to > make DB2 UDB more appealing to Informix customers. > > The Meet the Executives session was fairly lively, although with little of > the acrimony of last year, with IBM execs talking about the quality of > Informix support, marketing of Informix (!) and other topics. > > Finally, the IIUG AGM was held on the Tuesday evening. President Jerry > Hamilton spoke about the IIUG achievements during his year-and-a-bit of > office, and President-elect Stuart Litel talked about his view of the > challenges and opportunities for the future. The IIUG Directors Award, > presented to individuals who have worked on behalf of IIUG beyond the call > of duty, was this year awarded to former Informix User Group Programme > Manager Christine Shannon, and current IBM US employee and Informix > evangelist Mark Scranton. > > A full account of the IUGLC, IIUG AGM, and other people's impressions of the > conference can be found in the latest Insider, available also on the IIUG > website at http://www.iiug.org/news/insider/insider_31oct03.html. > > Neil Truby t:01932 724027 > Director m:07798 811708 > Ardenta Limited e:neil.truby@ardenta.com > > >

"Madison Pruet" <mpruet@comcast.net> wrote in message news:ZYZqb.100821$mZ5.670080@attbi_s54... > > "Neil Truby" <neil.truby@ardenta.com> wrote in message > news:bobc4v$1c4ovo$1@ID-162943.news.uni-berlin.de... > > I saw a post last week asking for news from the conference, and asking who > > was there. > > - A decent amount of Informix content, relatively well scheduled. Unlike > > last year's conference the Informix content was well integrated into the > > overall conference. > > - I would say, from the Informix sessions I attended, that there was > little > > new, ie little that could not have been said last year. This is of course > a > > A brief comment ... > > The reason for this is that we are still a bit too far from the 9.5 release > to talk too much > about new product content. So this was a very difficult conference for us > to plan. Last > year's conference was after 9.4 feature code freeze, so it was safe to talk > about feature > content. However, we are still over two months away from 9.5 feature code > freeze, > so it is still a bit too far out to get too much into new feature content. > > There is a significant amout of feature work being done in the 9.5 product, > but we are > still just a bit too far away from feature code freeze to discuss it too > much. Thanks for your interest in my comments, and your reply, Madison. I think that it is generally accepted that the conference fell at an awkward time between two releases, and there wasn't too much you can say. I could have added that there were several invitations from IBM technical and product management staff to contribute ideas to both IDS and DB2 feature requests. I meant my comments as part of a wider point. As others also observed, there seems to be a general acceptance, even by die-hards such as myself, that the battle to persuade IBM to actively market Informix to new clients, even to the SMB market where the Informix name is so strong, is lost. Instead, there is realisation that the best we can do with IBM is to articulate the interests of users sticking with Informix, and advocate for the best possible migration paths and features to be included in DB2 UDB for those customers choosing to stay with IBM. It follows from the above that the days of the killer app on, or fantastic quantum leap in, Informix tool technology, are likely to be gone forever. New functionality within IDS 9.5 and beyond is of course of great interest to existing clients, but it's not (IMHO) the same excitement as having a product still being marketed aggressively. That was the point I was trying to make.