XPS

I heard something from IBM (sales) yesterday, which surprised me. I asked them how strong XPS was, in our country, and also in the US - and the sales rep told me that there are only 17 XPS customers world wide. I really thought there would be a lot more ... Dirk Moolman Database and Unix Administrator MxO Information Systems (HealthCorp) "People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use." sending to informix-list

I have worked for 8 cusotmer's in OZ for XPS. There can't be half of the world wide base in OZ!! "Dirk Moolman" <DirkM@mxo.co.za> wrote in message news:1117098609.d3bfc94d57badb636c9c788e8888ffdd@teranews... > > I heard something from IBM (sales) yesterday, which surprised me. I > asked them how strong XPS was, in our country, and also in the US - and > the sales rep told me that there are only 17 XPS customers world wide. > > I really thought there would be a lot more ... > > > > > > > Dirk Moolman > Database and Unix Administrator > MxO Information Systems (HealthCorp) > > > > "People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of > thought which they seldom use." > > > sending to informix-list

Dirk Moolman wrote: > I heard something from IBM (sales) yesterday, which surprised me. I > asked them how strong XPS was, in our country, and also in the US - and > the sales rep told me that there are only 17 XPS customers world wide. > > I really thought there would be a lot more ... > > You can do the same functionality in DB2 EEE, shared-nothing partitions with HA. It's very simple to implement, but poorly marketed, just like XPS! :-) The price is now something like 26K per processor, but IBM have now made their own DB2 people miserable with Power5 requiring fewer processors to do the work. So the DB2 guy is pushing a big sale based on a lot of CPU's, but the Power5 guy is pushing fewer CPUs to do the work. Nice little quandary they got themselves into. Incidentally I saw the back page of a recent Eweek magazine with an IBM ad that used the language "DB2 or Informix". Shocking to say the least. > > > > Dirk Moolman > Database and Unix Administrator > MxO Information Systems (HealthCorp) > > > > "People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of > thought which they seldom use." > > > sending to informix-list

"Data Goob" <datagoob@netscape.net> wrote in message news:Utvle.5$p5.0@fe82.usenetserver.com... > So the DB2 guy is pushing a big sale based > on a lot of CPU's, but the Power5 guy is pushing fewer CPUs to do the > work. Nice little quandary they got themselves into. But this is a "quandry" - I prefer the term "balancing act" - that applies even more to Informix resellers, because of Informix's pricing. The list price per cpu for an IDS 9 or 10 licence is about '34,000. The temptation is there then to skimp on processors, not for the hardware cost itself, which is relatively insignificant, but to keep down the database software cost. Since becoming p-Series sales accredited I have to say though that I am hugely impressed: we also sell HP9000 series but these Power 5 boxes really are the dog's bollocks, so maybe people are getting away with it because of the excellent hardware performance. I don't know what the answer is though, except maybe to cut the IDS price to at least reduce the software cost component ... >> Incidentally I saw the back page of a recent Eweek magazine with an IBM >> ad that used the language "DB2 or Informix". Shocking to say the least. Here in Blightly we have an ad every week in Computer Weekly, which I expect is, as most IBM press and TV advertising here, a re-run of a US ad, which is without any shadow of a doubt, or any attempt to disguise, an advert not for the "DB2 Information Management" brand, but for DB2 UDB v8. However this actually mentions Informix a couple of times too. The point was made several times yesterday at the UK Infobahn that awareness of Informix is fatally compromised by being advertising in the shadow of DB2 (brand or product). The IBM US speakers both pointed out, reasonably enough, that the situation is much better than it was, say, a year ago (when Informix would not get a mention at all), and that they hoped progress would continue to be made.

"Neil Truby" <neil.truby@ardenta.com> wrote in message news:3fo1v1F8h8niU1@individual.net... > "Data Goob" <datagoob@netscape.net> wrote in message > news:Utvle.5$p5.0@fe82.usenetserver.com... > >> So the DB2 guy is pushing a big sale based >> on a lot of CPU's, but the Power5 guy is pushing fewer CPUs to do the >> work. Nice little quandary they got themselves into. > > But this is a "quandry" - I prefer the term "balancing act" - that applies > even more to Informix resellers, because of Informix's pricing. The list > price per cpu for an IDS 9 or 10 licence is about '34,000. The temptation > is there then to skimp on processors, not for the hardware cost itself, > which is relatively insignificant, but to keep down the database software > cost. Since becoming p-Series sales accredited I have to say though that > I am hugely impressed: we also sell HP9000 series but these Power 5 boxes > really are the dog's bollocks, so maybe people are getting away with it > because of the excellent hardware performance. > > I don't know what the answer is though, except maybe to cut the IDS price > to at least reduce the software cost component ... > With most projects, the single biggest cost is the software. Fortunately here in OZ I can get DB2 cheaper than SQL Server (standard edition CPU) and Oracle (Standard Edition CPU) for a Workgroup Unlimited license. Though I am having disucssions on new Informix licenses so I can't say. >>> Incidentally I saw the back page of a recent Eweek magazine with an IBM >>> ad that used the language "DB2 or Informix". Shocking to say the least. > Haven't seen that one. > Here in Blightly we have an ad every week in Computer Weekly, which I > expect is, as most IBM press and TV advertising here, a re-run of a US ad, > which is without any shadow of a doubt, or any attempt to disguise, an > advert not for the "DB2 Information Management" brand, but for DB2 UDB v8. > However this actually mentions Informix a couple of times too. The point > was made several times yesterday at the UK Infobahn that awareness of > Informix is fatally compromised by being advertising in the shadow of DB2 > (brand or product). The IBM US speakers both pointed out, reasonably > enough, that the situation is much better than it was, say, a year ago > (when Informix would not get a mention at all), and that they hoped > progress would continue to be made. > > >