RE: Informix Roundup: 30 May
> Date: Sun, 31 May 2009 19:26:57 +0100 > From: obnoxio@serendipita.com > Ian Michael Gumby wrote: > > > > Getting a case study or a customer reference from an Informix > > customer? > > Shirley you jest! > > http://www.informix-zone.com/node/748 from here: > http://obotheclown.blogspot.com/2009/05/informix-roundup-27-may-2009.html > > Or did you mean some other kind of case study? > Ah where do you want me to begin. Did a quick first blush read of NJ's blog. Note: The press no longer needs to get an update from IBM as to their position on Informix because frankly everyone outside of existing customers and the IIUG has given Informix up for dead. (I kid you not! Thanks IBM!) Second qtr 13. Growth. Prior to Q1 of '09, Informix had been touted as having qtr/qtr and yr/yr 'double digit' growth rate. Only in Q1, they no longer said that and now just say 13 qtrs of growth. Not very positive thing to say, albeit, growth in Q1 is still growth, even though IBM's IM lost money. With respect to the branding, the DB2 blue blood has been thinned by all of the acquisitions. Each company that they've purchased doesn't want to lose their branding so it makes sense to finally recognize Informix as its own brand. Too bad it will not make a hill of beans difference because Ambush doesn't believe in marketing. Yeah thats right. Why market a product when its a comodity. (Of course I don't believe that databases are yet a commodity and hence I do believe that marketing efforts should exist. ;-) As to following the 'case study' and success stories... I notice that they are only web based blurbs and not the full court press that IBM does for certain success stories. I also notice that dates seem to be missing. (From following the link on Eric's site...) I just looked at one of Ron's 'wins' with NetworkIP so how stale is it when they say IDS 10? I followed another link and of course they list any 'success story that has the word "Informix" in it, so you have to read the article to see what they are highlighting. Again, a lot of these are just 'fluff' pieces and not the full deal when it comes to customer references and marketing collateral. Do you really want me to continue, or do you get the point that IBM is still well behind the curve when it comes to customer wins? The only reason you have any is because IBM has a couple of 'strong' partners. Well , ok maybe two of the partners are 'strong' when it comes to body odor. (Paul and Ron) ;-) And then there's Bell Micro. (Since I dont think I know anyone at Bell Micro, I can't really take a pot shot at them. :-) But I digress, all kidding aside, OnePoint, BellMicro and Oninit are what's keeping Informix in the game, not IBM's sales team. Of course your milage may vary. I've talked with a certain escapee from South Africa who's working in the US and he's telling me of a couple of personal wins he had... Here in the Midwest? Not so much. Moving on, the ROI calculator... not really impressive when you consider that you may or may not get 80% disk space savings and of course disks are cheap. Relatively speaking when you consider list price on the compression feature. Again Eric is spot on in that IBM is trying to pull as much revenue hence the break out the nifty bits and charge through the nose, unless you're a J level customer, and then IBM's on their hands and knees begging to keep you happy. (J - 90% anyone?) So what did I miss? BTW, I know a lot of Sun customers are breathing easy considering that IBM walked away from the deal and Sun is partnering with Oracle. Mark my words, this is one mistake that will bite IBM in the ass and will become more apparent in the next couple of years. ;-) But hey! What do I know? I mean I was never able to confirm the rumor that Gary Lloyd had caused the SEC to investigate me. ;-) -G _________________________________________________________________ Windows Live™: Keep your life in sync. http://windowslive.com/explore?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_BR_life_in_synch_052009