Informix in the world, need info
A user seeking evidence that IBM won't discontinue Informix received reassurance from community members. Key points: Informix versions 12.10, 11.70, 11.50 have no End of Support date set and follow IBM's 5+3 support model (minimum 5 years standard support plus 3 years extension). IBM has released 5 major versions since acquisition, contradicting 15-year rumors of discontinuation.
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Yesterday in my work they where choosing bbdd for a new program. I wasn't there, but they told me than when Informix came they said its a great database but they don't know if IBM will try to kill it in favour of DB2. I need straight facts that shows that is not true, links to IBM news, a list of big and famous places where Informix is used, the shinier the better as I'm afraid they don't choose because of tecnical qualities (yes, world is this sad) but for rumors and oracle golden brainwashing summer camps etc, etc.
"when Informix came they said its a great database but they don't know if IBM will try to kill it in favour of DB2" - Who said this? IBM or your co-workers? 12.10, 11.70 and 11.50 don't have an End of Support date set. You can see for yourself here: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/support/lifecycle/index_by_eos.html Informix is marked as Enhanced Support so you get a guarantee of 5 years of support after the release date (12.1 came out in 2013) plus an additional 3 years of support after End of Support date. IBM's Lifecycle Policy here: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/support/lifecycle/lc-policy.html "Over the past few years we have aggressively moved many of the products in our software portfolio to Enhanced '5+3' support - a minimum of five full years of standard support from the date the product release was made generally available by IBM, with the option to get support extensions for at least an additional three years following a product's EOS date for an extra charge set by IBM" So absolute worst case scenario is IBM decides to EOS Informix in March 2018 giving you until March 2021 of support under the 5 + 3 model, but I seriously doubt this worst case scenario will happen. Informix is alive and IBM isn't going to kill it in favor of DB2. They're making easy money on support renewals, why would they kill it? We've been hearing this crap about IBM killing Informix so they can sell more DB2 for what, 15+ years now and it still hasn't happened. Instead, IBM has released new major versions 10.0, 11.1, 11.50, 11.70 and 12.1 of Informix. As for big and famous places that use Informix some are more vocal than others about their use of Informix for competitive reasons. Have you heard of Cisco or China? They are pretty big and famous. You could also search for salary range for Informix DBAs in Bentonville, AR on indeed.com and then Google who employs Informix DBAs in Bentonville, AR. They're pretty big and famous. The Home Depot has sponsored and hosted some local user group events for Informix, so that might also tell you something. Good luck, Andrew -----Original Message----- From: ids-bounces@iiug.org [mailto:ids-bounces@iiug.org] On Behalf Of JACOBO BALBUENA Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2016 3:34 AM To: ids@iiug.org Subject: Informix in the world, need info [38033] Yesterday in my work they where choosing bbdd for a new program. I wasn't there, but they told me than when Informix came they said its a great database but they don't know if IBM will try to kill it in favour of DB2. I need straight facts that shows that is not true, links to IBM news, a list of big and famous places where Informix is used, the shinier the better as I'm afraid they don't choose because of tecnical qualities (yes, world is this sad) but for rumors and oracle golden brainwashing summer camps etc, etc. **************************************************************************** *** Forum Note: Use "Reply" to post a response in the discussion forum.
Oh, and IBM sold it to the Chinese govt as their standard db going forward. Think IBM will walk away from that? Carlton Doe dbaresrc@xmission.com Sent from my iPhone -- typos and all > On Oct 25, 2016, at 5:02 PM, Andrew Ford <andrew@informix-dba.com> wrote: > > "when Informix came they said its a great database but they don't know if > IBM will try to kill it in favour of DB2" - Who said this? IBM or your > co-workers? > > 12.10, 11.70 and 11.50 don't have an End of Support date set. You can see > for yourself here: > http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/support/lifecycle/index_by_eos.html > > Informix is marked as Enhanced Support so you get a guarantee of 5 years of > support after the release date (12.1 came out in 2013) plus an additional 3 > years of support after End of Support date. > > IBM's Lifecycle Policy here: > http://www-01.ibm.com/software/support/lifecycle/lc-policy.html > > "Over the past few years we have aggressively moved many of the products in > our software portfolio to Enhanced '5+3' support - a minimum of five full > years of standard support from the date the product release was made > generally available by IBM, with the option to get support extensions for at > least an additional three years following a product's EOS date for an extra > charge set by IBM" > > So absolute worst case scenario is IBM decides to EOS Informix in March 2018 > giving you until March 2021 of support under the 5 + 3 model, but I > seriously doubt this worst case scenario will happen. > > Informix is alive and IBM isn't going to kill it in favor of DB2. They're > making easy money on support renewals, why would they kill it? > > We've been hearing this crap about IBM killing Informix so they can sell > more DB2 for what, 15+ years now and it still hasn't happened. Instead, IBM > has released new major versions 10.0, 11.1, 11.50, 11.70 and 12.1 of > Informix. > > As for big and famous places that use Informix some are more vocal than > others about their use of Informix for competitive reasons. Have you heard > of Cisco or China? They are pretty big and famous. > > You could also search for salary range for Informix DBAs in Bentonville, AR > on indeed.com and then Google who employs Informix DBAs in Bentonville, AR. > They're pretty big and famous. > > The Home Depot has sponsored and hosted some local user group events for > Informix, so that might also tell you something. > > Good luck, > > Andrew > > -----Original Message----- > From: ids-bounces@iiug.org [mailto:ids-bounces@iiug.org] On Behalf Of JACOBO > BALBUENA > Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2016 3:34 AM > To: ids@iiug.org > Subject: Informix in the world, need info [38033] > > Yesterday in my work they where choosing bbdd for a new program. > I wasn't there, but they told me than when Informix came they said its a > great database but they don't know if IBM will try to kill it in favour of > DB2. > > I need straight facts that shows that is not true, links to IBM news, a list > of big and famous places where Informix is used, the shinier the better as > I'm afraid they don't choose because of tecnical qualities (yes, world is > this > sad) but for rumors and oracle golden brainwashing summer camps etc, etc. > > **************************************************************************** > *** > Forum Note: Use "Reply" to post a response in the discussion forum. > > > ******************************************************************************* > Forum Note: Use "Reply" to post a response in the discussion forum. >
Just in case I didn't make it clear: I dont think Informix goes down anyway, but I needed some kind on info to defend Informix future properly in my work. Half of the IT people I talk to don't even know what Informix is, even when where I live most of the public health system database is in Informix... Thanks Andrew Ford for the info, it was just what I needed.
For people who state IBM may kill Informix... IBM owns Informix for 15 years... That would be long enough to kill a product.... Companies don't kill products "just because". Companies kill products if they don't return money. Informix does. During that period we launched more major versions than Oracle (10, 11.10, 11.50, 11.70 and 12.0 - actually 9.4, but that was developed during Informix Inc. time). We expanded the platform support like no other vendor. We currently support the few Unixes left (AIX, Solaris - SPARC and INTEL -,HP-UX), several flavours of Linux (many in Intel, some "small devices" like Raspberry PI, Power (little and big endian) We have a roadmap (generic as any roadmap from any vendor). We only have one extra on top of enterprise version. It makes the license module clearer and avoids legal harassment on compliance processes. We don't activate payable features when users activate other features (big O does it for AFAIK when you reorganize, some sort of compression is activated). We have a clear and fair model for sub-capacity (virtualization) environment. We have, by far, a better technical support. I know I'm biased, but I work with customers that use other RDBMS and I see how they avoid open support tickets on other RDBMS ("it's useless") while we opens PMRs even for documentation issues. And if needed we get a special build will few questions asked. So, besides all the technical stuff, which your peers seem to already know (they referred to Informix as a "great database"), there's all of the above which translates into better value for money. Regards. On Wed, Oct 26, 2016 at 8:43 AM, JACOBO BALBUENA <jacobo.bc@gmail.com> wrote: > Just in case I didn't make it clear: I dont think Informix goes down > anyway, > but I needed some kind on info to defend Informix future properly in my > work. > Half of the IT people I talk to don't even know what Informix is, even when > where I live most of the public health system database is in Informix... > > Thanks Andrew Ford for the info, it was just what I needed. > > > ************************************************************ > ******************* > Forum Note: Use "Reply" to post a response in the discussion forum. > > -- Fernando Nunes Portugal http://informix-technology.blogspot.com My email works... but I don't check it frequently... --94eb2c061556925717053fc147a4
Some more info... IBM does not publicly mentions customers using their products. But you can find videos of people from DHL, Paddypower and Cisco on youtube referring to Informix. On IBM site you may find some success stories. A good place to see Informix customers is the page for ServerStudio... It's an Informix only product and they show up a list of customers.... very interesting names there. As for Oracle brainwash... Just mention their own products that recently started supporting Informix. These include GoldenGate and Oracle Data Integration. Why on earth are they supporting a "dead" database?! And also on Oracle, how about their own blog articles telling us how good for Informix SLOWaris is?: https://blogs.oracle.com/partnertech/entry/ibm_informix_server_12_10 Regards. On Tue, Oct 25, 2016 at 9:33 AM, JACOBO BALBUENA <jacobo.bc@gmail.com> wrote: > Yesterday in my work they where choosing bbdd for a new program. > I wasn't there, but they told me than when Informix came they said its a > great > database but they don't know if IBM will try to kill it in favour of DB2. > > I need straight facts that shows that is not true, links to IBM news, a > list > of big and famous places where Informix is used, the shinier the better as > I'm > afraid they don't choose because of tecnical qualities (yes, world is this > sad) but for rumors and oracle golden brainwashing summer camps etc, etc. > > > ************************************************************ > ******************* > Forum Note: Use "Reply" to post a response in the discussion forum. > > -- Fernando Nunes Portugal http://informix-technology.blogspot.com My email works... but I don't check it frequently... --001a11434274741464053fc16a60