RE: Support for Informix 7.24
That makes sense, Jim. However, as with most decisions in life there will be pros and cons to it. If you're not willing to meet the cost of upgrading your software, then that has to be balanced with the possibility of incurring a cost due to internal responsibility of maintenance of old code/systems, which raise with the removal of external support (in this case Informix). Infromix has the right to put a cap on support of old versions when it has demonstrably become economically infeasible to do so. Mr. Blatz, I also understand your predicament in terms of your personal lack of authority to decide how to move forward. What some of us are saying to you is that, even if you could get someone to say that they will support your system for the next 12/24 months (at what cost? and whatever the cost, would that be money well spent?), it may be better for your company to pursue upgrading the software now (at least get the licenses and put it on a test server). It offers three tremendous benefits. Firstly, you save time by making it possible to begin your migration now rather than 12/24 months from now (cost savings). Secondly, while you're performing the upgrade, you can get technical support from Informix for the new environment even if your application vendor doesn't give you support (why anyone would want to maintain this status quo is puzzling to me; it's like buying a car and keeping it while the last mechanic on Earth who knows how to fix it lies on his deathbed, hoping nothing goes wrong with the car). Thirdly, you save money on the upgrade. This is because if you allow the maintenance contract to lapse, when you decide to upgrade in 12/24 months, you'd have to pay the full purchase price for the software plus the mandatory first year of maintenance required with all new Informix license purchases. Document all the advice you get and then compare it to the pros and cons of remaining with your systems in place. Then present it to the decision makers. Best regards, Edmund Nigel Gall Senior Information Systems Specialist Process Plant Services Limited Atlantic Avenue, Point Lisas Industrial Estate Point Lisas, Couva, Trinidad & Tobago, W.I. Tel: (868) 636 2906 x 274 Fax: (868) 679 3770 -----Original Message----- From: jim lowry [mailto:lowryjim@hotmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2000 9:50 PM To: informix-list@iiug.org Subject: Re: Support for Informix 7.24 Ho Greg, I beg to differ. It can and often does make economical sense to stay on an older platform. First, if the application was part of a buyout of another company, and the buying company had to support the application. Sure they could write a new application; however, the man hours it might take may not be cost effective for the length of time they expect the application to be used. Second... Porting old code to newer versions may well be good for the programmers bank account it may not be good for the company, who now must hack the code (excuse me rewrite) to use the better tools that broke older tools. And as far as getting knowledge outside of Informix... just my cent and a haft >From: Greg <greg@fastlane.net> >Reply-To: Greg <greg@fastlane.net> >To: informix-list@iiug.org >Subject: Re: Support for Informix 7.24 >Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2000 19:48:47 -0500 > >No, I don't for a number of reasons. It doesn't make economic sense, and >they would have to have access to a lot of knowledge and tools and code >that >isn't available outside Informix. That said, wave enough money around, and >I'm sure somebody will claim to be able to do it. > >Two years ago, 7.24 probably was current. Today it isn't. It's a fast >moving industry. > >Nigel's recommendations seemed pretty sound to me. In all probability, >7.31 >should work fine. > >greg > >jblatz2@my-deja.com wrote: > > > I appreciate the replies and emails that I received on this. I got lots > > of advice on upgrading now and lectures on why we shouldn't be using > > obsolete software and hardware. > > > > Believe me this is not my decision or under my control. I wasn't really > > asking for lectures but for help. > > > > So once again - does anyone know of a consulting firm that would provide > > tech support for Informix products? > > > > For the record - we upgraded to 7.24 less than two years ago when > > Informix told us that this was the most current Y2K compliant version > > for our platform. They never for a moment implied that it was not the > > latest version or that it would be unsupported within the next year and > > a half. Also, they never notified us that it was going to become > > obsolete. When we payed our $100,000 last year for support they happily > > accepted it without a word of warning. > > > > In article <8qqu24$agk$1@nnrp1.deja.com>, > > jblatz2@my-deja.com wrote: > > > We have Online Dynamic Server 7.24. We are not in a position to > > upgrade > > > all of our applications for at least another year or two. > > > > > > I just found out that Informix no longer supports ver 7.24. I found > > it > > > out by accident, Informix never notified us even though we have been > > > paying them a fortune in yearly maintenance. > > > > > > Does anyone know of a third party company that provides hotline > > support? > > > We have been pretty lucky and have not needed support for some time, > > but > > > even one database corruption problem could bring us to our knees > > pretty > > > quickly. > > > > > > Thanks > > > > > > Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ > > > Before you buy. > > > > > > > Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ > > Before you buy. > _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com.