PRESS:Informix in the News

List of Informix related articles. Format: PUBLICATION "Article Name" Summary of Article [Date, Location in Publication, Author] Informix in the News --------------------------------- (10/21/97) INFOWORLD "Informix to improve Web ROLAP support" Informix is preparing for the launch of its next version of MetaCube, scheduled for January 1998. Key to the upgrade to MetaCube 4.0 is allowing users to obtain the same functionality in Web implementations as in client/server environments, according to Informix's Jon Kraft. "The vow on the part of Informix is that with Version 4.0, they will leapfrog the Web-based technology of [Information Advantage and Microstrategy]," said Robert Moran, analyst at the Aberdeen Group. Informix is also looking to differentiate their product through its sampling feature, which draws conclusions about entire data sets via extrapolations. Currently, MetaCube costs $25,000 per server-sized CPU with $1,500 per user. (10/20/97, pg. 21, Paul Krill) INFORMATIONWEEK "Knowing what we know -- In whatever form" This article provides a comprehensive overview of knowledge management -- defined as the process of capturing and distributing a company's collective expertise to produce the largest return on investment. Database vendors, including Informix, position their universal server as central to knowledge-management networks. The database's ability to manage various forms of data makes it an ideal knowledge management platform, according to Informix's John Bartlett. Bartlett also points to Informix's entire server line as a basis for knowledge management. INFORMIX-Universal Server is extended by third-party or corporate developers to support virtually any data type. "What companies are looking to do in knowledge management is capture and make available corporate assets," said Bartlett. (10/20/97, pg. 62, John Foley) WEB WEEK "GeoCites: Managing a million Web sites" In this case study on Informix customer GeoCities, the company's CTO and Vice President of Operations John Rezner, describes the reasons why GeoCites revamped and revised its IT infrastructure, choosing INFORMIX-OnLine Dynamic Server to hold all member information and demographics. Virtual "plots of land" are given to users of GeoCities who are then placed in communities that match their interests. GeoCities -- one of the most popular sites on the Internet, averaging 15 to 20 million impressions daily -- chose Informix because it needed a large system that could be managed with a limited staff, according to Rezner. (10/6/97, cover, Todd Spangler) INTERNET WORLD "A community for couch potatoes" This article profiles Informix customer ChatTV, the nation's first chat service that provides television viewers with dedicated chatrooms for discussing programs during, before an after a broadcast. Using INFORMIX-Universal Server and DataBlade modules, Informix partner and systems integrator Future Focus helped generate HTML pages, comparing ChatTV user input with a choice of objects stored in the database. "We had to integrate chat with a database, a Web application, and a daily data feed," said Tim Ash, president of Future Focus. "[Until we created it,] this type of application had not been built yet." The DataBlade module decreased the amount of programming work needed to maintain the application over time, according to Ash. Targeting the 98 million homes that watch television an average of seven hours a week, ChatTV President Craig Moncreiff expects the company to deliver compelling reasons why people should be interested in using the Internet to talk about their favorite shows. (11/97, pg. 53, James Evans) INTRANET MAGAZINE "Informix provides Visual Basic data management" In this supplement of NETWORK WORLD, Informix's Sandra Bateman participates in a Q&A with Senior Editor Peggy Watt, answering questions about Informix's intranet, the teamwork needed to build a successful site and her views of the Web. As the company began to grow, Informix needed a Web infrastructure to open communication and make it easier for disparate departments to gain access to information, according to Bateman. The resulting intranet, called Informix News Network (INN), includes OneSource -- a repository of sales and marketing materials for use by staff and partners -- and hundreds of other published pages of which content is maintained by the people who created it. Informix uses an Intranet User Group, consisting of representatives from each department to Beta test new ideas. "I love the Web because it's opening a whole new sense of community that we need in the business world." (10/97, pg. 26, Peggy Watt)