IBM changed the pricing and packaging for Informix on Juli the 20th. You'll find further details on the websites listed below:

• IIUG: New Informix Packaging and Pricing
• Andrew Ford: The New Phone Books's Here! Informix Repackaging and Repricing - Part Duex
• Fernando Nunes: Informix Editions revisited / Versões Informix revisitadas
• Carlton Doe: Compare the Informix Version 11 editions

I personally don't like the focusing on the Windows and MAC platform that much and would be happy to see the price attractive Choice Edition on Linux as well. Informix is the best database on Linux and the MACH 11 architecture allows the creation of low cost database clusters on this platform. Windows and MAC are niche markets for Informix from my point of view. I would be happy to be proofed wrong but I don't believe that we'll see mass deployments of Informix on Windows or MAC platforms in the foreseeable future.

So why limiting the price attractive Choice Edition to Windows and MAC only ?

This only leads to an even more complicated range of different Informix Editions to choose from. Yes, this Informix Edition range is flexible and the license limits are definitely more generous than those from comparable competetive products. But you need a clever and aggressive marketing to communicate the cost advantages of Informix to the market. As of today I didn't see any official press release from IBM about the new Informix Editions and how Informix will be positioned as database of choice for the midmarket. So the word about Informix is still only spread inside the Informix community and the rest of the market doesn't take any notice of it (:-

If IBM wants to attack Microsoft SQL Server with Informix, than Linux is the perfect backend platform for this. It will be difficult for Informix to compete with Microsoft SQL Server on the Windows platform from my point of view.

Good to see that some fresh blood reduces the average age of the Informix community :-)

• Nick Geib- Enhancing the Informix database to meet the changing needs of businesses today

IBM has published a brand new Redbook about migrating from Microsoft SQL Server to IBM Informix.

• Migrating from Microsoft SQL Server to IBM Informix

From the table of contents:

• Chapter 1. Introduction
• Chapter 2. Architecture overview
• Chapter 3. Migration methodology
• Chapter 4. SQL considerations
• Chapter 5. Database schema and data migration
• Chapter 6. Application conversion
• Chapter 7. Informix configuration and administration
• Appendix A. Terminology mapping
• Appendix B. Data types
• Appendix C. Function mapping
• Appendix D. Operator mapping
• Appendix E. Administrative and monitoring task mapping
• Appendix F. Database server utilities
• Appendix G. SQL limits

An excerpt from the preface:

In this IBM® Redbooks® publication, we discuss considerations and describe a
methodology for transitioning from Microsoft® SQL Server 2008 to IBM
Informix®. We focus on the topic areas of data, applications, and administration,
providing information about the differences in features and functionality, including
data types, data manipulation language, data definition language, and stored
procedures. Understanding the features and functionality of the two products can
assist you develop a migration plan.

IBM has put together an excellent list of valuable resources for IBM Informix business partners and all other Informix interested parties.

You'll find the Wiki entry here:

• Quick Reference Tool for Informix Business Partners

While checking the Informix URL List for dead links, I discovered a valuable URL from Informix Tech Support that provides helpful information as well as tips and tricks around Informix:

• Informix Problem Resolution (Tech Notes)

If you are new to Informix, check this URL as it contains a lot of small and handy tips around Informix that are updated frequently.

Unfortunately it seems that those tech notes are not delivered as a RSS feed or at least I couldn't find it. If somebody knows if such a RSS feed is provided by IBM Support, please let me know, so I could add the feed to Informix Zone as well as planetIDS. Thank you !

(german content)

Im Newsletter-Archiv befindet sich die neueste Ausgabe (07/2010) des INFORMIX-Newsletters.

Inhaltsverzeichnis der Ausgabe Juli 2010:

• Aktuelles
• TechTipp: SERIAL / SERIAL8 / BIGSERIAL
• TechTipp: SEQUENCE
• TechTipp: ONCONFIG - SEQ_CACHE_SIZE
• TechTipp: DRINTERVAL bei RSS
• Hinweis: Ultimate- Growth- Innovator-C- Developer Edition
• Anmeldung / Abmeldung / Anmerkung
• Die Autoren dieser Ausgabe

• Ausgabe Juli 2010

(French Content)

• Editorial
• Nouvelle politique de packaging et de prix pour les produits Informix.
• Retour sur l’IIUG Informix Conference 2010
• Résultats du Concours d’optimisation UGIF
• Lettre de Robert D. Thomas, Vice President, Information Management, IBM Software Group
• Informix 11.50.xC6 certifié pour SAP
• Technique: Reconstruction de sysmaster lors d’une migration en 11.50.xC6
• Technique : Dynamic Listen Threads
• Technique: ALICE Le tuning automatique des Btscanners
• Technique : Cache des statistiques du Buffer Pool.
• Derniers articles
• Liens Utiles
• Informix Videos sur YouTube
• Informix blogs
• Abonnement / Annulation / Avis
• Les contributeurs de ce numéro

2eme trimestre 2010

Take me to the French Newsletter Archive...

We have heard it so many times from IBM: "No we won't ever ever advertise individual products...."

However it seems to me that for certain products IBM finds subtle ways to bypass their own policy:

• http://db2news.wordpress.com/2010/06/22/db2-advertising-campaign/

Excerpt of the Advertisement Text:

"What exactly does a benchmark mean? For the last five years, IBM DB2® has spent more time
at the top of three of the industry’s leading performance benchmarks than Oracle and Microsoft
combined..."

This is DB2 advertising isn't it ?

According to the blog entry this advertisement will appear in the following publications:

• Wall Street Journal
• New York Times
• San Francisco Chronicle
• San Jose Mercury News
• Business Week
• Forbes
• Fortune
• Information Week

So the product name DB2 is getting out to all the CIO's and other upper management people. Why isn't Informix mentioned in this advertising ? The extremely high customer satisfaction would have been an excellent point to complement this advertisement.

IBM, we are now waiting for some Informix advertisement ! Or are some products more equal than others ?

For all of you working with Informix in combination with IBM Websphere, the following IBM RedPaper might be interesting and helpful. It covers the definition of data sources and contains a good description for performing those tasks in Websphere with IBM Informix as database backend:

When an application or WebSphere® component requires access to a database, 
that database must be defined to WebSphere as a data source. Two basic 
definitions are required. First, a JDBC™ provider definition defines an 
existing database provider, including the type of database access that it 
provides and the location of the database vendor code that provides the 
implementation. The second requirement is a data source definition that 
defines which JDBC provider is to be used, the name and location of the 
database, and other connection properties. This paper shows how to create 
these definitions.

IBM RedPaper: Accessing Databases from WebSphere

If you think about creating database powered Geospatial solutions, the following presentation from Mark Ashworth (IBM Informix Extensibility Architect) might be interesting for you:

• Geospatial for Defense and Border Security

• Date: Tuesday, July the 13th
• Time: 1.5 hour, 10:30 AM Pacific, 0:30 PM Central, 1:30 PM Eastern, 6:30 PM London, 7:30 PM Berlin/Paris
• Title: Best Practices for Running Informix in VMWare vSphere Virtual Environments
• Speaker: Sreeni Paidi (IBM)

You can register for the webcast here

                        
IBM Informix is voted #1 in customer satisfaction and it is IBM's 
flagship database solution for embedded database systems. VMware 
vSphere is the most widely deployed, production-ready software suite 
available on commodity hardware for optimizing and managing IT 
environments through virtualization. 

In this chat with the labs session we will talk about the best practices 
in configuring and scaling Informix in a VMWare vSphere 4 environment. 
We will discuss how to leverage the benefits of server virtualization to 
achieve near-native database performance with minimal overhead. We will 
also talk about how you can gain throughput scalability by running multiple 
virtual machines on a single physical server.

Jerry Keesee, director of Informix worldwide will introduce the call and 
Sreeni Paidi, Informix Enablement Consultant, Technology Ecosystems will 
be our technical speaker.

Presentation material will be available at www.ibm.com/informix/labchats 
prior to the event. 

I wasn't, until very recently, aware of this extremely useful set of RSS feeds. I hope that somebody finds them useful!

(Eric, you might also want to put it up on this site somewhere?)

Date:
June 23, 2010, 12:00 PM EST, 9:00 AM PST

Speakers:
Larry Hargrove, Global Sales and Solutions Executive for Service Provider Software, IBM
Sally Hartnell, Worldwide Marketing Manager for Informix and solidDB, IBM

Registration:
Meeting Communications Industry Imperatives with the Right Data Management Framework

Content:

Because of intense competition and demands from consumers, Communications Service 
Providers and Equipment Providers alike, are looking for ways to accelerate 
deployment of new services and increase average revenue per user (ARPU). This 
webinar will discuss the critical role of the data management framework for meeting 
these challenges in wireless as well as wireline environments, and key considerations
for ensuring a service delivery environment will not cost too much money, will not 
result in vendor lock-in, and will remain flexible to suit changing standards and 
needs.

This presentation features IBM.s Worldwide Sales Leader of Telco Industry Software, 
together with the worldwide marketing lead for the IBM Informix and solidDB offerings. 
These subject matter experts will present:

* Key industry drivers that are influencing Next Generation Networks (NGN.s) and 
  shaping IBM's software framework and Information Agenda for the Communications industry
* The critical role and requirements of data management in NGN service delivery
* How IBM Informix keeps costs low for OEMs, ISVs, and end-users alike with reliable and 
  hassle-free data management
* How the relational, in-memory database capabilities of IBM solidDB provide micro-second 
  response times, high transaction throughput, and sub-second failover, and the benefits 
  of using this functionality as a front-end cache to accelerate access to 
  performance-critical data stored in Informix 

Advanced Data Tools hosts a series of webcasts covering Informix Performance Tuning. The webcasts will be held by IIUG Board of Directors member and IIUG Award Winner Art Kagel.

Here you can register for those webcasts:

• Advanced Data Tools: Informix Performance Tuning Webcasts

(german content)

In Ergänzung zur Workshop-Nachlese hier noch Links zu den Präsentationen sowie weitere Fotos von Stammtisch und Workshop:

• Vorträge der Referenten
• Fotos vom IUG-Workshop & IUG-Stammtisch

Der 55. Workshop der Deutschen IUG findet am 26.10.2010 in den Räumen der SIC Software Industrie Consult GmbH in Dortmund statt. Das Thema des Workshops lautet: Data Warehouse und Business Intelligence mit Informix. Agenda und Referenten werden ca. 6 Wochen vor dem Workshop bekanntgegeben.

(german content)

Im Newsletter-Archiv befindet sich die neueste Ausgabe (06/2010) des INFORMIX-Newsletters.

Inhaltsverzeichnis der Ausgabe Juni 2010:

• Aktuelles
• TechTipp: Bitmap Pages / oncheck -pp
• TechTipp: ONCONFIG - MAX_FILL_DATA_PAGES
• TechTipp: System Requirements und Recomended Fixes
• TechTipp: SMI - Sysmaster Interface – sysbufpool - Cache-Statistik je Bufferpool
• TechTipp: INFORMIX im Zusammenspiel mit OpenSource
• Versionsinfo: 11.50.xC7 ist verfügbar
• Termin: IBM PartnerCamp 2010 am 6. und 7. Juli in Stuttgart
• Web Fundstück: INFORMIX Lizenzrechner
• Hinweis: IBM Training - Geförderte Weiterbildung
• Info: Bericht zum 54. IUG Workshop in Stuttgart
• Anmeldung / Abmeldung / Anmerkung
• Die Autoren dieser Ausgabe

• Ausgabe Juni 2010

Mark Scranton - an Informix veteran and evangelist - is back with a new website:

• http://www.marksinformix.com

It is good to see Mark back on the Informix frontline. The Informix Zone wishes Mark a successful start !

(german content)

Die virtuelle IBM-Konferenz bietet einen Überblick zum IBM Data Management Portfolio. Dabei liegt ein besonderer Fokus auf den beiden IBM Datenbanken DB2 und Informix. Unter anderem berichtet die Firma Network IP - ein führender Anbieter from Telekommunikations-Diensten in den USA - über ihre durchweg positiven Erfahrungen mit der IBM Informix Datenbank, die das Herzstück ihrer IT bildet.

Darüberhinaus gibt es zahlreiche Präsentationen, die Möglichkeit interaktiv (via Chat) mit Produktverantwortlichen von IBM in Kontakt zu treten sowie einen Vortrag von Jerry Keesee, dem Chef der Informix-Entwicklung.

• Hier geht es zur Anmeldung für die virtuelle IBM-Konferenz: Data in Action

Am 15. Juni 2010 findet die virtuelle EMEA Konferenz "Data in Action" statt.

In der virtuellen Ausstellung werden Data Management Produkte und Lösungen 
präsentiert. Neben weiterführenden Informationen im Download Bereich können 
Sie direkt mit den IBM-Experten und Entwicklern im Online-Chat Ihre Themen 
diskutieren. 

Lernen Sie mehr über die Trends im Data Management Markt und erfahren Sie wie
Sie von den Data Management Lösungen der IBM profitieren können. Und das alles 
ganz bequem und ohne Reisekosten online von Ihrem Arbeitsplatz aus!

Nutzen Sie diese virtuelle Konferenz, um sich zum Data Management Portfolio auf 
den aktuellsten Stand zu bringen und auch um Kundensituationen und Geschäftschancen 
zum Thema aktiv weiterzuentwickeln.

• Date: Wednesday, June the 16th
• Time: 1.5 hour, 8:30 AM Pacific, 10:30 AM Central, 11:30 AM Eastern, 4:30 PM London, 5:30 PM Berlin/Paris
• Title: Best Practices for using Auto-update stats
• Speaker: John Miller (IBM, STSM and Informix support Architect)

You can register for the webcast here

                        
Don't miss this opportunity to get better understanding so can effectively 
utilize Auto Update Statistics to eliminate redundant work for the DBA. 
Understanding what Auto Update Statistics does and how it can find 
performance bottlenecks for the DBA and correct them without waking up the 
DBA. Learn about the different modes and ways of tuning Auto Update Statistics 
to operate the best way for your environment.
                        
Jerry Keesee, director of Informix worldwide will introduce the call and 
John Miller, STSM and IBM Informix support Architect will be our technical 
speaker.
 
Presentation material will be available at www.ibm.com/informix/labchats 
prior to the event. 

As a follow up on my german posting about the new Informix pricing and packaging announcement, you'll find some links below with more detailed information about these exciting IBM Informix offerings:

• Rajesh Nair: We are Informix again - Names , prices and packaging
• Rajesh Nair: Informix Innovator-C: Bring out the Innovator in you , no purchase required!
• Fernando Nunes: New Informix editions, Bargain time ?
• Pradeep Kutty: New Informix Packacking
• Andrew Ford: Need a free database ?
• Mark Jamison: Installing Ulitmate-C Edition (on Mac)

The article from Rajesh Nair contains a helpful overview graphic about the limitations in the different Informix editions.

This has been a good week for Informix !