IIUG Insider (Issue #23)
21 March 2003
Other Issues
Highlights: Prez Letter, 4GL & ISQL 7.32, Download Updates, IBM
News, and More...
Welcome to the International Informix Users Group (IIUG) Insider! Designed
for IIUG members and Informix user group leaders, this publication contains
timely and relevant information for the IBM Informix community.
Contents:
- Letter from IIUG President, Jerry Hamilton
- Along with IDS 9.4, IBM Launches 4GL and ISQL 7.32
- New IBM Informix Metacube ROLAP Option v4.21
- IIUG Software Download News and Updates (IDS 9.4 Coming!)
- IIUG Launches German and French Language Forums
- BusinessWeek Magazine: "The New Big Blue"
- Computerworld Interviews Janet Perna, IBM Database Chief
- Accelerating Data Integration Efforts with DB2 Info. Integrator
- IBM Training, Support and Consulting News
- Useful Links
- Closing and Credits
Letter from IIUG President, Jerry Hamilton
This letter provides a membership update and concerns the most recent
IIUG Board meeting, the January and February surveys that captured
membership priorities for IIUG and their Informix product direction,
as well as a recent meeting Jerry had with IBM Executives.
It is now posted for your reading pleasure at http://www.iiug.org/news/letter/jh_17mar03.html.
Along with IDS 9.4, IBM Launches 4GL and ISQL 7.32
On the coat tails of the IDS 9.4 launch, IBM has informed ENews that
it is also launching 4GL and ISQL 7.32. These products are expected to
allow users currently on IDS 7.x databases to take full advantage of
the latest function-rich IDS 9.4 server release.
4GL 7.32 offers superior IDS 9.x server compatibility with features
that support new SQL data types INT8, BIGINT, SERIAL8, and NCHAR/
NVARCHAR. This release also supports the important IDS 9.x Long ID
feature that allows handling of identifier names up to 128 characters
in length.
Another touted advantage is highly efficient memory utilization by way
of the new Dynamic Arrays 4GL 7.32 feature.
For more information, please visit http://www.ibm.com/software/data/informix/tools/4gl.
Special Promotion
For a limited time, direct customers in the Americas can buy or renew
4GL 7.32 and/or ISQL 7.32 licenses or maintenance and get a 20% saving
on other productivity tools from IBM.
The tools this special offer applies to are:
- DB2 Web Query*
- DB2 Table Editor*
- IBM Office Connect Web Edition
*Both DB2 Web Query and DB2 Table Editor are certified with IDS 9.x.
For more information, please visit http://www.ibm.com/software/data/informix/promos/informix_license.html.
New IBM Informix Metacube ROLAP Option v4.21
ENews was informed by IBM that IBM Informix MetaCube ROLAP Option V4.21
now supports windows XP and later releases of UNIX and Informix
databases. The product became available last week, 14 March 2003.
For additional information, please visit http://www.ibmlink.ibm.com/usalets&parms=H_203-067.
IIUG Software Download News and Updates (IDS 9.4 Coming!)
One of the most commonly enjoyed IIUG membership benefits is free access
to IBM Informix and compatible partner software. In fact, our most
recent addition was Servermetrics, a monitoring and performance analysis
tool for IDS, which over 300 IIUG members are taking advantage of.
Before month end, IDS 9.4 will be available as well. More is to come.
Meanwhile, the following software is immediately available:
- Informix Dynamic Server (IDS) 9.3 for Linux or Windows 2000
- Informix Standard Engine for Linux or Windows 2000 (10 Dec 2002)
- Office Connect for Windows
- Four Js full development 90-day evaluation version
- IBM Informix CSDK Version 2.60 for various platforms
- Informix User Conference 2002 presentations
- Server Studio from AGS
- Informix Online 5.20 for Linux, Personal Edition
IIUG Launches German and French Language Forums
IIUG has further extended its service offerings by creating two new
special interest forums for general Informix discussion: "IIUG-Deutsche"
(iiug-fra@iiug.org) is for the German speaking community, while "IIUG
Francophone" (iiug-deu@iiug.org)" is for the French speaking community.
IIUG member may access this service by visiting http://www.iiug.org/members, login as usual (see the personalized login at the bottom of this
message), go to "Subscribe to E-Mail Lists" and check all the mailing
list you have interested in. You can also access the forum through http://www.iiug.org/forums.
Non IIUG members can join the organization at no charge by visiting
http://www.iiug.org/join .
We encourage you to share this information with French and German
speaking colleagues and friends who use IBM Informix products.
BusinessWeek Magazine: "The New Big Blue"
On a regular basis, IIUG ENews publishes items about IBM and its
product portfolio, which include marketing and technical information.
Last week BusinessWeek magazine carried a long article about IBM
titled "The New Blue", with a teaser paragraph that reads "Lou Gerstner
saved Big Blue. Now it's up to new CEO Sam Palmisano to restore it to
greatness".
It talks about IBM CEO Sam Palmisano, his changing organization, "On-
Demand computing" and how Palmisano's IBM will become the iconic
company it was some time ago.
The article isn't technical. There is no reference to databases
(Informix or DB2), no XML, no app server, no source or script code...
However, it is an excellent article about discovering the Blue
philosophy and the Blue strategy, now centered on "On-Demand computing".
You can find the article at http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_11/b3824001_mz001.htm
Computerworld Interviews Janet Perna, IBM Database Chief
Janet Perna, general manager of IBM's data management division, says the
company expects sales of content management software to corporate users
to become nearly as large as database sales are within a few years. http://www.computerworld.com/databasetopics/data/story/0,10801,79282,00.html
However, the interview also includes a couple of Informix-related
snippets:
A new software offering from IBM is designed to address corporate
requirements for integrating structured, semi-structured, and unstructured
information effectively and efficiently. This includes Informix databases
(IDS, XPS and Red Brick) as well as DB2, Oracle, Microsoft SQL, Excel,
Sybase and more.
DB2 Information Integrator will be the first product available to Informix
customers based on the IBM Xperanto project -- an IBM research and
development effort to help customers integrate information. Based on open
standards and a mission to help customers better leverage their IT
investments, the IBM information integration products will allow customers
to access and integrate diverse and distributed data in all formats.
Data Federation is made possible by DB2 Information Integrator to create
new applications that integrate data stored in Informix with data from
Oracle, Sybase, SQL Server, Teradata, XML files, Flat files, Messages
queues, Web Services and ODBC databases. In addition, DB2 II enables new
applications to use DB2/UDB APIs and SQL, but keep the data in Informix
IDS, XPS and Red Brick.
Data Placement enables co-existence by replication of data from Informix
IDS into DB2 or from DB2 into IDS. In addition, to/from replication is
supported for other sources such as Oracle, Sybase and MS SQL Server.
This software addresses integration efforts based upon your data
environment.
IBM has provided the following announcements related to their training,
technical support and consulting offerings:
a) Register today for developerWorks Live and get a free DM Certification
Exam! Join us in New Orleans on April 9th-12th for developerWorks Live!
Your conference package includes one opportunity to take an IBM
Professional Certification exam at the conference for no additional cost.
You may schedule and take subsequent tests at the conference for
additional fees. For more details or to register visit:
http://www.ibm.com/events/ibmdeveloperworkslive/details.html
b) Become an IBM Informix Dynamic Server Performance Tuning Expert! Are
you based in the US or Canada and are an experienced IBM IDS
administrator that has taken all the training courses in your area of
expertise? We would like to present you with a new challenge, custom
designed for professionals like you, the IBM Informix Masters Series.
For a limited time, Masters Series Workshop, IBM Informix Dynamic
Server Advanced Performance Tuning (MW-729), normally only available in
Denver, CO, is now available in three key locations, Atlanta, GA,
Washington D.C. area and in Denver, CO. For more information on this
exciting opportunity or to enroll, please visit: http://www.ibm.com/services/learning/us/catalog/informix/all.html#Masters
c) The Education Center for IBM Software Program is a cross-brand
education channel powered by IBM Business Partners. The IBM ECIS
initiative provides training and enablement designed to help companies
grow information technology skills. IBM ECIS addresses the need for
rapid employee training to sustain competitive advantage. For more
information please visit: http://www.ibm.com/software/data/education/ecis.html
d) Two new service offerings are now available for customers who
purchase IBM Finance Foundation for Capital Markets, Finance Foundation
for Capital Markets Trial Implementation Service and Finance Foundation
for Capital Markets Implementation Planning Service. For more
information please visit: http://www.ibm.com/software/data/services/pdfs/oltp-ref-catalog.pdf
In response to your input, we have created a new page on the IIUG web site
containing all the links we used to include. Please find it at
http://www.iiug.org/quicklinks.html.
The International Informix Users Group (IIUG) is an organization
designed to enhance communications between IBM and its worldwide
user community. IIUG's membership database now exceeds 16,000
entries and enjoys the support and commitment of IBM's Data
Management division. Key programs include local user groups and
special interest groups, which we promote and assist from launch
through growth.
