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Highlights: Special conference discount for the IIUG Insider readers 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:
We are experiencing difficult times. It has an impact on all of us world wide and the IIUG is no different. The IIUG board is struggling with problems with our real jobs back home and simultaneously managing the IIUG organization. So far we are maintaining the level of service that you are used to and I am sure we will keep doing so despite everything. With a great deal of help from IBM we are setting out once again to deliver the best and biggest Informix conference in this century. This is an event that you cannot afford to miss, especially now. Nowhere else can you get this up-to-date Informix education, certification and access to the top Informix developers and support people all in one place. If you are planning to attend, read the next section — there is a pleasant surprise for the Insider readers! Gary Ben-Israel
Save $100 on your conference registration Dear Insider readers, I am delighted to offer the Insider readers a $100 discount when registering to the 2009 IIUG Informix Conference. This discount is valid only to the first 50 registrations and is valid until the end of March. So hurry and register if you don't want to lose this opportunity. To receive the discount just type INSIDER (case sensitive) in the registration code box on the conference registration page at http://www.iiug.org/conf/2009/iiug/register.php. You probably ran out to register. I can only hope you continue reading when you are back. I am looking forward to meet you all at the conference. Please look me up. Cheers, Gary
2009 IIUG Informix Conference, The Power Conference for Informix Professionals 
IIUG Informix Conference Update Join us in Kansas City for the second annual Informix Conference. 5 tracks, 88 technical sessions, Keynotes from IBM executives, Informix vendors, FREE Informix Certification and much more. You will also have lots of opportunites to network with fellow Informix fanatics, IBM Informix developers and support personnel. Here is the schedule full of fun for the week: Sunday April 26, 2009 6:00 - 8:00 PM - Welcome Reception in the exhibit hall. Great food and drinks for all! Following the Welcome Reception, the IIUG will be hosting a trivia event. Team up with your Informix friends for a few hours of competition and fun! Monday April 27, 2009 6:30 - 8:30 PM- Speaker/Developer Reception Join us in the Marriott Hotel for a party with all the attendees, exhibitors, speakers and the local IBM Informix Development and Support Staff from the Lenexa labs. The TOP Informix developers, support personnel and product managers will all be together in one place in a casual, conversation-friendly atmosphere. Tuesday April 28, 2009 - 7:00 - 10:00 PM Conference Party (offsite) More details to come soon! Go to the conference website and check it out! Pre-conference tutorials were announced the week of February 16th and all the details are on the conference website. http://www.iiug.org/conf/2009/iiug/ Cindy Lichtenauer To our valued Business Partners, We will be holding our second IBM Information On Demand (IOD) Conference for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) next June at the Estrel Berlin. With a target audience of 2,300 attendees representing leading organisations from across the region, this is the premier Information Management event in the 2009 business calendar, and we encourage you to mark yours now. This is a very key event for all our Business Partners — especially if you work with our Data Management, Enterprise Content Management, InfoSphere and Cognos products. This year we will be adding a specific Business Partner programme on the afternoon of Tuesday, 2 June, together with a Business Partner appreciation event that evening. Right now, we would like to offer the opportunity for you and your customers to speak at the Conference. In addition, our Call for Exhibitors and Sponsors is now available, so please register your interest now to secure a premier sponsorship package. Become a sponsor or exhibitor! The Conference also provides you, our Business Partners, with a range of unique sponsorship and exhibitor opportunities that are designed to maximise your organisation's presence at the event, and to showcase your solutions and services to this premier Information Management community. For more information, please take a look at the Call for Exhibitors and Sponsors: http://www.ibm.com/software/uk/data/conf/how_to/. Or alternatively, please contact Melanie Bessem at mtb.bessem@nl.ibm.com. For all other details about IOD EMEA Conference 2009, please take a look at our website: http://www.ibm.com/software/europe/data/conf Please also make sure that your customers don't miss out. Inform them about the event and suggest they visit the URL for more details. We very much look forward to welcoming you in Berlin! Tony Rummans Ivo Koerner Pawel Panecki
Advanced DataTools announces instructor led remote Informix training! Advanced DataTools is now offering web-based Informix Dynamic Server training classes. Everyone's budgets are tight this year. Save on travel costs and other expenses associated with training. Classes will be taught over the internet using VOIP and hands-on labs. The first class offered will be the "Advanced Informix IDS Performance Tuning and Optimization class" - May 18-21, 2009, 9:00 AM EST - 4:00 PM with a 2 hour break in the middle of the day. This live virtual class offers the following benefits:
This course is priced at only $1000 per student! More information on the class can be found at: http://www.advancedatatools.com/Training/OutlineInformixIDSPerfTuningOpt.html To register or for more information on Advanced DataTools Training call (703) 256-0267 x101 http://www.advancedatatools.com Sign up today! Advanced DataTools is your number one source for Informix Training. Customized/on site training also available. Assess and Save: Keep more money in your pocketIBM Professional Certification is the way for skilled IT professionals to demonstrate their expertise to the world. In this challenging economic climate, we are introducing a new way for you to become an IBM Certified Professional and keep more money in your pocket, Assess and Save! IBM offers online self assessment exams for each Information Management Professional Certification exam. These "practice tests" enable you to test your readiness for an exam for a minimal fee, helping you to be successful when you take the actual exam. With the Assess and Save Offer, candidates who purchase and PASS any Information Management Online Assessment Exam through Prometric Testing from February 1, 2009 to April 30, 2009 will receive a 50% off voucher good toward the purchase of the corresponding exam at the IBM Authorized Testing Provider, Prometric. That's $100 right back in your pocket! http://www.ibm.com/software/data/education/voucher.html?ca=FebAssess Instructor-Led Online Courses - now more versatile!Experience the new trend in training with Instructor-Led Online (ILO). ILO is now available in more scheduling options to fit in your calendar. Need to update your skills on a certain topic but faced with time and budget constraints? ILO Select provides targeted information in a packed lecture of three hours or less, at a much lower price than full training courses. ILO Flex Time offerings enable you to experience the full scope of ILO from anywhere in the world over several days so that you can balance both work and education. These two new ILO options give you the ability to enhance your skills when and where it is convenient for you. Sign up today! The IBM SQL Workshop (3E120) course provides an introduction to the SQL language and applies to both Informix and DB2. It is appropriate for students working in all Informix and DB2 environments, including z/OS, VM/VSE, iSeries, Linux, UNIX, and Windows. This basic course is ideal for anyone needing to write, support, or understand SQL queries, including end-users, programmers, application designers, database administrators, and system administrators. As a prerequisite, students should have basic computer literacy and editing skills. Database proficiency is not required! Upon completion, students will gain vital skills such as understanding the use of SQL arithmetic operations and scalar and column functions, coding SQL statements to retrieve data from a DB2 table, including the select, from, where, group by, having and order by clauses, and coding simple create table and create view statements. Enroll today! With Information Management Curriculum Guides The Information Management Training Curriculum Guides have been created to help provide you with a comprehensive listing of the training courses currently available in each product line of Information Management Software. These guides break courses down by job role, skill level, delivery method and duration. IBM Training courses will develop and broaden your expertise. Whether your skill level is beginner, intermediate, or advanced, you will accelerate your learning as experts take you through essential concepts and fundamentals. Download one or more of the guides and take the next step down the path to building and acquiring your Information Management Skills! Who doesn't love a bargain? The IBM Education Pack-online account, a prepaid electronic debit account, automatically saves you up to 12% on most U.S. public classes, on-site training, e-Learning and technical conferences. That's a 20% increase in savings compared to last year's Ed Pack discount levels. You can track your account online, so you'll always know how much you have to spend. Plus, we'll automatically notify you when your account is low, so you can always train for less. These new discount levels go into effect on March 3, 2009. Get all the details! Plan your 2009 Training In today's market, knowledge and time have become the two most valuable business assets. With IBM Training's Spring 2009 e-catalog, you'll spend less time browsing and more time planning your education. You can find the type of training you need that is relevant to you - fast! With this comprehensive new e-catalog, get all the details you need to plan your training, including class schedules and locations. You'll find the latest information on professional certification programs, IBM technical conferences, class history, hands-on labs, money saving offers, and much more. Become an expert! IBM Information Management Software Services consultants go beyond technology to consider business impact. They strive to understand our customers' ultimate business goals and use technology to gain a competitive advantage. By linking technological solutions and business success, Software Services consultants help drive customer innovation. Take advantage of their experience and expertise and discover how they can give your business that competitive edge you've been looking for. Check them out today!
New in DeveloperWorks Configure IBM Informix Dynamic Server with InfoSphere Change Data Capture for heterogeneous replication 16 Feb 2009 Deploy 4GL functions as Web services 12 Feb 2009 Create IBM Data Web Services using IBM Database Add-Ins for Visual Studio 2 Feb 2009 For more information go to DeveloperWorks — Informix: http://www.iiug.org/url/dw_informix.html Informix Dynamic Server (IDS) & VirtualizationIBM Just announced: All editions of IDS are now available and supported in a virtualized environment. Sub-capacity pricing is now available to all IDS V11.50 editions and corresponding components, helping you reduce costs and maximize your investments with server consolidation and reduced administration. IBM is responding to your tremendous interests in high availability and business continuity. With IDS V11.50, you will be able to deploy High-availability Data Replication (HDR) with no additional feature charge for the Workgroup Edition, deploying up to two secondary servers in either Idle standby or Hot active read mode. Hot active secondary servers are now eligible for sub-capacity pricing on the Processor Value Unit metric. IBM publishes a new IDS Proof of Technology (PoT) on Enterprise Replication!In mid-February IBM published another in a growing library of IDS PoTs titled "Discovering and Using Informix Dynamic Server Enterprise Replication Topologies." IBM IDS PoTs are one-day, customer-oriented events generally held in IBM locations world-wide that give customers the opportunity to "kick the tires" and evaluate one or more pieces of technology to understand how it works and the value it could have in their business. The events are free of charge and include an educational session followed by guided hands-on practice with the feature(s) in a virtual machine environment. Typically, a PoT session requires 5 or more confirmed attendees to be held. If your company has sufficient attendees, the class can be brought to you if a suitable local IBM location is not available. If not, the IBM coordinator will work with you to get other people in your area who might be interested in attending in order to hold the class. While the PoTs are taught world-wide, the materials are in English so basic read fluency is required. Some prerequisite knowledge of IBM Informix Dynamic Server is very helpful but not required. It is recommended that those attending have an understanding of data server technology, data server administration as well as general data programming. The labs will be executed in a Linux® environment so a basic fluency in Linux/Unix commands, including the vi editor is helpful. The following PoTs are currently available and more are coming shortly:
So how can you go to one of these PoTs? Contact your authorized IDS sales resource. If not with IBM, they can coordinate with IBM to hold a class in your area.
IBM to Deliver Software via Cloud Computing With Amazon Web Services ARMONK, NY - 11 Feb 2009: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a new agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS), a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc., to deliver IBM's market leading software to clients and developers. The new "pay-as-you-go" model provides clients with access to development and production instances of IBM DB2, Informix Dynamic Server, WebSphere Portal, Lotus Web Content Management, WebSphere sMash and Novell's SUSE Linux operating system software in the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) environment, providing a comprehensive portfolio of products available on AWS. vBusinesses today are looking for ways to quickly build, deploy and take advantage of the flexibility that cloud computing environments can bring. This is challenging for organizations that are constrained by limited resources, technical skills and capital, as they look to their IT infrastructure to help them gain a competitive advantage. IBM and Amazon Web Services are helping to address these challenges by making it easier for software developers to build solutions based on open standards and backed up by the necessary technical resources to help simplify the process. Effective immediately, IBM is making available new Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) at no charge for development and test purposes, enabling software developers to quickly build pre-production applications based on IBM software within Amazon EC2. The new portfolio will over time extend to include Service Management capabilities from IBM Tivoli software for Amazon EC2 to help clients better control and automate their dynamic infrastructures in the cloud. The IBM software images for full production running in Amazon EC2 will be launched in beta in the coming months, with pricing to be announced. All developers and customers will have the operational capability to run development and production instances of IBM software for an hourly price per instance. Additionally, customers will also be able to run their already-purchased IBM software on Amazon EC2. "IBM is offering yet another way for our partners and customers to build solutions that can help them meet their business goals," said Dave Mitchell, Director of Strategy and Emerging Business, IBM Software Group. "This relationship with Amazon Web Services provides our customers with a new way to use IBM software and broadens our distribution channels." We are pleased to be working with IBM to extend this new model for building and deploying applications to companies of all sizes," said Terry Wise, Director of Business Development for Amazon Web Services. "Extending IBM software to the cloud via Amazon EC2 will help even more businesses take advantage of the benefits of the reliable, scalable and cost efficient infrastructure in the cloud." The new development AMIs can be accessed by visiting the new IBM Cloud Space on developerWorks or the IBM section of the Featured Partners page. http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26673.wss
Attention all New York Area Informix users An attempt is being made to resurrect the wayward New York Area Informix Users' Group. In today's tight economy, user communities provide a priceless resource for you and your employers to network to find talent, to keep up with new product features and third party products, to share solutions to your everyday problems, and to produce and maintain contact with key resources in the user community for free or otherwise unobtainable help keeping your Informix servers alive and well. If you are interested in attending a meeting of the re-fledged (is that a word?) group, or at least want to be kept in the loop about meetings, please, contact Art S. Kagel at art.kagel@gmail.com and include your contact information and optionally your version and platform details and and your employer. Nothing will be shared outside the IIUG and the NYAUG organizers. Thanks, Art Proof of Technology will take place in Noisy-Le-Grand (Paris), 12 March 2009The purpose of this event is to discover features of IDS 11.50 through presentations and labs as MACH11 and Open Admin. We will discuss about migration too. All IBM customers are invited. The PoT and the presentations will be displayed in French only. The skills required to attend this event are a good knowledge of Informix and Linux in order to prepare for our labs on VMware Linux. To participate in this event just confirm to:
Should IBM Benchmark Informix? Responses to the January 2009 Insider Article Last month I gave survey results on why the IIUG community would like to see TPC benchmarks on Informix. So now the question is: What are the reasons for NOT benchmarking Informix? Jerry Keesee was recently asked about the need for Informix benchmarking at the January 29 Chat with the Labs: The Road Map of Informix. He pointed out a few good reasons why IBM does not want an Informix benchmark at this time.
IBM Database Magazine decided to follow our lead at The Insider by making benchmarks the topic of the monthly poll. The question posed is "How do you use vendor benchmarks when making purchasing decisions?" As of Feb 20, the results were:
To get the latest results, log in to http://www.ibmdatabasemag.com/ and go to the "Polls" section. It is important to understand that there are many different categories for benchmarks. An interesting one for Informix database would be the TPC-E On-Line Transaction Processing benchmark. From the web site http://tpc.org/tpce/default.asp "The TPC-E benchmark simulates the OLTP workload of a brokerage firm. The focus of the benchmark is the central database that executes transactions related to the firm's customer accounts. Although the underlying business model of TPC-E is a brokerage firm, the database schema, data population, transactions, and implementation rules have been designed to be broadly representative of modern OLTP systems." This is a good place for an Informix benchmark for IBM since there are no DB2 LUW results in this category. The problem is there are no results from Oracle either. Right now, the only database listed is Sql Server. So, until Oracle puts their results out there it is not logical for IBM to do so. I heard a rumor that this issue may have been discussed in some other forums that I do not monitor. If you have any comments you would like to send me on this article, please email them directly to me at kate@iiug.org. Kate Tomchik
Informix blogs and things
In response to your input, we have created a 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 its worldwide user community and IBM. The IIUG's membership database now exceeds 25,000 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.
For comments, please send an email to gary@iiug.org. |
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