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Highlights: IDS 10 - IBM's flagship database for pure OLTP and Industrial-strength, embedded computing 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:
EditorialThis is the first Insider for 2006 and the first Insider of the new Board of Directors. For me this is my 12th issue -- actually the 11th, as JGP was in charge of the October issue. Our first board meeting will be held in February. We will continue to provide our traditional services: The IIUG Insider, The IIUG Web page, The IIUG SIGs (Special Interest Groups), The IIUG/IDUG conference and support for our local user groups. The February issue will include a report from our board meeting. We need your feedback, your participation and your help. If you have requests or suggestions please let us know. If there is any content you would like to read in the Insider please let me know. The December Insider was the first sent from the IIUG's new SUN Server. The new server is a great improvement in hardware but some of the software has implementation problems. Some of you received a corrupted issue of the Insider. It depends on your email program. We are working hard to fix all problems. If you receive a corrupted issue please let me know what the problem was and which email program you are using. You can always read the Web version in our home page. I wish you all a wonderful year. Gary Ben-Israel IDS 10 - IBM's flagship database for pure OLTP and Industrial-strength, embedded computingWe have been hearing it from IBM management in conferences and Informix Infobahns. Now you can read it in the IBM Web site: http://www-306.ibm.com/software/data/informix/ids10/ The latest release of Informix® Dynamic Server (IDS) - Version 10.0 - is IBM's flagship database for pure OLTP and industrial-strength, embedded computing. IBM IDS V10.0 delivers outstanding performance, reliability, scalability and manageability for enterprises and workgroups. IDS V10.0 offers the lowest total cost of ownership - providing high performance with low overhead while delivering a robust database platform for on demand businesses. IDS now supports rolling application upgrades when built using our industry-leading Enterprise Replication technology. With a full-featured relational database management system (RDBMS) platform, IDS offers extensive capabilities to meet unique business requirements with the speed of native database functions. IIUG/IDUG European conference surveyThis is a one question Survey. Would you attend the IIUG/IDUG conference in Rome October 9 - 13 2006? Click the link next to your answer:
Your input will help us make the right decision. Please spare a moment of your time give it to us. IIUG 2005 SurveyIntroduction The 2005 member survey was conducted during October and November 2005. The survey was web-based. While a fully open survey, publication of its existence was only advertised to IIUG members. At close 1070 responses were received. Purpose of the survey The purpose of the survey is to provide a comprehensive understanding of Informix users intentions with Informix and their relationship with IBM. A web-based data collection method was chosen so as to:
Implementation The survey was designed during mid 2005. Testing was completed in September and it went live in October. The survey was closed on the last day of November 2005. IIUG members were notified about the survey's existence in the IIUG publication "Insider". Members were also reminded in a series of email blasts leading up to the close of the survey. No attempt was made to validate that the respondent was an IIUG member. The responses can not be considered as a random sample as no sampling method was implemented. Results There were 1070 responses to the survey of which 93% of responses came from IIUG members. 5% of responses were from people who are not members of IIUG and 2% did not know their membership status. Highlights Following are some of the survey results. The full report can be found on the IIUG Web page.
Conference cornerIDUG 2006 - North America Go Further...with Informix at IDUG 2006 This will be year 2 of the IIUG participation in the IDUG conference. IDUG is the DB2 user group that has put on DB2 user conferences for many years. IDUG has partnered with IIUG to include an Informix user conference agenda managed by the conference planning committee (CPC). The CPC is comprised of volunteers who have been working hard determining the Informix presentations and speakers that will be the IIUG/Informix part. We have added a fourth track (last year in Denver there were 3 tracks) to the conference agenda to accommodate the over 50 technical sessions spread over 4 days. Additionally, there are 6 half day tutorials scheduled for May 7. These sessions (a.k.a. Educational Seminars or Ed Sems) are like mini training classes and cover a wide variety of Informix topics. There is an additional cost to attend the Ed Sems, but consider it money well spent for training. The conference is all of this and so much more - special interest groups, networking opportunities, vendor presentations and exhibits, expert panel discussions and keynote presentations by IBM executives. Start making your plans now to attend - May is only a few months away! For all of the conference details, visit http://www.iiug.org/conf and follow the link to the IDUG conference web pages. Be sure to check out the conference agenda, including an interactive schedule viewer and personal itinerary planner, to see the list of topics and presenters already lined up. The registration is live and the negotiated rates for the conference hotels are available on a first come, first served basis so don't wait too long! We are looking forward to seeing you there. Registration is now open. Register online or download a print-friendly version of the registration form. Once you register for IDUG 2006 - North America, volunteer to moderate a session through the Personal Itinerary Builder. Attention Vendors. Booth space is now being sold. Last years conference had the most Informix vendors of any conference event in years. For only about $3500 you get a 10' X 10' booth space to meet with the most Informix users in years at a major conference. For more information, contact cindy@iiug.org and she can direct you to Exhibit Hall. The IUGLC is back by popular demand!! The Informix User Group Leadership Council has not met for a couple of years due to lack of interest. However, we are going to revive it and have a IUGLC Meeting at the IDUG/IIUG NA Conference in Tampa, in May. More details to come in the next Insider. The IUGLC is a group of Local User Group leaders from around the world. So if you are a Local User Group Leader or interested in being one or interested in starting a Local user Group, please contact Cindy. If you have any questions or suggestions, please email Cindy Lichtenauer at cindy@iiug.org Conference Links: Online Registration: http://lyris.smithbucklin.com/t/471869/17174526/48315/17/ Printable Registration form: http://lyris.smithbucklin.com/t/471869/17174526/48331/17/ 2006 Schedule of Presentations: http://idugew.prod.web.sba.com/displaymod/itintro.cfm?conference_id=54 Information on Demand Live! Informix Acceleration Webcast for Business PartnersOur customers continue to demand solutions that optimize their information technology investments by taking advantage of existing infrastructure and in-house skills to boost productivity and reduce costs. Join us on Tuesday morning, February 7, 2006 to learn how you can take advantage of the latest marketing and sales offers designed to help the IBM Informix Business Partner community succeed in delivering this requirement to customers. Sign up today and discover how you can drive additional revenue and lower cost with Informix and IBM in 2006. This webcast will cover:
Featured speakers:
Date and time:
Register Today! If you're unable to attend the live broadcast but are interested in the content, take a moment to register and we'll send you the link to the replay as soon as it's available. This online event is open to IBM Informix Business Partners only. If you are not a member of IBM PartnerWorld but wish to attend the webcast, please email Michael Cohn at mcohn@us.ibm.com. Chat with the LabOur February Chat with the Lab will be Wednesday, February 8th at 11 AM Eastern Standard Time. The IDS Spatial DataBlade will be covered by Robert Uleman The Informix Spatial DataBlade brings all the significant features and benefits of IDS to location-based data. Many key business decisions involve location and proximity. The Spatial Datablade enables organizations to transform both traditional and location-based data into important information to help gain a competitive advantage. We will also cover the Geodetic DataBlade which enables customers to manage geospatial information referenced by latitude-longitude components. Please RSVP to: https://ww4.premconf.com/webrsvp/register?conf_id=4002355 Translated versions of IDS v10.0 ManualsThe IDS v10.0 Information Center now contains translated versions of many manuals. http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/idshelp/v10/index.jsp Translated languages include Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Czech, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Slovakian and Spanish. To view the list of translated publications, and for instructions on configuring your browser for non-English languages, go to: http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/idshelp/v10/topic/com.ibm.start.doc/translated.htm ...or view the "Translated Documentation" topic under the first topic entitled "Informix Dynamic Server v10.0." ATTENTION Informix PeopleSoft userThis is just a follow up to let the Peoplesoft/Informix community in on why I'm searching for current customers. I have recently requested certification for Tools 8.47 with IDS 10 FC3 through Oracle. The response was that there were no plans to certify PeopleSoft 8.47 with IDS 10 but may certify 8.49. 8.49 is not available and probably will not GA for another year. This does us no good since in the newer version of the application there are many tables that will exceed a 2k page row size. I had hopes of utilizing the new configurable page size in 10 to keep my disk usage from blowing through the roof. So this is a request to all PeopleSoft/Informix customers that would like to keep running on Informix that has upgrade plans to please let me know. Of course if your intentions are to upgrade. Please, take a few moments and submit a certification request with Oracle for IDS 10. With numbers there could be a chance. Remember there is power in numbers, so please contact me. The IIUG has setup a special e-mail address where I can be reached at peoplesoft@iiug.org If we get enough respondents we will also setup a special e-mail list courtesy of the IIUG for all to take part in and be informed. Please contact me and I will coordinate our efforts. Thanks! Darren Jacobs MySQL, once more...I did get some feedback from my previous article on MySQL in the November Insider (http://www.iiug.org/news/insider/insider_nov05.html#12) and I must admit some clarification may be required. There were mainly 2 sets of questions. Do you think MySQL tools are better than ServerStudio? No! ServerStudio is superior to most of the database tools I have seen so far. My statement was that "both (MySQL) tools are far beyond what one can find in excellent AGS ServerStudio"; please understand that beyond should really be behind, at the back, in the rear... I used "beyond" in a sarcastic way. ServerStudio (http://www.serverstudio.com/) has incredible features which provide excellent benefits to the user, the user being either a developer or a DBA. The new features of 6.0 include a graphical navigation in the database, à la hypertext, which is really great. I do not want to hurt anyone (anymore?); I use ServerStudio as a developer, not as a DBA. DBAs may also want to give a try to IIUG sponsor CobraSonic's tools (http://www.cobrasonic.com/). Why do you use MySQL? I use MySQL with coordination of a CMS package called Joomla (http://www.joomla.org). Joomla is a fantastic piece of Open Source software, which unfortunately runs only on MySQL. However, now that a PHP driver for IDS is getting really close to shipment (http://www.iiug.org/news/insider/insider_dec05.html#7), I am calling for volunteers to update the PHP database code for Joomla to support IDS. Bringing Joomla to IDS will create a very neat way of combining two very powerful products. If you are interested, send me an e-mail at jgp@iiug.org (IBMers having spare time are also welcome and we will protect their anonymity). Have a great and fantastic 2006! Jean Georges Perrin Sun Warms Up To IBM Open-Source DatabaseSun goes looking for an open-source database to use with JES -- and finds itself on Big Blue's doorstep. By Charles Babcock Sun Microsystems has always been dismissive of IBM's open-source initiatives. But finding itself in need of a database to add to its Java Enterprise System software lineup, Sun has swallowed its pride and said it will adopt an open-source database with IBM roots. Sun last week said it will offer Derby, a lightweight Java relational database, to Java developers to embed in applications so they can capture data and keep it readily accessible without relying on an outside database. Key parts of the Java Enterprise System, such as Directory Server and Identity Manager, would benefit from an embedded database. Sun will get Derby from the Apache Software Foundation, but it's based on the Cloudscape database, which IBM donated to the foundation for open-source use. IBM acquired Cloudscape in 2001 when it bought Informix Software. Sun's move isn't as surprising as it appears. The company has supported Derby's development alongside IBM as an Apache open-source project, and it counts 30 contributors to Derby from within its developer ranks. Derby "is a great fit for Java developers," says John Loiacono, Sun's senior VP for software. Sun is making all elements of the Java Enterprise System available as open-source software. Derby history Cloudscape Inc, an Oakland, California start-up, was founded in 1996 to develop Java database technology. The first release of the database engine, then called JBMS, was in 1997. Subsequently the product was renamed Cloudscape and releases were made about every six months. In 1999 Informix Software, Inc., acquired Cloudscape, Inc. In 2001 IBM acquired the database assets of Informix Software, including Cloudscape. The database engine was re-branded to IBM Cloudscape and releases continued, mainly focussing on embedded use with IBM's Java products and middleware. In August 2004 IBM contributed the code to the Apache Software Foundation as Derby, an incubator project sponsored by the Apache DB project. In July 2005 Derby graduated from the Incubator into the Apache DB project. Date processing in Informix Dynamic Server13 Oct 2005 Updated 22 Dec 2005 IBM® Informix® Dynamic Server has several functions that manipulate date and datetime types. You can exploit these functions to provide better processing and analysis of your business data. You can also add new functions that will simplify the solution of some date-based business problems. This updated version reflects some date processing related to the ISO 8601 standard. The standard-compliant functions were originally written by Jonathan Leffler as stored procedures. Their conversion to functions was a trivial task. Introduction A date is a complex piece of information. It represents a specific day of the year. You can group dates together by day of the week, month, quarter, and so on. The grouping allows you to compare results for specific periods from year to year. Informix Dynamic Server (IDS) provides some facilities to process dates. This article reviews the current functions and provides additional functions that can be useful. Jacques Roy (jacquesr@us.ibm.com), Technical Lead, IBM For the full article go to: http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/db2/library/techarticle/dm-0510rindex.php Migrate Now! - IBM Migration ToolkitMigrate Now! - IBM Migration Toolkit You need to be able to access all of your information wherever it resides. IBM Information Management Software protects your current database investment and delivers information on demand to ensure your information is integrated, comprehensive, uniform, analyzable and accessible all the time across all platforms. See how you can migrate your data from Oracle versions 8i, 9i, & 10g or Sybase SQL Anywhere version 9 using the IBM Migration Toolkit MTK 1.4 For the full article go to: http://www-306.ibm.com/software/data/db2/migration/mtk/ Promoting Customer References Simplified for IBM Business PartnersCustomer references are crucial tools in all aspects of the sales cycle. They can help create product awareness, generate sales leads, close business and enhance customer loyalty. IBM has drastically simplified the process for IBM Business Partners to feature and promote their businesses through customer references. In January 2006, IBM debuted the first phase of the new IBM Business Partner Client Reference submission form for IBM PartnerWorld members. This singular form will be used by all IBM Business Partners to submit references into the IBM Worldwide customer reference database (CRDB). It replaces forms previously used by SWG, Global PartnerWorld, PartnerWorld Industry Networks, IGS and Systems and Technology Group. The newly designed form is significantly easier to use. No more retyping Business Partner contact information. No more offline questionnaires to complete. Convenient pop up windows to define IBM terminology. Ability to save drafts and resume later. This process was made available by IBM Developer Relations and Global PartnerWorld. When you are ready to begin uploading your end user success stories via the new form, log in to: http://www.iiug.org/url/cust_reference_form.html ...using your IBM PartnerWorld ID and passcode. Complete the new customer reference form on the Global PartnerWorld site. An e-mail is generated and sent to your IBM channel sales representative or another designated IBMer as a recipient. An IBM contact then will copy and paste the client reference information into the WW CRDB. A third party vendor, Leopard Communications, may contact submitters to gather additional details before promoting BP references to the WW CRDB. Calendar of events
Useful linksIn 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 Closing and creditsThe International Informix Users Group (IIUG) is an organization designed to enhance communications between its worldwide user community and IBM. 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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