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Highlights: We are proud of Informix and grateful for our loyal community - Robert D. Thomas 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:
In the highlight section you will find a letter to the IIUG community by Robert D. Thomas, Vice President, Information Management, IBM Software Group. Rob kept his promise and presents IBM's three-year vision for Informix. We are not just bystanders. Our support to this plan is a factor in its success. So please read the letter carefully and ask yourself what you can do for Informix. The IIUG activity is peaking in the next month. We are electing the IIUG board of directors. The elections started on March 22 and will end on April 5. Your vote is important. The results will be officially declared on April 19. The new board will start its term on April 28 at the last day of the IIUG Informix conference. This will be the third IIUG Informix conference. The content and the quality of speakers are unmatched in any other event. The networking with IBM executives, developers and support is more efficient, and the atmosphere is unforgettable. The education you will receive is worth much more than your investment,not to mention all the other benefits. At the conference we will have a Q&A session with IBM executives. You can find more details in the conference corner. If you have any questions please send them to me or hand them to any CPC or Board member at the conference. I'm looking forward to meeting you all at the conference. Gary Ben-Israel
We are proud of Informix and grateful for our loyal community - Robert D. Thomas To Our Informix Community and Clients: I would like to start off this letter by telling you about George Dantzig. I don't know him personally and have never had the chance to meet him, but I find his story quite interesting. George Dantzig was a student at Stanford University. Like many of us, George did not know exactly what he wanted to do with his life after school, but he was motivated and inspired to do something great. Ultimately, he decided that he wanted to start with a position on the Stanford faculty. Earning this position required that he ace his final exam. On the morning of the test, he was awakened by the sound of his roommates. He had slept through his alarm clock and was laying in bed, 20 minutes after the exam began. He ran across campus, in the clothes he wore the night before, and stormed into the test room late. When he sat down, he noticed six problems on the test and two additional problems on the board. He worked through the six problems and felt pretty good about his progress. However, as he moved to the two problems on the board, he hit a dead end. Once everyone else turned in their tests, he pleaded with the professor to give him more time to work on the two problems from the board. The professor graciously gave George until midnight to complete the problems. Come midnight, to George's dismay, he turned in his test, having only solved 1 of the 2 last questions. The next morning George was awakened by a phone call from his professor, praising George for his incredible accomplishment. He had solved 1 of the 2 problems on the board! George did not know that when the professor passed out the test to the class, he had written 2 problems on the board, that were not possible ("not even Einstein had been able to solve them"). George did not have the knowledge (or the sense) to know what was possible that day he walked into the classroom. Said differently, he was not biased or influenced by what the so-called experts believed was possible. George believed, and delivered greatness. As I pen this first letter to the Informix Community (our Clients, Partners, and Users), I find myself in a similar situation to George. I don't claim to be an expert in Informix or to have had a long track record with the technology (I don't!). I am not biased by the could-have's and should-have's that have littered the history of Informix (I have read about them though). However, I do have the optimism of a person that has assessed this with a fresh perspective. I believe in the promise of this technology and the business. I, along with IBM, am committed to the success of Informix. If you are willing to invest a few minutes reading this, I will share with you how we plan to invest for the growth of the technology. *** As I have spent the last few months researching, learning, and talking to many people about the state of Informix, one thing has stuck out to me: an enduring passion that has always existed for the technology. Clients love it, partners love it, users love it...everyone loves it! Coupled with this unsurpassed passion, I have had some issues raised to me. Many of the issues that I confronted were valid. Is Informix strategic to IBM? How do we increase skills around Informix? Why doesn't IBM talk about Informix more publically? How is Informix positioned in the market? All of these are fair questions. We are focused on ensuring that each of these questions are answered with action, as opposed to merely words. In fact, our answer to these questions and others will come in the form of a 3 year strategy for Informix, that I will outline herein. Informix has a track record that speaks for itself, going back in time and more recently. Over the past few years, Informix has been rated #1 in client satisfaction twice (2008/2009 by VendorRate) and has been awarded 56 patents for new innovation. We are proud to have received these accolades and it is a testament to the passion I mentioned before. This raises the most important question of all: Given the passion for Informix, the historical and recent success, and the countless number of clients that continue to adopt Informix, what will IBM, and the Informix community, do to continue to drive the success of Informix in the market? *** Informix will continue to grow, as it has over the last 5 years, by preserving what made it great in the first place, while also expanding into new areas and taking a more aggressive approach in sales, marketing, and technology. There are 4 imperatives, which will be the cornerstone of our future: Delight the install base As mentioned above, Informix continues to impress from a client satisfaction perspective. Our current clients and users are what make Informix great. We will emphasize, in all our activities going forward, a focus on delighting our users and clients. This starts by listening, and more importantly, understanding, what is critical to our clients. We have heard requests for expanded and flexible support offerings, broader application support, and continued innovation. We agree with this feedback and have already starting executing on each of them. Build Strategic Differentiation We believe that it is important that we clarify where Informix is positioned in the software industry. First and foremost, Informix is positioned in the install base. Said a different way, it is simply not economical (nor appropriate risk management) for a current users to consider alternatives. In fact, I challenge anyone to show me the ROI behind a change in platform for someone that is currently running Informix. Secondly, Informix will continue to focus in the industries in which it is dominant today (telecommunications and retail) and expand our presence where we already have a strong foothold (entertainment and healthcare). Thirdly, Informix will continue to be the database of choice for embedded applications. The number of electronics, healthcare, and networking companies that continue to move to Informix is impressive. The catch is that many of you do not know this, because it is inherently invisible. Fourthly, we will continue to drive Informix as a key play in the middle-market. For middle-market companies that need an infrastructure that simply 'works', with zero administration required, Informix is a great answer. Create a Proactive Culture We need to re-energize the Informix community inside and outside of IBM. New offerings and clear differentiation are both steps in the right direction. However, to take this a step further, we need focused technical skills, hands-on engagement from our labs, centers-of-excellence, competitive benchmarking and greater awareness. We will turn up the volume. We need our community of partners, clients, and users to assist. Build New Revenue Streams Like any business, nothing is more important than your current clients. However, to continue to grow and prosper, we must move into new spaces. In line with the positioning that I described above, IBM will be placing bets in each of these areas. As we drive our focus on application support, we will start with many of the products that IBM has acquired through the years, some of which do not support Informix yet. This alone, opens up a whole new business landscape for Informix and new innovation opportunities for our clients. Further, we will triple our investment in working with clients in the embedded market. As mentioned above, this is a fertile landscape, and only IBM can bring the technology (Informix) and systems architecture skills that these clients demand. Lastly, we will ensure that the Informix product is packaged correctly, to meet the needs of our developers, mid-market clients, and enterprise clients. Executing these 4 imperatives is not an event; it is a process that we will execute over a 3-year period, and beyond. We believe these are the right steps to secure the future and capitalize on the growth of the last 5 years. We will take a disciplined approach to getting these done, moving as fast as we can, while not sacrificing quality or focus in all that we do. *** We are proud of Informix and grateful for our loyal community. We have not always been perfect in our execution in the past, but the business continues to grow. I know that there are still some doubters, but I would ask you to keep an open mind. I believe in what we are doing and I am confident that these are the right steps. I will be in touch with you on a regular basis. But, if you want more frequent updates on our progress, I encourage you to visit Bruce Weed's blog (http://bruceweed.wordpress.com/). I encourage you all to go to http://www.iiug.org/president, and share with me any of your questions/comments. If nothing else, in the first few months of working on Informix, I have strived for transparency and openness. Anything that you share is valuable to me and the community. We remain committed to Informix and we are aiming to be a leader, or stay the leader, in each of the categories that I have identified. We could not do any of this without the support of the Informix Community: our Clients, Partners, and Users. The Informix community cannot be a spectator in this endeavor; we need your help in driving each of the imperatives. We thank you for your loyalty and hope that you share our optimism for the future. I am looking forward to seeing all of you at the IIUG Conference in April! Sincerely, Robert D. Thomas
Over the past six months the Conference Planning Committee has blasted email to you, and filled the Insider with everything you need to know about the conference we have planned for April 25 - 28. In fact, everything we know about the conference is located at http://www.iiug.org/conf. We have done everything we can to make sure you have the information needed to update and learn new skills as they relate to Informix. This year the conference will have everything you have asked for:
Q&A with IBM Executives On Wednesday April 28 8:00 AM - 9:10 AM there will be a general session of questions and answers with IBM executives. On the panel we will have: Robert D. Thomas Alyse A. Passarelli Inhi Cho Suh They are there to answer your questions. The session will be dedicated to questions and answers. Hence its success depends on our questions. Come prepared. I will collect questions from the floor but if you have questions in advance you can mail them to me or hand them to any CPC or board member at the conference. I will not reveal the questions to the panel before the session. Gary Ben-Israel Take advantage of the unparalleled free certification testing, pre-assessment exam and even more education opportunities available at the Information On Demand EMEA Conference 19-21 May in Rome, Italy. Get certifications in Rome that will keep you at the top of your game and provide return on your current IT investments. Network with the most talented IBM experts and developers and get first-hand hints & tips by participating in the popular Usability and Hands-on Labs. Register today at http://www-01.ibm.com/software/uk/data/conf/. You can follow us on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/IOD2010
IBM Display your certification: NEW Premium Certificates and Wallet Cards IBM Professional Certification is pleased to announce the availability of our new premium certificates printed on an ultra-fine parchment paper and officially embossed with the platinum seal of the Professional Certification Program from IBM. Included with the certificate is a newly designed wallet card. This new sleek card displays your name and certification title, demonstrating your status as an IBM Certified Professional. If you're certified, you will want to check out the new certificate and eStore on the IBM Professional Certification Member Site: http://www.ibm.com/certify/member/ccsc.nsf/mainForm?OpenForm&page=65 Study when and where you want: Data Management Self-Paced Virtual Classes The IBM Data Management portfolio continues to grow to help you advance your skills. Study when and where you want with unlimited access to courses and labs for 90 days. New and popular courses include:
http://www.iiug.org/url/dm_selfpaced.html Gain unlimited access with Informix Self-Paced Virtual Classes Study when and where you want with unlimited access to courses and labs for 90 days. Check out these new and popular Informix classes!
http://www.iiug.org/url/informix_selfpaced.html Advanced DataToolsInformix Data Warehouse Webcast Topics by Advanced DataTools: Business Intelligence dropped from the #1 Technology Priority in 2007-2009 to the #5 Priority in 2010 Gartner CIO survey. Does this mean that BI and Data Warehouses are no longer relevant to business? Or, as one blog that did follow-up surveys said, "They (CIO's) stated BI was consistently burning them and burning them bad. They have gone into a wait and see hibernation." How do you prevent from getting burned? See our keys to success to building the Informix Data Warehouses correctly in our next webcasts. Key to Enterprise Data Warehouse Development - Data Marts are Building Blocks to the Enterprise
To Register or Replay a past Webcast go to http://www.advancedatatools.com/Solutions/DataWarehouseWebcast.html Informix DBA Training at Advanced DataTools Do you want to learn how to be the FASTEST Informix DBA? This is the course our Fastest Informix DBA contest was developed from and it will increase your database performance tuning skills. http://www.advancedatatools.com/Training/InformixTraining.html
Informix Virtual Appliance Have you tried the Informix Virtual Appliance? If not, it's worth it to take a look at what you can do using Informix Virtual Appliance. It has been a while since IBM announced the availability of Informix Developer Edition Virtual Appliance. This is a pre-installed and pre-configured VMWare image, running on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, along with IDS 11.50. This virtual appliance is being constantly improved and updated by IBM. It is available in 32 and 64 bit versions. The current IDS version is 11.50.xC6. If you are thinking about developing some application on IDS, or need to run some testing with IDS, or even want to learn some IDS new features, Informix Virtual Appliance is the right choice. In Informix virtual appliance everything is pre-configured so you can rapidly deploy it, and the best thing is it's free. There are all sorts of scripts and demos available to create and understand different IDS environments i.e., MACH-11, ER etc. You just need two things for Informix Virtual Appliance:
The installation and configuration process of both products are fairly simple, straightforward and done in few minutes. The installation process will allow you to make some configurations and prompt for license acceptance. After installation, once you start the Informix virtual appliance you will see a normal Linux desktop with shortcuts for IDS products. You are ready to discover the strength and simplicity of IDS. Informix Chat with the Lab
Tuesday April 21 Benefits of IBM Timeseries Speaker: Kevin Brown Ramp up the speed for your time-dimensional data OR How do you manage 'Time' in your data? Is time an aspect of your data? Are you aware of special capabilities in Informix that allow you to more easily manage this type of data - and speed up processing? Learn how the TimeSeries datablade is helping companies save energy, save money, and save 'time' and how this technology may apply to you in new and creative ways. Jerry Keesee, Director of the Informix Lab will introduce the call and Kevin Brown, Informix Chief Architect will be our technical speaker. Presentation material will be available at http://www.ibm.com/informix/labchats prior to the event. Questions, comments or to be removed from this distribution: ahujam@us.ibm.com To register for this event, use the following link: https://events.webdialogs.com/register.php?id=3072fe8f0a&l=en-US For webinar-specific questions, contact the moderator.
For technical support, contact UnyteSupport@us.ibm.com. Audio replay for March 23 Informix Chat with the Lab available now!In case you missed the session or would like to share with someone, the audio replay for topic What's new in IDS 11.50XC6 is available on Chat with lab website: http://www.ibm.com/informix/labchats New Genero Silverlight User Agent Early Access Program for 4GL Developers from Four J'sIIUG Gold Sponsor, Four J's Development Tools' Early Access Program (EAP) for the new Genero® Silverlight User Agent for Genero is targeted at 4GL Developers interested in deploying proven business logic as Rich Internet Applications (RIA). With this new capability, modernizing 4GL apps as Silverlight-based RIA apps is as easy as working with native HTML technologies, significantly easing the conversion of screens to use the Microsoft® Silverlight plug in, and expanding the reach and usability of "work horse" 4GL applications to meet the RIA expectations of today's user communities. The Genero Silverlight User Agent, as a fully-implemented Genero front-end, communicates with the Genero Application Server (GAS), preserving the separation of an application's presentation layer — with the business logic — and data layers, allowing the coupling of business applications written in a highly productive language and a highly flexible user interface. By also providing a Visual Studio 2008 solution integrated with the GAS, any level of screen customization allowed by Silverlight is also available within the new User Agent. Four J's will be demonstrating this new capability at the upcoming Informix User's Group Conference in Overland Park. More information, and a download of the EAP package is available at: http://www.fourjs.com/support/eap.php New in DeveloperWorksInformation Management and XML technology
IBM Informix
Data warehousing
Information Management and SOA
Using data file abstraction with external tables in Informix Dynamic Server
Informix Enterprise Replication made easy with OpenAdmin Tool
DBA Central
Compare the Informix Dynamic Server, Version 11 editions
Informix Dynamic Server 11.50 Fundamentals Exam 555 certification preparation, Part 8: Backup and restore
For more information go to DeveloperWorks - Informix:
Next France Informix User Group (UGIF) meeting The next France Informix User Group (UGIF) meeting will take place April 1st, 2010 in new IBM France Headquarter in Bois Colombes. Chaired by President Khaled Bentebal, the meeting will host Jerry Keesee and Jacques Roy from IBM. Information & Enrollment: Email Laurent Valenza laurent.valenza@fr.ibm.com.
Try Technical Support Chat - the fastest way to interact with your Support team!
Are you an Informix client in North America? If so, you may have the opportunity to try the newest innovation from Information Management Support for your next service request - Technical Support Chat! Technical Support Chat allows you to quickly interact 1:1 with one of our Level 2 Support Professionals online instead of over the phone. You can discuss your request and conveniently share command strings and URLs. Technical Support Chat is currently in its pilot phase as we develop the functionality to work best for you. If you are an eligible Informix client, try Technical Support Chat by clicking the 'Request to Chat' option on the right side of your screen after you open a new Service Request. For more information about the program, please visit http://www.ibm.com/software/data/support/chat.html. If you are not currently eligible for the pilot, check back for updates on future availability. View the Website at: http://www.ibm.com/software/data/support/chat.html The 2010 Informix Technical RoadshowInformix is Everywhere What is the Informix Technical Roadshow? The 2010 Informix Technical Roadshow is a two-day, deep-dive technical event that gives you hands-on experience with the latest IBM® Informix® Dynamic Server (IDS) releases and Informix Warehouse technology. This roadshow is designed to help you gain fresh, innovative ideas for optimizing your business performance and creative competitive advantage - and it's absolutely free to attend these events. The Roadshow topics include:
Visit http://www.iiug.org/url/2010_roadshow.html.
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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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