Join IIUG
 for   
 
Insider

IIUG Insider (Issue #107)
May 2009

Other Issues

Highlights: New Downloads in the IIUG member area

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:

 
Editorial Back to top

The new IIUG board, or rather the old board plus Miguel, officially started its term at the IIUG conference in Kansas.

We are already thinking about our next conference. Choosing the location was not easy. We all enjoyed Kansas but would like to go somewhere else for a change. However our top priorities are getting excellent content at a reasonable price. This makes Kansas impossible to match. So it seems we will meet in Kansas once again. I hope to see you all, and many others, next year.

This was the first time we had professors from Kansas universities at our conference. This is part of the academic initiative led by IBM with the IIUG participation. We are also planning to reach our local user groups. If your group needs any help from the IIUG please email the board member who is in charge of your region:

Last but not least, we are launching our Web 2.0 project. I hope we finish before Web 3.0 becomes mainstream.

Gary Ben-Israel
IIUG Insider Editor
gary@iiug.org

Highlights Back to top
New Downloads in the IIUG member area  
 
  • IDA 11.5 xC4 Developers Edition
    The Developers edition is free to use but not for production. It has a 10 process limit and is available exclusively to IIUG members. Downloads are available for Linux (32 and 64 bit), Windows (32 and 64 bit), AIX, HP and Sun (all 64 bit only)
  • The OpenAdmin Tool (OAT) 2.24 for IDS
    The OpenAdmin Tool for IDS provides a graphical interface for IBM Informix Dynamic Server administration and performance analysis tools. A PHP-based Web browser administration tool, the OpenAdmin Tool, provides the ability to administer multiple database server instances from a single location.
  • IIUG Informix 2009 Conference Presentations
    The presentations from the IIUG Informix 2009 conference are available for download in the Member Area of the IIUG website.

If you are a member you can just login and select your favorite presentations and download them. If you are not a member just click on the Login button go the conference downloads and select the IIUG 2009 Conference.

Education Back to top
New and Updated Courses now Available!

To build your skills and increase your knowledge IBM has released and updated four new and updated courses within Informix, U2, and DB2 for LUW and z/OS providing in-class and online options:

  • IDS System Administration (IX811/3X811)
  • Informix Warehouse - SQL Warehousing Tool and Administration Console (IXA51/3XA51)
  • UniVerse and UniData Database Programming (3U120)
  • Quickstart for Experienced Relational DBAs (CL482)
  • Application Performance & Tuning (CV960)

Find out more: http://www.iiug.org/url/ibm_training.html

Build your skills! Browse the Information Management Skills blogs

Want to stay informed about training, certification, books and other educational resources? Check out the Information Management Skills blogs by Susan Visser and Kate Dawson, and get the latest skills information! Combined, Susan and Kate have the knowledge and insight you need to help you build your Information Management skills.

Check out their blogs today!

http://www.ibm.com/software/data/education/blogs.html?ca=IMblog

Training Green - Instructor Led Online (ILO)

ILO enables you to train green by eliminating travel and reducing your carbon footprint. With ILO you get the same live instruction and group interaction of traditional classroom courses without the time and expense of travel. Now you can have the best of both worlds!

Train green, think Blue!

http://www.ibm.com/software/data/education/ilo.html?ca=TrnGrn

Get to know our IBM Information Management Instructors!

Get behind the scenes and meet our IBM instructors. Share their experiences, training successes and their hobbies. Learn how their technical expertise and student-oriented approach can help you build all your data management skills.

Read their stories:

http://www.ibm.com/software/data/education/instructors.html

Developer corner Back to top
Informix Chat with the Lab

Thursday, June 11
8:30 AM Pacific
10:30 AM Central
11:30 AM Eastern
4:30 PM London
5:30 PM Paris

Virtualization and Cloud Computing with IDS!

This month's Informix Chat with the Lab will be on the popular topic of Virtualization and Cloud Computing with IDS.

Informix Dynamic Server is widely deployed in virtualized environments and has a profile and feature set that lends itself to virtualization. In this presentation you will learn about IBM's virtualization and cloud computing strategy for Informix, including virtualization platform support, current IBM solutions such as the Informix virtual appliance and Amazon Machine Images available for the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), and the Informix roadmap for virtualization and cloud computing.

Jerry Keesee, Director of the Informix Lab will introduce the call and Guy Bowerman, Informix Embeddability Architect will be our technical speaker.

Participant access information

URL:    http://www.iiug.org/url/chat_090611.html
Conference Number:    4070246
Passcode:    2219719

To register for this event:

  1. Go to the URL listed above and choose Web RSVP under Join Events.
  2. Enter the conference number and passcode.
  3. Provide your information for the event leader and then click submit.
  4. You will receive a confirmation email from "e-meetings." Please follow instructions to join the call on day of call (Note: for security reasons, a passcode and pin will be required to join call).

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

New in DeveloperWorks

Configure WebSphere Application Server Community Edition with Informix Dynamic Server Combine
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/library/techarticle/dm-0710chakraborty/index.html
WebSphere Application Server Community Edition with IBM Informix Dynamic Server for a stable, easy to install and use application server for developing and testing J2EE applications with a robust, highly reliable, administration-free database with outstanding performance.

28 May 2009

Pure Concentrated Data
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/library/dmmag/DMMag_2009_Issue2/IDS/index.html
Informix Dynamic Server compresses, consolidates data to boost data warehousing

27 May 2009

For more information go to DeveloperWorks - Informix: http://www.iiug.org/url/dw_informix.html

IBM corner Back to top
Socket & Server pricing overview

On May 19, Informix Dynamic Server (IDS) announced additional pricing options to help customers meet their business needs and reduce their costs. Two new charge metrics are now available.

  • The Limited Use Socket (LU Socket) charge metric is available to the Workgroup Edition of Informix Dynamic Server (IDS) V11.50xC4, Informix Warehouse V11.50xC4, and Informix Warehouse Feature V11.50xC4. If you intend to utilize many cores in a multicore socket, the LU Socket charge metric could help to significantly reduce the cost of running your solutions on the Workgroup Edition of these offerings.
  • The Limited Use Virtual Server (LUV Server) charge metric is available to the Express Edition of IDS V11.50xC4. This new charge metric can help reduce the complexity of acquiring an entry level data server and offers integrated solutions to small size businesses. You may deploy the IDS Express Edition under this LUV Server charge metric on a Limited Use Virtual Server, which is a physical server or a virtual server created by partitioning the resources available to a physical server.

In addition, memory configuration limit for the IDS Workgroup Edition has been raised from 8GB to 16GB of allocated shared memory (SHMTOTAL). Customers who wish to take advantage of this higher memory limit must obtain a refresh copy of the IDS V11.50xC4 release from Fix Central at:
http://www-933.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/

A summary of the new price options available to IDS could be found at:
http://www.ibm.com/software/data/informix/ids/ids-ed-choice/

For details on the new pricing options, please see this IBM Software Announcement letter:
http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/rep_ca/7/897/ENUS209-167/ENUS209-167.PDF

IBM Information Management Resource Catalog

The catalog just released May 2009. To get the catalog go to:

http://www.iiug.org/url/catalog.html

Informix news Back to top
The voice of the IIUG community can now be heard on VendorRate!

VendorRate online customer satisfaction scorecards (see sample, below) identify IT and Telecom companies that do a great job - and those who don't. This is an exciting service every department should use before making costly purchasing decisions.

 

  

Bonus! IIUG members who rate an IT vendor will be entered to win a new Garmin Nuvi 750 Navigator

Rating is confidential and takes less than three minutes. But do it now; the drawing ends June 30, 2009.

IIUG can impact the entire tech community right now.
We're helping VendorRate create a service for the entire IT community that will:

  • Identify the great vendors from the not-so-great
  • Reduce risk prior to making a purchase
  • Give a powerful, public voice to our user community without disclosing a rater's identity
  • Create an important new due diligence tool that supplements analysts such as Gartner and Forrester

Let's show our support! Visit VendorRate.com to rate IT providers and consultants today.

IIUG Board Back to top

Miguel Carbone Profiled

Here it is again -- time for a new board and new profiles... Let's discover together board member Miguel Carbone.

Q: How do you use Informix in your "real" job (DBA, Consultant, Developer, etc.)?
A: I started using Informix as a C/C++ Developer. Today I use Informix as a DBA and Consultant.
 
Q: How long have you been using Informix products?
A: I have been using Informix since 1995.
 
Q: What is your role on the IIUG Board?
A: I am in charge of the Local User Groups in Latin America.
 
Q: Why did you volunteer to be on the board?
A: I really would like to help the Informix community more effectively. Working together with other board members, we can make difference.
 
Q: What do you want to accomplish this year on the Board?
A: Increase the affectivity of the local user groups, sharing knowledge and Influence IBM to help the Informix Community.
 
Q: Where are you from?
A: I am from Sao Paulo , Brazil. I was born in a Italian neighborhood in Sao Paulo, my grandparents are from Italy.
 
Q: Best Informix story?
A: Once I was in a DB2 pre-sale, and the customer wanted buy DB2 although MACH 11 was a much better fit. I told him that IBM has two flavors of DB2, DB2 UDB and DB2 IDS, and I recommend DB2 IDS (Informix).
 
Q: Worst Informix nightmare.
A: I was hired to migrate Informix to "another database" in a SAP environment. I Tuned Informix to make the migration faster. The CTO asked me to undo my changes because their system was so fast that the customers will not accept the migration any more. So I had to make Informix slower and, "downgrade" the customer.
 
Q: Can you tell us about your family and hobbies outside of IIUG?
A: I have a wife Stella and two daughters, Nicole our 11 year old and Sophia our 8 year old. My daughters and my wife love to dance. They study ballet. I like to swim. We enjoy spending our free time together.
 
Informix resources Back to top
Informix Blogs and things  
Calendar of events Back to top
June - 2009
Date Event Location Contact
2-5 IBM Information on Demand EMEA Conference 2009 Berlin, Germany Gayathri Srinivasan
 
Useful links Back to top

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

Closing and credits Back to top

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.

Sources:  IIUG Board of Directors
IBM Corp.
Editors:  Gary Ben-Israel
Tammy Frankforter

For comments, please send an email to gary@iiug.org.