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Informix News
18 Nov 13 - ZDNet - Top 20 mobile skills in demand... Read
09 Sep 13 - telecompaper - Shaspa and Tatung have shown a new smart home platform at Ifa in Berlin. Powered by the IBM Informix software... Read
06 Sep 13 - IBM data magazine - Mission Accomplished - Miami, Florida will be the backdrop for the 2014 IIUG Informix Conference... Read
01 Feb 13 - IBM Data Magazine - Are your database backups safe? Lester Knutsen (IBM Champion) writes about database back up safety using "archecker"... Read
14 Nov 12 - IBM - IBM's Big Data For Smart Grid Goes Live In Texas... Read
3 Oct 12 - The Financial - IBM and TransWorks Collaborate to Help Louisiana-Pacific Corporation Achieve Supply Chain Efficiency... Read
28 Aug 12 - techCLOUD9 - Splunk kicks up a SaaS Storm... Read
10 Aug 12 - businessCLOUD9 - Is this the other half of Cloud monitoring?... Read
3 Aug 12 - IBM data management - Supercharging the data warehouse while keeping costs down IBM Informix Warehouse Accelerator (IWA) delivers superior performance for in-memory analytics processing... Read
2 Aug 12 - channelbiz - Oninit Group launches Pay Per Pulse cloud-based service... Read
28 May 12 - Bloor - David Norfolk on the recent Informix benchmark "pretty impressive results"... Read
23 May 12 - DBTA - Informix Genero: A Way to Modernize Informix 4GL Applications... Read
9 Apr 12 - Mastering Data Management - Upping the Informix Ante: Advanced Data Tools... Read
22 Mar 12 - developerWorks - Optimizing Informix database access... Read
14 Mar 12 - BernieSpang.com - International Informix User Group set to meet in San Diego... Read
1 Mar 12 - IBM Data Management - IIUG Heads West for 2012 - Get ready for sun and sand in San Diego... Read
1 Mar 12 - IBM Data Management - Running Informix on Solid-State Drives.Speed Up Database Access... Read
26 Feb 12 - BernieSpan.com - Better results, lower cost for a broad set of new IBM clients and partners... Read
24 Feb 12 - developerWorks - Informix Warehouse Accelerator: Continuous Acceleration during Data Refresh... Read
6 Feb 12 - PRLOG - Informix port delivers unlimited database scalability for popular SaaS application ... Read
2 Feb 12 - developerWorks - Loading data with the IBM Informix TimeSeries Plug-in for Data Studio... Read
1 Feb 12 - developerWorks - 100 Tech Tips, #47: Log-in to Fix Central... Read
13 Jan 12 - MC Press online - Informix Dynamic Server Entices New Users with Free Production Edition ... Read
11 Jan 12 - Computerworld - Ecologic Analytics and Landis+Gyr -- Suitors Decide to Tie the Knot... Read
9 Jan 12 - planetIDS.com - DNS impact on Informix / Impacto do DNS no Informix... Read
8 Sep 11 - TMCnet.com - IBM Offers Database Solution to Enable Smart Meter Data Capture... Read
1 Aug 11 - IBM Data Management Magazine - IIUG user view: Happy 10th anniversary to IBM and Informix... Read
8 Jul 11 - Database Trends and Applications - Managing Time Series Data with Informix... Read
31 May 11 - Smart Grid - The meter data management pitfall utilities are overlooking... Read
27 May 11 - IBM Data Management Magazine - IIUG user view: Big data, big time ( Series data, warehouse acceleration, and 4GLs )... Read
16 May 11 - Business Wire - HiT Software Announces DBMoto for Enterprise Integration, Adds Informix. Log-based Change Data Capture... Read
21 Mar 11 - Yahoo! Finance - IBM and Cable&Wireless Worldwide Announce UK Smart Energy Cloud... Read
14 Mar 11 - MarketWatch - Fuzzy Logix and IBM Unveil In-Database Analytics for IBM Informix... Read
11 Mar 11 - InvestorPlace - It's Time to Give IBM Props: How many tech stocks are up 53% since the dot-com boom?... Read
9 Mar 11 - DBTA - Database Administration and the Goal of Diminishing Downtime... Read
2 Feb 11 - DBTAs - Informix 11.7 Flexible Grid Provides a Different Way of Looking at Database Servers... Read
27 Jan 11 - exactsolutions - Exact to Add Informix Support to Database Replay, SQL Monitoring Solutions... Read
25 Jan 11 - PR Newswire - Bank of China in the UK Works With IBM to Become a Smarter, Greener Bank... Read
12 Oct 10 - Database Trends and Applications - Informix 11.7: The Beginning of the Next Decade of IBM Informix... Read
20 Sep 10 - planetIDS.com - ITG analyst paper: Cost/Benefit case for IBM Informix as compared to Microsoft SQL Server... Read
20 Jul 10 - IBM Announcements - IBM Informix Choice Edition V11.50 helps deploy low-cost scalable and reliable solutions for Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows... Read
20 Jul 10 - IBM Announcements - Software withdrawal: Elite Support for Informix Ultimate-C Edition... Read
24 May 10 - eWeek Europe - IBM Supplies Database Tech For EU Smart Grid... Read
23 May 10 - SiliconIndia - IBM's smart metering system allows wise use of energy... Read
21 May 10 - CNET - IBM to help people monitor energy use... Read
20 May 10 - ebiz - IBM Teams With Hildebrand To Bring Smart Metering To Homes Across Britain... Read
19 May 10 - The New Blog Times - Misurare il consumo energetico: DEHEMS è pronto... Read
19 May 10 - ZDNet - IBM software in your home? Pact enables five-city smart meter pilot in Europe... Read
17 March 10 - ZDNet (blog) David Morgenstern - TCO: New research finds Macs in the enterprise easier, cheaper to manage than... Read
17 March 2010 - Virtualization Review - ...key components of Big Blue's platform to the commercial cloud such as its WebSphere suite of application ser vers and its DB2 and Informix databases... Read
10 February 2010 - The Wall Street Journal - International Business Machines is expanding an initiative to win over students and professors on its products. How do they lure the college crowd?... Read

End of Support Dates
IDS 11.10 - 30 Sep 2012
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Insider Profiles IIUG Director Stuart Litel

Q: How do you use Informix in your "real" job (DBA, Consultant, Developer, etc.)?
A: I am a freelance Informix consultant specializing in applications (4GL, 4Js) and DBA work (5.X, 7.X and 9.x) for about the last 12 years.
 
Q: How long have you been using Informix products?
A: TOOOOO LONG.... for almost 19 years I have been using Informix products, including doing the beta test on the Informix products that included the very first versions of the SQL products, 4GL, RDS, Interactive Debugger, and the original version of OnLine which was then called Turbo. I have been using their products almost every work day for the last 19 years.
 
Q: What is your role on the IIUG Board?
A: I am responsible for the IIUG Server and have been overseeing the server, including developing the Member Area and getting much of the content for it. I think there needs to be some "genuine Informix" material available to members only.
 
Q: Why did you volunteer to be on the board?
A: I actually enjoy it. The biggest reason is to meet and work with Informix users around the world. In fact, I possibly communicate with more Informix users on a regular basis than anyone else given my responsibilities running the IIUG Server and as webmaster of iiug.org. The part I actually enjoy is meeting the people personally, so if I travel I try to meet the people I might know in the area I'll visit. Over the past years I have met thousands of Informix users and communicate with many of them still today. Just a few weeks ago at Forum 2002 I ran into an Informix user I had not seen in about six years. Great talking about old times!
 
Q: What do you want to accomplish this year on the Board?
A: Stealing a line from Jerry Hamilton, to "Keep Informix Alive!" Informix database products were built with - for lack of a better term - "the need for speed". In addition to this, they are the most reliable database product on the market. Recently I was at a consulting assignment where I was training an individual who was the new DBA responsible for about ten different Informix servers running critical legal information. This person never used Informix, but had taken the Informix training classes and was thrown into the fire (a very hot fire). One of his first questions was "How do I install Informix?" We put the CD in the machine and had Informix up and running live in less than 10 minutes.
 
Last week I was on the phone with an Informix customer who was complaining about their crashed Informix database. After spending time on the phone with them, I learned that they had done ZERO maintenance, other than backup, on their database for 2-1/2 years. That was ZERO time spent. No reboot of the server, no restart of Informix, nothing. How many other database products stay running for 2-1/2 years with no maintenance? I was sorry about their database crashing, but everyone must spend at least 10 minutes a month doing maintenance, right? No other database product can match this. The world never knew about capabilities like this. Maybe, just maybe I can help others see the real value in the product line.
 
A big secret to all, is the database on the IIUG web site. Yes it runs IDS 7.31. In two plus years it has never had a problem and never crashed. What other computer products can you get that have never been down in over two and a half years. If running the IIUG Informix database was my full time job, I would be a very bored person, as it is like the Energizer Bunny, it keeps running and running and running...
 
Q: Where are you from?
A: Born and lived my entire life in the Boston, MA, home of the Super Bowl Champions, but also stuck with the heartache of the Boston Red Sox. Yes I am a big sports fan. I tell people I work 24 hours a day. This could be true as long as there is nothing to watch on TV in the Boston Sports land.
 
Q: Best Informix story?
A: How many days do you have... About two years back I got a call from a local dot.com who was sold on moving their data OUT of an Informix database into an Oracle database. After realizing that convincing them to stay with Informix was impossible, I took the assignment.
 
After being there for a week I found out that these people never bought Informix software but found out they had just downloaded IDS 7.21 for NT from the Internet. Informix had found out and asked them to simply pay for it, after all they had just received $10 million in venture capital. Well, they decided to go to Oracle, as their local office was down the street, and approached Oracle with a deal. The proposed deal was: if they got rid of Informix as their database, Oracle have to give them the software for free. Oracle agreed.
 
IDS was installed on a dual Pentium II - 400 Mhz box running NT. The Oracle database they were installing was going on a mid-range Sun box running UNIX. By all means, the Oracle should have blown the Informix away as the CPU was five times the power.
 
One day I walked in and they were all running around in circles as they could not figure out why the Oracle database could not perform up to the standards of the Informix database which was never tuned, just loaded straight off the internet in a default configuration. Oracle sent over four technical people from their local office. They could not get the Oracle on a faster CPU to perform up to the same throughput as IDS. Well they were now stuck with their Oracle stuff and not only was performance terrible, but the system went down many times in the middle of the night. These people were a 24x7 dot.com, and, as the saying goes, your competition is only a click away. They found out as they went out of business three months later. Moral of the story, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
 
Q: Worst Informix nightmare.
A: Seeing the current status of the product line. Many Informix customers think the product line will end and are jumping off the ship. What they do not realize is that the product is used in the daily activities of over 100,000 companies around the world. Products like that do not go away. If people believe it will happen, it will happen. If customers and users want to remain Informix users, they should. I have a constant saying: "No one ever bought an Informix product for the marketing. They bought it because it was the best technical product that met their needs". This is still true today, so I just cannot understand why users are jumping off the ship, instead of spreading the word and continue using the product they purchased for a technical reason as it was the best product out there and still is. Another saying I have is: "I have never met an X-customer of Informix products who now uses another database for TECHNICAL reasons."
 
I remember 19 years ago where I was first exposed to Informix products, the company I was working at truly tested the Informix products vs. four other products. We decided on Informix SOLELY for technical reasons. I believe if this is still done today, Informix would be the largest used database product but, unfortunately, political and marketing reasons step in when the decision is made and get in the way of the technical people. I used to say that if technical people made the decision on which product to used, based solely on performance and reliability, they would almost always choose Informix.
 
Q: Can you tell us about your family and hobbies outside of the IIUG?
A: I am somewhat confused here. Do I have a life outside of work and the IIUG??? Currently single but dating a great person for many years. This person is not a technical individual but she has been to five Informix User Conferences and has to deal with the time I spend on and travel with the IIUG Board. And for some reason, she still talks to me. My hobbies and interest are basically sports related. Lately it seems to be playing golf and trying to break 100.

Published by IIUG Enews (Enews@IIUG.org), 27 November 2002.