Letter to IIUG Leadership from Don Top, IBM's Informix Customer Advocacy Executive

9 December 2002

Dear Informix leader,

This morning at breakfast I unrolled my bundle of silverware and was briefly alarmed to see a metal knife until I realized that I was actually on the ground at a normal restaurant and not enjoying another airline meal, a clear sign of a crammed travel schedule. Why all the airmiles? In a word, Infobahn. In case you haven't heard, the Informix Marketing team is taking the Informix strategy message on the road and inviting customers and partners in and around the major commerce centers of the world to seminars where we deliver a variety of presentations and demonstrations of IBM software, but aiming it specifically at value for the Informix user. (See the URLs at the end of this note to find out more and whether an Infobahn will be coming soon to a city near you. There is also a URL to a new set of Q&As that will lead you through the basic Informix product strategy and roadmap in case you can't join us at an Infobahn at: http://www-3.ibm.com/software/data/informix/pubs/loyalty.html

The Infobahn roadshows have produced uniformly positive feedback. Attendees who have attended Informix loyalty presentations in the past appreciate the continuity - no surprises. Those who hear for the first time about the level of ongoing investment genuinely appreciate the security it gives them in their current investment and the time and information it gives them to plan for the future. This is precisely the point, of course. We on the loyalty team understand that what you need most is as much information as possible on product plans and timelines.

We've emphasized the long term enhancement plans for IDS, XPS and Red Brick frequently enough by now that the question, "Will IBM force me off of Informix and onto DB2?" is coming up far less. In fact, we are delighted to hear the replacement question instead. "When will IBM complete the converged product featuring the best of Informix and DB2?" This question demonstrates more and more that our loyal Informix base is getting excited about the value proposition we've been describing as the accelerated completion of the Arrowhead vision.

The context for this question, of course, is IBM's plan to broaden the Informix Arrowhead vision and integrate the best of IDS, XPS, Red Brick and DB2 into a single database to solve the next-generation challenges of "ebusiness on demand". We've chosen DB2 as the base for this functionality convergence because IBM had already completed the merge of the technology needed for OLTP, Extensibility and Data Warehousing into a single product DB2/UDB. (Informix still confronted the task of combining these capabilities from three different code bases into one.) Accomplishing the broadened Arrowhead vision will be a multi-year effort, of course, and the emphasis over these years will be on much more than purely Informix compatibility. A future newsletter can go into more detail but suffice it to say that substantial investment is being made on the fronts of information integration, XML, web services and autonomic computing. Besides these, each release of DB2 will contain features that make it more familiar and appealing to an Informix user until DB2 reaches a point that when combined with our transition toolkit, we believe that most Informix users will choose it as their next database upgrade - not because IBM forced this, but because on its own merits, the combined product demonstrates uncompromising value to the Informix user.

The first step on this course has been achieved this month with the general availability announcement of DB2/UDB version 8.1. This is the most significant release of DB2 since it was introduced in 1997 with over 400 features providing significant advancements in ease-of-use, performance and BI functionality. A number of features that make it more compatible with Informix show up in 8.1 and development on the features for virtually complete Informix application portability in version 8.2 are well underway.

Below are a few websites to receive more information about some of the topics I've touched on in this note. I look forward to your correspondence and seeing some of you at an Infobahn coming soon!

Sincerely,

Don Top

Informix Customer Advocacy Executive

Websites of interest:

USA Infobahns:
http://www-914.ibm.com/events/ibna/ibna02.nsf

Europe InfoBahns:
http://www-914.ibm.com/events/infobahn/infobahn.nsf/webcontent/welcomeEN

Informix Product Portfolio White Paper:
http://www-3.ibm.com/software/data/informix/pubs/portfolio/index.html

Q&A on Informix Strategy and Roadmap:
http://www-3.ibm.com/software/data/informix/pubs/loyalty.html

IIUG: 10 December 2002