IIUG Insider (Issue #97) July 2008 Other Issues

Highlights: IIUG Board is meeting in Atlanta

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
• Highlights
  • IIUG Board is meeting in Atlanta
• Conference corner
  • IBM Information On Demand 2008
• Education
  • Improve the performance of your database server!
  • Learn at your own pace with new ILO sessions
  • Learn Security and Compliance Solutions for IBM Informix Dynamic Server
  • See why ILO is the way to go!
  • Save 35% on the New Enterprise Master Data Management Book from IBM Press
  • Get a Head Start with Education Classes at Information on Demand
  • Gain admission to IBM Information On Demand 2008 with an IBM HealthCheck
• Developer corner
  • June Red Books
  • New IBM Database Magazine e-book: Exploring IDS 11
• Informix news
• Products
• Diagnostic and performance tuning tool for IDS 11.50
• IIUG Board
• Informix resources
  • Informix Blogs and things
• Calendar of events
• Useful links
• Closing and credits

Cheetah2, or as it is called outside the marketing world IDS 11.5, is two months old. I first met Cheetah2 before he was born. It was obvious he would be as good as his older brother. After running IDS 11.5 on all my production systems I can tell you that it met all my high expectations.

You don't really appreciate the power of new features until you implement them in real life - not even when you test them during the beta. IDS 11 is a big step forward from IDS 10. If you can afford the upgrade, do it. I would upgrade to IDS 11.5 directly without hesitating. As a matter of fact that is what I did.

So as you can understand, Informix plays a major role in my professional life. I am glad I chose Informix 15 years ago. It was simpler then. Informix was one of the four major relational databases. Today it is a daily struggle justifying it to my management. My success depends on IDS keeping ahead of the competition. IDS 10, 11.1 and 11.5 have broadened the gap. We are still waiting for the world to realize it.

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

The IIUG board of directors will meet July 31 to August 2 in Atlanta, Georgia. This is the first board meeting since we started our term in May. We have a tight schedule. Stay tuned to the next Insider for a full report on the board meeting and updates regarding Our Webpage, IIUG TV, SIGs the Insider and more.

The premier information management event for business and IT executives, managers, professionals, DBA's, developers, and business partners is IBM Information On Demand 2008, October 26-31, 2008, Las Vegas, Nevada.

Select from over 700 sessions.

Register Today!

For more information:

http://www.ibm.com/events/InformationOnDemand

Enroll in the Advanced Informix Dynamic Server Training Class from Advanced DataTools.

Advanced DataTools is excited to announce the following Advanced Informix Dynamic Server training class to be held at the Annandale, Virginia Office. (Washington DC Area) This class has been updated to include new features in IDS 11.

This 4 day course focuses on optimizing an Informix Database with more than 100% performance improvement. Each student will have a 4 core Linux server with IDS 11 and a large dataset to practice with and benchmark.

This Informix course was developed and is taught by Advanced DataTools founder, Lester Knutsen, who is an Informix Certified Professional and a Certified Technical Trainer. Lester is an experienced consultant with a reputation for providing excellent training based on his extensive and up-to-date working knowledge of Informix. And, as always, Advanced DataTools can develop custom courses and will teach onsite if requested.

October 6-9, 2008 - Advanced Informix IDS Performance Tuning and Optimization

For more information, visit Advanced DataTools:

http://www.advancedatatools.com/Training/OutlineInformixIDSPerfTuningOpt.html

Are you interested in training but not able to take days off of work to take a course? Then you'll benefit from the new ILO course offerings! These offerings teach the same material as a regular ILO or classroom course, but are broken down into shorter sessions over a longer period of time. Like standard ILO offerings, they feature live interaction with an instructor over VOIP. This new flexible format allows you to balance work, life, and learning to get trained on your terms. Sign up for the first course offered in this unique format, SQL Workshop (3N120), which provides an introduction to SQL and applies to the entire DB2 family and Informix. Choose the session that works for you:

Session 1: Tuesday August 12 and Thursday August 14, Tuesday August 19 and Thursday August 21 from 6:00pm until 10:00pm EST.

Session 2: Tuesday August 26 and Thursday August 28, Tuesday September 2 and Thursday September 4 from 12:00pm until 4:00 pm EST.

Spaces are limited, so sign up today!

http://www.iiug.org/url/ilo_aug2008.html

Learn in detail about the security features available in IBM Informix Dynamic Database Server (IDS) in this new Redbooks publication. These enriched IDS security features provide the capability to protect data and comply with regulatory requirements.

Download your free copy today!

http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg247556.html?Open

Learn what all the buzz is about! Instructor-Led Online Training helps you reduce cost, learn at your convenience and reduces pollution by cutting down on travel. Take a video tour of ILO and see the benefits for yourself.

Learn more!

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

Learn how to unlock the value of information with this exciting new book, Enterprise Data Management: An SOA Approach to Managing Core Information.

Order today!

Build your skills at the Information on Demand Global Conference by attending one of our full day education classes. These classes will be offered on Sunday October 26th from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. Take advantage of preferred attendee pricing and get a full day of education from professional IBM instructors. Spaces are limited, so sign up now!

Find out more!

http://www.ibm.com/software/data/conf/education.html?ca=julyiiug

Receive an IBM Information On Demand 2008 pass when you sign up for an IBM HealthCheck. Rely on the expertise of IBM professionals to optimize and accelerate the performance of your database. Sign up now to increase your skills with IBM and industry experts at the conference in October in Las Vegas!

Find out more!

http://www.ibm.com/software/data/services/database.html?ca=julyiiug

Informix Dynamic Server 11: Extending Availability and Replication

In this IBM Redbooks publication, we provide an overview of the high availability and enterprise replication features of the Informix Dynamic Server (IDS) Version 11, which can simplify and automate enterprise database deployment. Version 11 has patent-pending technology that virtually eliminates downtime and automates many of the tasks associated with deploying mission-critical enterprise systems.

The high availability capability can reduce or eliminate costly downtime, for example, through online index rebuild and point-in-time table level restore. Enhanced enterprise replication enables solutions for customers requiring reliable and fast distribution of data across a global organization. The replicated data can also participate in a high availability environment with capabilities such as seamless online resynchronization of enterprise replication (ER) nodes at startup.

IDS now also has two new replication technologies for you, called Remote Standalone Secondary (RSS) and the Shared Disk Secondary (SDS), as well as enhanced capability for high-availability disaster recovery customers. The new GUI-based OpenAdmin Tool for IDS provides a global view of remote servers, with flexible analysis and drill-down to the query level. These capabilities enable faster, easier, and reliable distribution and high availability of data, enabling improved data access and use throughout the enterprise. For improved availability and data replication, you need IDS 11.

Customizing the Informix Dynamic Server for Your Environment

In this IBM Redbooks publication, we provide an overview of some of the capabilities of version 11 of the IBM Informix Dynamic Server (IDS), referred to as IDS 11, that enable it to be easily customized for your particular environment. Although many capabilities are available, the focus of this book is on the areas of ease of administration and application development. We describe and demonstrate these capabilities with examples to show how it can be done and provide a model as you begin your customization.

IDS 11 provides nearly hands-free administration to businesses of all sizes. It also offers significant advantages in availability, manageability, security, and performance. Built on the IBM Informix Dynamic Scalable Architecture (DSA), these capabilities can result in a lower total cost of ownership. For example, many of the typical database administrator operations are self-managed by the IDS database.

IDS customers report that they are using one-third or less of the staff typically needed to manage other database products. Shortened development cycles are also realized due to rapid deployment capabilities and the choice of application development environments and languages. There are also flexible choices for business continuity with replication and continuous availability. By taking advantage of these functions and features of IDS 11, you can customize your IDS implementation to enable you to better satisfy your particular business requirements.

Informix Redbooks can be found at:

http://publib-b.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/searchsite.cgi?query=informix

Guru Lester Knutsen explains how to get IDS 11 up to full speed using the Sysmaster database to monitor server status and performance. This downloadable e-book includes an overview of IDS 11 features, plus an in-depth look at what new and improved Sysmaster tables can tell you about your IDS system.

You'll find Exploring IDS 11 in IBM Database Magazine:

DBMag_Exploring_IDS11.html

From analyst Matt Aslett at the 451 group:
...IDS has proven to have a very loyal following, and with the addition of new functionality - such as the shared-disk clustering capabilities - and in combination with the newly acquired solidDB in-memory capabilities, could begin to provide IBM with a more complete portfolio with which to compete head-to-head with Oracle...
http://www.iiug.org/url/ids115_451_group.html

From Michael Schiff from Current Analysis:
...Current Perspective: Positive on IBM's launch of Informix Dynamic Server 11.5 (IDS 11.5) as it demonstrates IBM's commitment to the acquired Informix products while adding new and/or improved features and capabilities to this high-volume transaction-intensive database...
http://www.iiug.org/url/ids115_analyst.html

Chapter 1: Cisco Unified Communications Manager Architecture Cisco Press
By By Dennis Hartmann
Network World
07/25/2008
...Directory services: CUCM uses its own database to store user information. User authentication is performed locally or against an external directory. Directory synchronization allows for centralized user management. Directory synchronization allows CUCM to leverage users already configured in a corporate-wide directory. Microsoft Active Directory (2000 and 2003), Netscape 4.x, iPlanet 5.1, and Sun ONE 5.2 directory integrations are supported. The local CUCM database is a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)-compliant database (LDAPv3) component in the IBM Informix Database Server (IDS)...
http://www.iiug.org/url/Cisco_UCMA.html

Doing the math on virtualization
By Joanne Cummings
July 23, 2008
...At the same time, the company also needed to upgrade its ERP databases from Informix 7 to 9.4. "We had 1,500 programs that we needed to regression test against new hardware, a new database, new development tools and a new operating system," Hays says. Buying new equipment enabled Hays to install all the new software and thoroughly test everything before cutting over. Once his team was confident everything would work, they simply switched users from the old equipment to the new. The whole process, which could have taken six months in the past, took just 45 days...
http://www.iiug.org/url/virtualization_math.html

July 17, 2008. Taipei, Taiwan. Cobrasonic Software Inc. today announced that its flagship product, DBSonar now supports IDS version 11.50, code-named "Cheetah 2". DBSonar has been the ultimate diagnostic and performance-tuning tool for Informix Dynamic Server since 2005. The latest dot release for DBSonar (version 5.2.C3) provides this additional compatibility feature.

DBSonar's newest version has been projected as the most reliable and rugged version to date. With extensive quality assurance and testing, the product has proven compatibility with most current IDS versions, including the 10.FC8, 11.10, and 11.50 versions. The product has been revised to take advantage of the latest shared memory structure on IDS 11.50, so it extracts the massive performance tracks by taking snapshots at shared memory without overburdening sysmaster database.

The new version of DBSonar has been implemented and tested by one of the largest telecom service providers in China, with several million telecom subscribers. The performance analysis results against various IDS platforms for the company have been outstanding and the company continues to benefit from the long-term effects of using the performance tuning features of DBSonar.

"Informix users and administrators need to ask themselves the following question," said Cobrasonic Marketing and Product Development VP, Dr. Pin-Yee Chen. "How fast does your Cheetah run? To make sure that your IDS is running at optimum speed and performance levels, use DBSonar's free evaluation package to evaluate your server's performance and get armed with sufficient information to maximize speed and availability."

Availability and Evaluation License

A 30-day evaluation license is now available for download from the Cobrasonic website at http://www.cobrasonic.com/en/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=54&Itemid=60. For additional information about pricing or reseller details, please visit our website or contact us at sales@cobrasonic.com.

About Cobrasonic Software Inc.

Based in Taipei, Taiwan, Cobrasonic Software Inc. is a leading provider of enterprise database management solutions for Informix. The company provides innovative products that help customers achieve higher performance, productivity, reliability, and availability from applications, databases and infrastructure. Our dedicated development team and highly experienced support workforce are continuously focused on enhancing the value of your enterprise IT operations. Cobrasonic is also a long-term Business Partner of IBM in the Greater China Region.

Visit us at http://www.cobrasonic.com for more information.

Contact Information:

Young Tan
Director, International Business Development
Cobrasonic Software Inc.
young.tan@cobrasonic.com
Tel: +886 2 8792 9969
Fax: +886 2 8792 9950

Tammy Frankforter Profiled

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

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. 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.