I LOVE MY IDS:

The Ever-Enthusiastic Informix User Group and Customers
Share Their Thoughts on IDS 11

By Christy Maver, IBM Data Server Communications Strategy, cmaver@us.ibm.com

When I accepted the role of IBM Data Server Communications Strategist this spring, one of my first assignments was to attend the North America International DB2 User Group conference in San Jose May 6-10. It was there that I had the privilege of meeting several members of the International Informix User Group. They came from across the globe, representing a number of industries; yet they all shared a common bond: a passion for Informix Dynamic Server (IDS).

Walking through the halls of the convention center, it was fairly easy to spot an IIUG member by the spring in his step, the sly smile on her face. The energy in the room during the Informix sessions was palpable. And why shouldn't it have been? Informix Users have a secret weapon in their back pocket: the legendary reliability and blazing fast OLTP they've come to know and love will only improve with the next release of Informix Dynamic Server (IDS), set to launch this summer.

I soon found out, this is a secret the users are all too happy to share. Growing interest in Informix has led to this new release, which offers an enhancement of breakthrough features. It has been six years since IBM acquired Informix and the users are pleased with IBM's commitment to it. Not only is IDS an integral part of the strategic IBM data server portfolio, but it's also a "lead-with" data server. Indeed, it is one of Dr. Ambuj Goyal's (GM, Information Management Software) four key plays for 2007: Continue to drive significant IDS growth.

I caught up with several of the Informix Users at the conference to get their thoughts on Informix, and it didn't take long to see that this group is unique. Equal parts passionate and loyal, most members have been using IDS for well over 15 years. To hear them talk about their IDS experience and how the new release is a game changer for the data server market, one fully expects that perhaps this devoted user group is about to get a whole lot bigger.

The Solo Safeguard

Laurie Gustin, who works for the Utah State Department of Public Safety, is the sole DBA for about 12,000 users. For her, replication is key. Since she has moved to IDS, she has been up 24/7, with very quick response times. Every authentication goes through the same server, every application transaction stands alone, and everything must work in order to keep Utah criminals off the street.

Why does Laurie like Informix?

"It just runs," she says. "Informix only goes down for regular maintenance or a hardware failure." Laurie has always been on Informix. Over the past 5-6 years, she has made small configuration changes, doubled the number of applications, moved to IDS 10, added replication, and it still keeps running. Laurie would know. She's the only one who runs it, because, as she puts it, "one DBA is really all you need."

The Devoted DBA

John Fahey is a data base architect for Mitchell & McCormick. An IBM Business Partner, Mitchell & McCormick, an industry leader in solutions for governmental healthcare, counts some 60 clients. John told me, "I never realized how easy I had it! I've always used Informix - for 20 years. I heard about Oracle needing 10 DBA's per site!" Not with Informix.

The Proud Partner

A conversation with Mahmoud Kassem yielded multiple stories of customer successes and appreciation for IBM's continued support of Informix. Mahmoud runs a Software House in Cairo. Nominated by IBM Egypt as the IBM Informix arm of Egypt, his company eSmartsoft Information Systems has 5 years in the market and the distinguished IBM BP Advanced certification.

Mahmoud shared some thoughts with me on his experience with Informix:

"Everybody who works on Informix LOVES it!"

Mahmoud assured me he's never met an Informix customer who is unhappy. He even recalled one customer (CIO of a big government agency) who told Mahmoud that the day she had to switch from Informix to Sybase forced by lower prices in a public tender was "a black day."

Mahmoud referred to the Informix 4GL to EGL conversion as another evidence of the IBM commitment to Informix, stating that it revamps the Informix 4GL applications automatically to EGL Java based, and SOA. He added that his company has developed a tool to convert the I4GL converted applications automatically to Web-EGL and shared with us a success story on the Ministry of Interior as a successful implementation.

Mahmoud is a huge supporter of Informix and its ever-evolving technology. "Informix was a great technology with weak political power. Now, with IBM as its father, it's stronger than ever!"

The camaraderie and dedication to IDS doesn't end at the international level. Several local Informix User Groups will be hosting tech events throughout the summer to celebrate the launch, and the events page of the IIUG website details how you can participate in this historical launch. However, it's not just the User Group making all the noise about the upcoming launch. Our customers have been talking as well about the upcoming release. And they have a lot to say.

Take Geoff Poole, for example. Geoff is the Lead Informix Database Administrator for Verizon. "Verizon customers must stay connected around the clock, which is why the legendary high availability of Informix Dynamic Server is so critical to our business," Jeff told us. "Because reliability is our top priority, any outage to our network applications can hinder our ability to respond to our customers. The innovations of the new Continuous Availability feature of IDS Cheetah will assure Verizon's ability to provide uninterrupted service to our customers, day and night."

Many of our customers feel that Informix is the right solution for them. Some, like Joe Bai, CIO of Worldwinner, enjoy such a personalized experience, that they tell us, "With IDS "Cheetah," it's almost as if Informix built a new release just for me. Informix has given us a path toward better response time, and a low-cost means of growth."

We've seen similar IDS devotion from customers who've been involved in the beta program. Several of our customers are long-term users of IDS and have communicated to us what excites them about the next release. "We've used the Informix IDS database engine for many years and we are looking forward to next release of IDS, version 11 (Cheetah) for several reasons," says Catalin Badea, Chief Technology Officer, TECSYS INC. 'this next release is the largest improvement in IDS for quite a while. It has features to satisfy and excite everyone: the DBAs, the Programmers, the System Administrators, the Integrators and even the End-Users.

From our perspective, several features stand out: read last committed isolation mode, the IDSAdmin console, session configuration routines, row level security using label based access control, the administration API, the scheduling of tasks and the ability to analyze recently executed statements.

I see a great effort on IBM Informix's part to enhance the administration capabilities, the performance and the overall usability of the database engine."

Global Support

The passion for Informix is shared throughout the world. Wang Yan, China Mobile Network Management Department IT manager, says, "We have used Informix Dynamic Server for China Mobile's backbone network management the past three years. IDS is a safe and scalable solution that enhances our system performance and is easy to use for local application developers."

Another customer, Khaled BENTEBAL, CEO ConsultiX based in France, has used Informix for two decades and believes this upcoming release to be the best version yet. "Having 20 years of experience on the Informix products since Informix Turbo back in 1987, we can say that this version of IDS, not only follows the philosophy of the Informix products in terms of ease of migration and configuration, but appears to be of the most reliable et fastest version despite the numerous new functionalities that it includes. We are still amazed that the R&D group continues to offer so many new and important functionalities one version after another. We migrated and tested some major applications from IDS 9 and 10 to IDS 11.10 (cheetah) without any recompilation nor export of the data. No regression and no loss in performance was noticed. Informix IDS 11.10 is like a great wine: It is a GRAND CRU."

"At the New South Wales Department of Lands, we manage all core NSW spatial data using Informix Dynamic Server (IDS). We chose IDS over Oracle some 10 years ago because it offered the far superior spatial data management and in-database 'geoprocessing' solution on the market at the time. That remains the case today."

For more information on this exciting new release, visit http://www.ibm.com/informix/new