Welcome to the IIUG Alert! The IIUG Alert contains time-sensitive material for the IBM Informix community. Please provide feedback via e-mail to ug@iiug.org.
CONTENTS
- 2002 Conferences – Schedule Firming Up
- IBM Informix Featured in DB2 Today
- IIUG Event Calendar Enhanced and Updated
- IBM Data Management Strikes Gold
- Four J’s V3.2 Added to IBM Informix Tools Portfolio
- Technology Poll Pointing to Recovery
- International News Links Featured
- New IDC White Paper on IBM and Informix
- Useful Links
1) 2002 Conferences – Schedule Firming Up
IIUG Board member Paul Mosser shared with the Board that last week’s announcement by IBM Data Management about next year’s NEW “IBM Data Management Conference” promises an event jam packed with learning opportunity.
The announcement stated that the 2002 Informix User Conference will kick off on September 9th in Anaheim, California, alongside the DB2 and Business Intelligence Technical Conference, and both will be part of a much larger event: the NEW “IBM Data Management Conference”, covering the “hottest” DB2, Informix and BI topics in the marketplace.
The latest US conference information may be obtained at: http://isource.ibm.com/cgi-bin/goto?on=c4017conference
In other conference news, it was reported by IBM Global Services that there are definite plans to include Informix content in the Europe Middle East Asia (EMEA) conference being planned for June, 2002. As soon as we learn more we will let you know.
2) IBM Informix Featured in DB2 Today
The IIUG board is always on the lookout for new and useful information resources to bring to the attention of our membership. We were recently alerted to a new addition to IBM’s online publication “DB2 Today” by member Lester Knutson. Starting with their November issue, the publication is featuring IBM Informix products along with DB2 fare. An interesting and innovative feature of this facility is the ability to customize or filter for subject areas the reader is most interested in.
The November issue featured three articles on IBM Informix products originating from IIUG sources. Registration and filtering options can be maintained on-line by proceeding to the following link: https://www6.software.ibm.com/reg/newsletter/db2todayn-i
3) IIUG Event Calendar Enhanced and Updated
If you haven’t visited the IIUG Event Calendar featured at our web site lately, a recent enhancement has improved the convenience of its usage. Rather than linking always to January, the visitor is now placed close to current upcoming events. Additionally, many 2002 events were just added to the calendar and it is worth a look at to begin planning for the new year. Local user groups are encouraged to promote their local events via the calendar and easy instructions for making an addition on-line are provided. Proceed to this link for a quick look: /calendar/events.html
Local user group leaders can post their event information at this location: /calendar/post.html
4) IBM Data Management Strikes Gold
A new tech support offering is now available to customers. The new “Gold” support program is “intended for Informix customers who want the flexibility to install either Informix or DB2 products in whatever combination is required to meet their business needs over time.” A complete description of this new service offer may be viewed at: http://www-4.ibm.com/software/data/programs/goldoffer.html
5) Four J’s V3.2 Added to IBM Informix Tools Portfolio
IBM Informix announced the general availability of Four J’s Business Development Suite v. 3.10. This Four J’s product replaces Dynamic 4GL in IBM’s Informix DB Tools portfolio.
Four J’s Business Development Suite claims to be “the fastest way to Windows, the Internet and Mobile devices for existing and new IBM Informix 4GL applications”. The official announcement also read as follows:
“Four J’s Business Development Suite allows for the seamless opening of applications to a wide variety of new graphical computing environments, with it’s three-tier, thin-client architecture, Four J’s Business Development Suite offers unmatched application performance and scalability with server support for Windows NT, Linux and UNIX platforms.”
“With Four J’s Business Development Suite, users now have access to Open Database Interface (ODI). The ODI provides native access to both Informix and DB2 databases, improving both reliability and performance.”
“In the upcoming V3.2 release, the ODI architecture has been completely rewritten to provide up to 3 times the throughput over previous releases. In addition to ODI, customers will receive the following client libraries for various
GUIs: Web (formerly HTML), Java, Windows, X.11 and ASCII. The Development License also includes an improved Interactive Debugger.”
“Four J’s Business Development Suite includes Global Language Support (Level 4), which supports single byte character sets, left-to-right languages like US English, German, Greek, etc., single byte character sets, right-to-left languages like Hebrew and Arabic, and double byte character sets like Japanese, Korean, simplified and traditional Chinese.”
“If a customer is currently under an active Dynamic 4GL maintenance contract up through June 30, 2002, the customer will receive at no charge, a Four J’s Business Development Suite Version 3.10 or greater.”
“Contact your local IBM Account Executive, Channel Account Manager, or Telesales representative if you need assistance in obtaining these products.”
6) Technology Poll Pointing to Recovery
IIUG Board President Fred Hubbard reviewed a recent article on the results of the November CIO Magazine Tech Poll and wanted to share it with our IIUG membership because it presented a favorable technology outlook and may indicate a recovery in the technology sector. The article may be viewed at the following location: http://www.cio.com/info/releases/112701_techpoll.html
7) International News Links Featured
Another useful site (also listed in our Useful Links for this Alert) with special features for our international community is the IBM product news web site. Note that the three most recent articles are from international sources! See the latest
Informix product news on-line at: http://www-4.ibm.com/software/data/news/informix.html
8) New IDC White Paper on IBM and Informix
Analyst Carl W. Olofson, of IDC, has just published a new white paper on The IBM Informix acquisition, appropriately titled “IBM and Informix – A Marriage of Strength and Innovation”.
The paper explores the reasons why IBM acquired Informix by examining the history and technology of Informix. It also discusses IBM’s stated intentions for Informix technology going forward and considers the implications for users of both IBM and Informix RDBMS technology.
You may download this paper from a link on the IIUG web site or at: http://www6.software.ibm.com/reg/marriage/marriage-r
9) Useful Links
Watch the IIUG Highlights location for the 2001 IIC Recap photo feature! http://www.iiug.oindex.php
NEW: Upcoming IBM US conferences http://www-3.ibm.com/services/learning/conf/index.php
Informix Page within IBM PartnerWorld for Developers http://www.developer.ibm.com/data/informindex.php
IBM Informix homepage http://www-4.ibm.com/software/data/informix/
Recent Data Management Product Announcements http://www-4.ibm.com/software/data/launch/
Informix News from IBM Data Management http://www-4.ibm.com/software/data/news/informix.html
Closing and Credits
The International Informix Users Group (IIUG) is an international organization designed to enhance communications between IBM Informix and its worldwide user community. IIUG is now approaching 13,000 members and enjoys major support from IBM’s Data Management division. We also help local user groups get started and promoted.
For comments, please e-mail to enews@iiug.org
