IIUG Insider (Issue #79) January 2007

Highlights: Informix sales show significant growth over 2005

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 Back to top

This is the first Insider for 2007 and the first Insider of the new IIUG Board of Directors.

This time I will not translate my editorial. I hope you liked it. I have no idea how many readers actually read the non-English versions. The idea was to give the New Year’s edition an extra international flair. This is the second year we have done so and I hope it becomes a tradition.

In 2006 we introduced the Informix Forum. It was supposed to be a vehicle for communicating to IBM and the IIUG membership about non-technical Informix issues but ended up as mostly technical. We are planning more changes to our SIGs, so stay tuned. 2006 was also the first year IBM held the Information on Demand conference offering excellent Informix content and attracting many Informix users. In 2007 we will have, once again, two major Informix conferences; the IIUG/IDUG conference in San Jose, California in May and the IBM IOD conference in Las Vegas, Nevada in October. Whether we will continue the same in 2008 or concentrate on one major conference is yet to be decided.

The first board meeting this year will take place February 24-26. I do hope I will manage to send a report, but February is short and I will be on my way back home. We will continue to our best for Informix, and the IIUG and when the IDS Cheetah starts running in the middle of the year, those of you with sharp eye sight will be able to see Oracle and MS SQL far behind.

I wish you all a wonderful year.

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


Highlights Back to top

Informix sales show significant growth over 2005

Representatives of IBM have briefed the IIUG Board of Directors with respect to the 2006 results. Unfortunately, our NDA forbids us on disclosing the numbers that were discussed. However, I can say that these numbers showed significant growth over 2005 and I am excited in the resurgence of IDS.

I hope that 2007 will show continued growth, and I believe that our sponsored events will have tracks that will be of interest to both those who are new to IDS as well as the veteran users.

Gary Ben-Israel
IIUG Board of Directors


Conference corner Back to top

Mark your calendar!! For May 6-10, 2007

Mark your calendar for the first week of May next year, and plan on attending the IDUG/IIUG North American Conference in San Jose California.

This will be the BEST technical conference ever offered to Informix users by the IIUG. We will be hosting FOUR full tracks of the latest and greatest INFORMIX ONLY technical content. These sessions will be given by Informix users, Business Partners, IBM Developers, and IBM Advanced Support.

Here are just a few samples from more than 55 technical sessions on the schedule:

  • Exploiting Role Separation in IDS – Jonathan Leffler, IBM
  • Put yourself on the map with Google Maps API, DB2/Informix, and PHP on Linux- Martin Lurie of IBM and Aron Lurie
  • Using the Onpladm Tool for Informix High-Performance Loader- John Carlson, Home Depot
  • Performance Tuning IDS In-Depth: The Next Generation- Art Kagel, Bloomberg LP
  • IDS Installations, Upgrades and Maintenance: Best Practices- Thomas Girsch, Hilton

In addition to these great technical sessions, we will also be offering 6 half-day Educational Seminars given by some of the best Informix technical experts around.

Here are a few examples:

  • Introduction to Java Development with IDS, by Jean-Georges Perrin
  • Speed and Performance in IDS, by John Miller III of IBM
  • Using PERL, CGI and DBI with Databases, by Darryl Priest of Piper Rudnick

Go Further! Share your experiences. Learn from what others have experienced first hand at the many networking opportunities available throughout the conference. Mingle with exhibitors in the exhibit hall. Benefit from extended face-to-face time with conference presenters and developers during the Speaker and IBM Developer Reception. Throughout the week you will be provided with many peer-to-peer networking opportunities.

One great example of networking with your peers would be the Special Interest Groups.

We are offering the following for Informix:

  • Informix for Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence
  • Informix on Linux
  • Informix Best Practices

Registration for this event is now open! Take advantage of the special early bird registration and attend IDUG/IIUG North America 2007 for only $1650.

http://conferences.idug.org/na/Registration/tabid/127/Default.aspx

Cindy Lichtenauer
IIUG Board of Directors
IIUG Conference Planning Committee

Information Management Technical Conference, Düsseldorf, Germany, May 21-25

Mark your calendar now – this is your chance to contribute and participate in the primary technical exchange and skill-building event for Information Management in Europe.

Of special interest to Informix participants:

The EMEA technical conference is delivering an expanded program of Informix sessions and activities this year. Conference sessions will include Informix topics scheduled Monday through Wednesday, and the German Informix User Group is planning additional activities on Thursday and Friday. The 2007 conference will have a full week of content for the Informix audience – just in time to learn more about the upcoming IDS ‘Cheetah’ release!

Please spread the word about this opportunity by forwarding this email to your teams, communicating on your websites, syndicating in your newsletters and including this in other communications to your teams. The submission deadline is coming up very soon, so don’t miss this opportunity to participate!

Find out more on at:

http://www.ibm.com/training/conf/europe/im

Audience: Available to Clients, Business Partners and IBMers

CALL FOR SPEAKERS

Abstracts are now being accepted for technical sessions at the conference.

The agenda, of which you will be part, is designed to offer IT executives, consultants, architects, and developers the opportunity to network and gain a complete picture of the Information Management product portfolio, while building or enhancing deep technical skills in their areas of interest. With more than 200 technical sessions across 11 tracks, it’s a great opportunity for attendees to get the best in technical education and free certification, as well as gaining access and exposure to the full spectrum of IBM Information technologies and experts.

All IT Architects, Specialists, Consultants, Developers and Instructors are invited to submit abstracts for speaking slots. Candidates for these speaking slots should understand that the primary goal of the IM Technical Conference is to offer premium education with high quality presentations to IT professionals. Additionally, we are also looking for IBM customers to share their perspective on how a leading edge solution using Information Management technology helped them to resolve a business problem in their company. Please share this with customers or individuals who can help identify customer speakers.

Important Dates

  • Abstracts with biography are due no later than February 16, 2007 and should be sent to abstracts@iiug.org
  • Notification of proposal acceptance will be made by March 2nd, 2007
  • Final presentations for those accepted are due by March 30th, 2007

Audience

Customers, Business Partners and IBM team members are all audiences for this event. Ensure that when submitting your abstract you specify the target audience(s) that will benefit from the presentation. This may include one or more of;

  • IT Architects
  • IT Developers including Business Application Developers, Web Application Developers, System Integrators, Application Programmers, Tools Developers & Users etc.
  • IT Consultants
  • Database Administrators

Technical Session – Structure

The event is hosted over 4.5 days and includes a total of 208 technical sessions.

Technical sessions are 1 hour in length.

Each attendee will have the opportunity to attend a total of 26 technical sessions throughout the week.

A total of 11 Technical tracks will be available so when submitting your presentation abstract ensure you identify which track your session targets. Track descriptions are available on the conference home page at:

Read more

  • IDS (Informix Dynamic Server)/Cheetah
  • Architecting the On Demand Enterprise
  • DB2 for z/OS & DB2 Tools
  • DB2 Application Development
  • DB2 for Linux, Unix, Windows & Tools
  • IMS & IMS Tools
  • Content Management
  • Information Integration
  • Information Warehouse (BI)
  • Information Analysis
  • Master Data Management

Speaker Travel & Living Expenses

All IBMers, Customers and Business Partners selected to present will receive a complementary pass to attend the conference. This will entitle the individual to attend all conference activities/events, and will include meals provided at the conference venue. Those speakers who present a minimum of 3 times at the conference will be entitled to have their travel and lodging costs covered in addition to being provided with a free conference pass.

Submission Guidelines

All submissions must be technical in nature. The majority of the presentations should target an intermediate to advanced audience with a small number of beginner level sessions. Ensure you clearly state which audience type the submission is targeted at.

Your abstract should include session title (avoid lengthy titles), and a description what will be covered in the session (1 or 2 paragraphs). It would also be helpful to have a list of skill objectives, and prerequisite skills needed to attend the session.

Include speaker information as follows:

  • Biography of speaker (50 – 75 words)
  • Name
  • Title/Position
  • Company
  • Location/Address
  • External Phone #
  • IBM Tie Line (if applicable)
  • External e-mail address
  • Lotus Notes ID (if applicable)

Abstract should include:

  • Title
  • Target Audience
  • Audience Type
  • Track Name
  • Description – 1 or 2 paragraphs to include objectives of the session as well as prerequisite skills.

We hope you take advantage of this incredible opportunity to participate at the Information Management Technical Conference this spring.

Regards,

Cathy Elliott
Marketing Manager
IBM Information Management
cathyell@us.ibm.com

Save the date for Information On Demand 2007 Global Conference

IBM Information On Demand 2007 is the premier information management event for business and IT executives, managers, IT professionals, DBA’s and developers. Select from over 600 technical and business sessions, receive the best in technical education, free certification testing, extensive networking opportunities and access and exposure to the full breadth of IBM Information Management technologies and experts. In the product Expo Center you can talk to experts about the products, tools, and services you need from IBM and IBM Business Partners to manage your information infrastructure.

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


Education Back to top

Looking for Authors

IBM is seeking authors for Informix (IDS) books and is especially eager to include in topics covering the upcoming IDS Cheetah release. Are you interested? The most difficult factor in publishing a book is the time commitment. It will take more time and effort than you can imagine – but the benefits are great! You’ll get royalties on the sales of the book, and build your credentials and reputation. Publishing books about IDS will also help build mindshare and expertise on IDS and its latest features. If you are interested, send a draft proposal to Susan Visser at svisser@ca.ibm.com. See the guidelines on http://www.ibm.com/ibmpress for details.

First Class Savings from IBM

Your training dollars will go further in 2007 with $500 savings on Informix public software classes scheduled in the first quarter in the U.S. What better time to attend software training when your business goals are set and your IT needs are immediate? You can enroll through March 28, 2007, in any eligible IBM publicly scheduled software classes in the U.S. and receive $500 off the tuition. At enrollment, reference priority code 6N2KJO4W to receive your discount.

Read more

Plan your 2007 training budget!

Get 10% and up to $5,000 with an IBM Education Pack – online account

Develop training plans now at the start of the year, long before budgets are trimmed. When you buy a $25,000 or $50,000 IBM Education Pack – online account you can see your savings multiply. Save not once but twice with our special limited time offer. When you purchase $25,000 of training to open an IBM Education Pack – online account, save 10% and pay only $22,500. Save a second time when you receive an extra $2,000 in bonus dollars posted to your account right away. That’s $27,000 worth of training for just $22,500! And when you purchase $50,000 of training in your online account, you pay only $45,000, plus you will receive $5,000 in bonus training dollars for an account value of $55,000. That’s a total of $10,000 worth of training-free! Save with this special offer now through February 16, 2007.

Read more

L1846 * IBM Informix Dynamic Server Administration * Classroom * 4 days * $ 2,500

Develop the skills necessary to successfully administer one or more database servers. Learn how to configure and initialize a database server instance, configure and test client connectivity, configure and manage memory and disk usage, plan and implement system maintenance tasks, and configure the server for optimal Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) or decision support. Next classes are February 5 in NYC, April 17 in NYC, and June 26 in NYC.

/url/L1846.html

L2403 * IBM Informix Dynamic Server Performance Tuning * Classroom * 4 days * $ 2,500

In this course, you will learn how to improve performance in your Informix Dynamic Server (IDS) environment. Next class is May 27 in NYC.

/url/L2403.html


Developer corner Back to top

IBM announces IBM WebSphere RFID Information Center V1.0

IBM WebSphere RFID Information Center V1.0 has scalable, secure, standards based repository for sensor information
IBM United States Software Announcement 206-337
December 12, 2006

Overview

IBM WebSphere® RFID Information Center V1.0 provides a scalable, secure, deployable, and standards-based repository for sensor information for each node in the supply chain. With WebSphere RFID Information Center, you can readily layer high volume, granular sensor information into your existing enterprise system architecture. Conducting pilots in the pharmaceutical, consumer product, transport and logistics, and retail industries helped support use cases including shipment verification, product authentication, inventory reduction, and ePedigree. These use cases leverage the power of the EPC Network for data sharing among trading partners. Based on the pilots, along with IBM’s leadership and involvement in the EPCglobal standards organization, WebSphere RFID Information Center is uniquely positioned to support you in leveraging RFID to transform your business, from business strategy through pilot execution and solution, to process integration.

Bundled products

WebSphere RFID Information Center V1.0 bundles the following products:

  • WebSphere Application Server Express V6.0.2
  • WebSphere MQ V6.0.1
  • Tivoli® Directory Integrator (TDI) V6.1
  • DB2® Alphablox V8.4
  • InformixTM Express V10.0

For the full article go to:

/url/WebSphereRFID.html

Ruby-Informix Mailing list

For those interested on discussing or getting help for Ruby/Informix, a mailing list has been created at Rubyforge:

http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/ruby-informix-misc

Study of Informix 4GL and Clones Released

Jean Georges Perrin, IIUG Director and 4GL expert, has released a complete study of Informix 4GL, the clones and where it stands in late 2006.

About 100 people participated in the study, which created a very impressive quantity of data to process and analyze. The analysis covers many aspects of the Informix 4GL language, as well as vendors and their solutions. “I hope my analysis is correct and will help you in making decisions”, expressed Jean Georges Perrin.

Many positive comments have already come from the user community and indications are that interest in 4GL-like language is still very much alive.

The study results are available in a PDF document, freely downloadable from http://www.jgp.net/4gl.

EGL Distance Enablement – Q1 2007

Hello all, and a Happy New Year. We on the EGL ECO-system team would like to thank all of you for making 2006 EGL’s most successful year to-date, with almost 100 new production projects under way (in the last few quarters) a highly successful EGL User Conference in August, and over 500 new EGL developers trained through Distance Enablement.

Obrigado! Muchos Gracias! Merci! Danke Sehr! Molto Grazie, Shukran and Shukriya! Our personal thank you to everyone on this list and many others not on the list.

Just a quick announcement regarding the: Q1 2007 EGL/JSF/Web Services/i4GL Distance Enablement Sessions.

These are still free (note – Q1 may be the last of the free sessions we offer) knowledge-transfer sessions, open to IBM-internally, IBM business partners, and/or interested non-IBM customers.

The requirements (for participation) are that you set aside time to attend two separate and distinct e-conferences over the web (lecture/demonstration) and set aside another 4 – 5 hours/day for the attendent workshops (knowledge and skills acquisition). This adds to approximately 5 – 7 hours/per day, depending on your experience with eclipse tools and internet development. Please do not sign up for these sessions as “tourists”. Space is limited in the e-conferences, so only sign up if you are truly interested in become EGL-enabled, for developing production applications.

No prior EGL/JSF or Java experience is required – only 2 or more years of production work using some 3 or 4GL (RPG, COBOL, VB, PowerBuilder, Oracle*Forms, Java, C/C++, etc). A working knowledge of SQL is assumed – along with an understanding of basic Internet terminology and technology.

Subjects covered (from 10,000 feet) include:

  • Eclipse-development
  • EGL – introduction through a deep-dive into the language
  • JSF – beginning through advanced page development concepts and techniques
  • Web Services – creating, consuming and using 3rd Party services
  • EGL database and sequential file access – introduction through deep dive
  • EGL calling Java
  • EGL/JSF/SQL performance topics – if time permits
  • Jasper Reporting – if time permits
  • i4GL Conversion – if time permits

There are two different e-conference sessions/per day (separate sessions, not the same session repeated).

The Q1 EGL Distance Enablement offering is as follows:

SESSION 1
January 30th –> February 2nd, 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM –> 12:00 PM
February 13th –> February16th 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM –> 12:00 PM

All times are EDT. Note that an international dial-in tele-conferencing # – and an 800# for U.S. phones will be provided if you sign up.

Other pre-requisites:

You will need the RAD or WD/z or WDSC 6.0.1.1 product, with the latest fixes installed and some additional projects and tutorials (details to be provided if/when you sign-up).

To sign-up, please send an email to Jon Sayles (jsayles@us.ibm.com), and include the following information:

  • Your name and location
  • Your company
  • Work telephone#
  • Why you want to learn EGL – and what you will be doing with EGL, when you finish the sessions.

Thanks for your time – feel free to forward this note on to any additional interested parties that might benefit from these sessions.

Regards,

Jon Sayles
Distance Enablement Consultant

New on Developerworks

  • How to go hand-in-hand with DB2 and InformixSuma C Shastry (suma.chakrabarti@in.ibm.com), Staff Software Engineer, IBM
    Mohan Kumar (mohankumarsp@in.ibm.com), System Software Engineer, IBM
    Prasad Srinivasachar (srprasad@in.ibm.com), Advisory Software Engineer, IBM
    25 Jan 2007

    Leverage skills acquired in either Informix or DB2 to learn the other. Compare the technologies and terminologies used in IDS with DB2 9.

    http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/db2/library/techarticle/dm-0701shastindex.php

  • IDS locking, Part 2: Understand locking behavior and analyze lock conflicts in IDSEric Herber (eric@herber-consulting.de), Independent Consultant, Herber Consulting
    04 Jan 2007

    This is the second part of a two-part article talking about locking mechanisms in the IBM strategic data server, IDS. IDS is an optimal choice for high-end OLTP and embedded solutions. This article helps you to understand locking methodology and to run traces for analyzing lock conflicts in your own IDS environment.

    http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/db2/library/techarticle/dm-0701herbindex.php

  • New capabilities for migrating to DB2 and Informix in IBM Migration Toolkit 1.4.9Hemant Bhatia, Software Engineer, IBM
    Nicholas Geib, Software Engineer, IBM
    04 Jan 2007

    The latest release of IBM’s free migration toolkit, MTK 1.4.9, includes many new features that make migrating to your favorite IBM database even easier – support for more DB2 features, migration support for Oracle PL/SQL to IBM Informix Dynamic Server (IDS), Oracle’s UTL_FILE package, and more.

    http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/db2/library/techarticle/dm-0701geindex.php


Informix news Back to top

Informix 2006 Results

2006 was undoubtedly a good year for Informix with double digit revenue growth in the first 3 quarters of 2006. This trend continued in Q4 with another quarter, and hence year of double digit growth. To quote Cindy Fung, Worldwide IDS Product Manager: “We hit way out of the park in Q4”.

IBM’s official quarterly earnings report (which reports Information Management as a whole) is published here:

http://www.ibm.com/investor/4q06/4q06earnings.phtml

From Guy Bowerman’s BLOG:

http://www-03.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/gbowerman?entry=informix_200


IIUG Board Back to top

Kernoal Stephens profiled

Here it is again — time for a new board and new profiles… Let’s discover together board member Kernoal Stephens.

Q: How do you use Informix in your “real” job (DBA, Consultant, Developer, etc.)?
A: AutoZone uses Informix for most of it’s OLTP databases. I manage all of these systems.
Q: How long have you been using Informix products?
A: About 13 years.
Q: What is your role on the IIUG Board?
A: I don’t know yet. I am up for anything.
Q: Why did you volunteer to be on the board?
A: Stuart owes me an Informix shirt. I figure this is the only way I can get one.
Q: What do you want to accomplish this year on the Board?
A: I want to increase the usage of Informix and show IBM that they need to put more effort in marketing this product line.
Q: Where are you from?
A: I was born and raised in Tulsa, OK. I moved to the Memphis area 10 years ago after taking a consultant position with Informix.
Q: Best Informix story?
A: My first version 5 instance of Informix was running out of temp space. I would add space to temp. One user was complaining about the lack of temp space. They bought more disks and we added more disks until we had more disks for temp then the table was in total size. Finally the programmer let me look at his query. The table had 150 columns and his query was select * from table order by *; From then on I also look at the query first before throwing more hardware at the issue. Version 7 made this easier with onstat -g sql.
Q: Worst Informix nightmare.
A: Version 7.10 and 7.11 were a challenge, other than that no nightmares. Informix runs and the DBA can relax.
Q: Can you tell us about your family and hobbies outside of IIUG?
A: I have been married for 19 years to Julie. I have two daughters Jordan, 17 and Julia 15.5. Jordan is a very busy teenager and is currently working on her private pilot’s license. Julia competes in Hunter/Jumper horse shows. We own a Quarter horse and most of my time is spent mucking his stall and hanging out at the barn.

Results of the IIUG Market Report now out

In case you missed the mailing, you can read the results of the IIUG Market report at:

/news/articles/DataPro_V6.pdf

The IIUG Market report is the result of collaborative research between the IIUG and DBTA magazine. The research, sponsored by Embarcadero Technologies, sought to help define the business environment that you as DBAs work in and are facing. The research points to how the role of the Informix DBA is developing from single vendor database manager to multi-vendor data manager. The change is profound and the report is certainly worth reading.

I encourage you to download the research paper and scan through it. If you passionately agree, or disagree, then hook into the Informix forum /forums/informix-forum/ and tell us.

Thanks to those of you who took the time to participate. Much appreciated.

Kind regards,

David Fraser


Calendar of events Back to top

May – 2007
Date Event Location Contact
6-10 IIUG/IDUG 2007 – North America San Jose, CA Cindy Lichtenauer
21-25 Information Management Technical Conference Düsseldorf, Germany
October – 2007
Date Event Location Contact
14-19 IBM Information On Demand 2007 Las Vegas, NV

 


Useful links Back to top

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: /quicklinks.html


Closing and credits Back to top

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.

Sources: IIUG Board of Directors
IBM Corp.
Editors: Gary Ben Israel
Stuart Litel
Jean Georges Perrin

For comments, please send an email to gary@iiug.org.

Published
Categorized as Insider

By Vicente Salvador

Board member since 2014, a user since 1989 and Informix fan. I'am software architect which allow me to combine technical and business skills.