IIUG Insider (Issue #106) April 2009

Highlights: IIUG Conference – Recap

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

The conference is over, but the IIUG board is still at the Overland Park Marriott in Kansas for our first 2009 meeting.

We have a new board member, Miguel Carbone from Brazil. He is replacing Norma Jean Sebastian, who decided not to continue on the board. Thanks Norma Jean for your wonderful work and company. We are confident that Miguel will do a great job as well. Once again we have 4 non-US board members and once again one of them is from the other side of the Equator.

After a very busy week helping, speaking, and attending the conference and in the middle of our board meeting I had less time than usual for this issue of the Insider. The same goes for my regular content suppliers, therefore it will be a shorter issue. I hope you will still find it useful and entertaining.

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

Highlights Back to top

IIUG Conference – Recap

The IIUG Informix Conference 2009 was a fabulous event. I must admit that after last year’s conference I thought it will be impossible to match. But we managed to top it. 5 tracks with 85 sessions (83 distinct and two repeats), 14 tutorials (2 full day and 12 half day) and 4 keynotes. In addition to the sessions, there were many offerings, demos, contests and raffles at the exhibition hall. We had a lot of fun too in our 3 great parties.

Not seen in the numbers above was the unique opportunity to meet with other Informix users and with IBM executives and developers.

Above all we have experienced once more the warm feeling of a family reunion. The Informix users are often referred to as Informix fans. We are indeed Informix fans, but in my opinion we are before everything else the Informix family.

Reaching the international community is one of the conference goals. I was especially pleased with the growth of non-US attendance. For me, this is a sign that even adding the airfare the conference still offers good value for its price.

I would like to thank Cindy, Walt, James, Tammy, Tom, Kernoal, Bruce, David, June and Darryl our Conference Planning committee. The success of this conference was due to their hard work, dedication, enthusiasm and skill.

I hope to see all of you and many more next year.

Gary Ben-Israel

Conference corner Back to top

Experience Information On Demand at the IOD EMEA Conference 2009

The Information On Demand EMEA Conference 2009, 2-5 June Berlin, Germany will be the premier event of 2009 demonstrating how you can access trusted business information today.

Whatever your role, industry sector or technology interest, there will be an unparalleled choice of sessions covering both business and technology subject matters across a wide array of industries. Whether you want to sit down for an in-depth conversation with IBM executives, industry or technical experts; watch a live demo and flash presentations from IBM’s Research Labs; embark on an Information On Demand journey through participation in one of the industry roundtables; improve your proficiency skills or simply share your experiences with a peer, there will be plenty of opportunities to gain a better understanding of how to transform your business information into a strategic asset.

Join us and learn how to leverage IBM’s Information on Demand to deliver real value for your business.

For more information about registration please visit: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/uk/data/conf.

Follow us on twitter http://twitter.com/iod2009.

Education Back to top

Coming soon – new certifications!

To help you further enhance your skills, IBM is releasing four new exciting Information Management certifications in 2009:

  • Exam 555 – IBM Informix Dynamic Server 11.50 Fundamentals
  • Exam 730 – DB2 9 Fundamentals
  • Exam 732 – DB2 9 DBA for z/OS
  • Exam 550 – IBM solidDB and IBM solidDB Universal Cache
  • Exam 551 – IBM Optim Implementation for Distributed Systems

These certifications will allow you to expand your technical knowledge which can be used as a tool to drive business performance and competitiveness.

Learn more:
http://www.ibm.com/software/data/education/certification.html?ca=newCert

Instructor-Led Online Courses – now more versatile!

Experience the new trend in training with Instructor-Led Online (ILO). ILO now offers many options to fit into your busy schedule. ILO Select provides targeted information in a packed lecture of three hours or less, at affordable pricing! ILO Flex Time offerings enable you to experience the full scope of ILO from anywhere in the world over several days so that you can balance both work and education.

Sign up today!
http://www.ibm.com/software/data/education/ilo.html?ca=FebILO?ca=ledonline

Train your team affordably onsite with IBM Training!

IBM Onsite Training can deliver any classroom course in a private format – at your facility or IBM’s! Benefit from customized content, high-quality course materials and equipment, and optional instructor mentoring. Get the same education IBM offers in their own classrooms for less.

Discover onsite training:
http://www-304.ibm.com/jct03001c/services/learning/ites.wss/us/en?pageType=page&c=a0000055

Become an IBM Certified Professional

Attaining an IBM Information Management Professional Certification is a way for skilled IT professionals to demonstrate their expertise to the world. Your certification validates your proficiency in the latest IBM technology and solutions. IBM certification provides you with the prestige and expertise compared to non-certified professionals. There are many resources to help you achieve your certification, such as roadmaps, practice tests and many more.

Find out more!
http://www.ibm.com/software/data/education/certification.html?ca=certprof

Learn More about IBM Software Support Offerings

The IBM Software Support website is full of valuable information on all of IBM’s support offerings. Read about each of the offerings including IBM Premium Support services designed for customers with high availability requirements or applications.

Discover how you can gain expert support!
http://www.ibm.com/software/support/offerings.html?ca=PremSup

Why Renew Your IBM Software Support

With Information Management Curriculum Guides, it’s Simple, Quick, and Easy to renew your IBM Software Subscription & Support on time, year on year. In challenging times you can’t afford system challenges to slow down your business. On time renewal means you’re always in touch with IBM software support experts, and the software you run is always in synch with your changing business needs.

Learn More!
http://www.ibm.com/software/support/sw-renew.html?ca=RenewSup

Stay in Touch with Software Support RSS Feeds

Subscribing to RSS feeds allows you to stay up-to-date with the latest support information for a variety of IBM Software products. Choose the products that interest you and get new information fed directly to your RSS reader. You’re just a click away from valuable software support information.

Set up your feeds now!
http://www.ibm.com/software/support/rss/db2?ca=RSSFeed

Developer corner Back to top

New in DeveloperWorks

Informix Dynamic Server data compression and storage optimization
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/library/techarticle/dm-0904idsoptimization/
Starting with IBM Informix Dynamic Server (IDS) Version 11.50.xC4, you can compress data and optimize storage in IDS databases. The advantages of data compression and storage optimization include significant storage savings, reduced I/O activity, and faster backup and restore. IDS provides full online support for enabling storage optimization and compressing existing table data, while applications continue to use the table. This article provides an overview of IDS data compression and storage optimization functionality and shows you how to perform both tasks.

27 Apr 2009

Get started with Informix Warehouse Feature, Part 1: Model your data warehouse using Design Studio
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/tutorials/dm-0904warehouse1/
The new IBM Informix Warehouse Feature provides an integrated and simplified software platform to design and deploy a warehouse repository on your existing IBM Informix Dynamic Server (IDS) infrastructure. This tutorial, the beginning of a series, gives you a first look at the Informix Warehouse Feature and its components. It will first introduce you to the context behind the new tools available and the value they add in a data warehouse scenario based on Informix, and then, it will give you a hands-on and example-driven view of the Informix Warehouse Client component, the Design Studio, by going through the steps for creating a simplified data warehouse and data extract-load-transform (ELT) project, identifying the source and the target databases involved, and designing the database physical model you have planned for your target Informix warehouse.

27 Apr 2009

Integrate Informix ODBC applications on Mac OS X with Informix Dynamic Server, Part 1: Installing and registering the ODBC bundle driver graphically
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/library/techarticle/dm-0904odbcmac1driver/
Learn about the new Mac OS X ODBC features available with Informix(R) Client-SDK and Connect 3.50.xC3. In Part 1 of this 2-part series, see how the ODBC features integrate fully with native Mac OS X applications. In Part 2, you’ll follow a series of detailed walkthroughs using FileMaker Pro and OpenOffice.org.

16 Apr 2009

Integrate Informix ODBC applications on Mac OS X with Informix Dynamic Server, Part 2: FileMaker Pro and OpenOffice.org walkthroughs
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/library/techarticle/dm-0904odbcmac2walkthrough/
Learn about the new Mac OS X ODBC features available with Informix(R) Client-SDK and Connect 3.50.xC3. Part 1 of this 2-part series described how the ODBC features integrate fully with native Mac OS X applications. In Part 2, follow detailed walkthroughs using FileMaker Pro and OpenOffice.org.

16 Apr 2009

Get started using IBM Data Studio Developer with Informix Dynamic Server
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/tutorials/dm-0904datastudiointro/
Get an introduction to IBM Data Studio and the IBM Data Studio Developer offering, and see how IBM Data Studio Developer 2.1 can be used to develop applications with Informix Dynamic Server (IDS).

9 Apr 2009

For more information go to DeveloperWorks — Informix:

/url/dw_informix.html

IBM corner Back to top

IBM Academic Initiative

Educational Outreach – Update

The IIUG has been working closely with IBM to help make Informix more visible and available to university professors and students. As part of this initiative IBM and the IIUG invited department heads and professors from colleges in the Kansas/Missouri area to attend the IIUG Informix Conference in Overland Park for 1 day at no cost.

12 professors from Missouri State University, University of Missouri, Kansas City, Wichita State University, Baker University, Kansas State University and the University of Kansas attended the one day event which included an invitation to Tuesday’s Keynote, a morning round table discussion with IBM over the Informix architecture and IBM’s Academic Initiative, Lunch, and admission to the Expo Hall to view Informix demos. To finish the day, the professors were encouraged to attend the afternoon Technical Sessions.

During the round table discussion IBM explained their efforts to make Informix a top choice for students and professors when deciding which database engine to use for projects. In addition to providing free Enterprise editions of IDS for education and research, a Virtual Machine with IDS installed and configured to make it easy for students to start using Informix, and Informix lectures and slides for the professors to use in their curriculum IBM will give students who use IDS for their projects a special IBM IDS Certification that can be placed on their resume

A special thanks to Norma Jean Sebastian from the IIUG, to Amit Dandekar, Cathy Elliot, Judy Burkhart from IBM and to everyone else who volunteered their time to make this event a huge success.

Andrew Ford
IIUG Board of Directors

Informix on Campus: great success at IIUG Conference

As you may recall (if you were there), at the IIUG conference in 2008, during the Executive Q&A, I stood (or maybe I sat, I don’t recall) and questioned IBM about their efforts or lack thereof regarding getting the Informix products into academic curriculums and into student hands.

Since that time, Cathy Elliott, Andrew Ford, and I have been meeting quietly at IOD and month-by-month on conference calls. Amit Dandekar joined the effort in the last few months before the IIUG conference. Andrew and I have provided encouragement and support, but the real work has all been IBM.

And what an excellent job they are doing!

The IBM Informix Academic Team is recruiting Informix Ambassadors, building Informix specific coursework and certification. See IIUG Insider Issue #105 (March 2009): /Insider/insider_mar09.php#6.2

The success of the Informix Tech Day in Strasbourg held January 17 led to the development of a 3-day Informix specific course to be held June 8-10 for 4th year students and faculty. Rumor has it Jacques Roy has been instrumental in building the coursework. For information on the Tech Day held Jan 17, see IIUG Insider Issue #103 (January 2009): /Insider/insider_jan09.php#7.1

Last, but certainly not least, the Informix Academic team tried something new. Invites were sent to local professors and department chairs in the Kansas/Missouri area – to enjoy a free 1 day pass to the IIUG conference to meet with IBM execs and enjoy an afternoon of conference sessions. We had a great response; we need a bigger room next year! See Andrew’s article in this issue for a bit more detail.

The professors/department chairs were excited about the possibility of giving their students options in the classroom. They were also excited about the proximity to the IBM Informix team and IBM’s willingness to work with the universities. Our monthly conference calls will continue, and we are already brewing more ideas for next year.

Special thanks to VendorRate. They were at the conference and raffled off their big screen TV. A professor won!

We are on the road to success. Thank you to IBM, the IIUG community, the IIUG board, and the IIUG Conference Planning Committee (CPC) for their efforts.

Norma Jean Sebastian

Informix news Back to top

New IBM Appliance Delivers Enterprise Cloud Services
PR Newswire (press release) – Apr 30, 2009
IBM has a number of initiatives that allow customers to leverage IBM software in a cloud. IBM is working in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc. to make IBM software available in the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). WebSphere sMash, Informix Dynamic Server, DB2, and WebSphere Portal with Lotus Web Content Management Standard Edition are available today through a “pay as you go” model for both development and production instances. In addition to those products, IBM is also announcing the availability of IBM Mashup Center and Lotus Forms Turbo for development and test use in Amazon EC2, and intends to add WebSphere Application Server and WebSphere eXtreme Scale to these offerings.

/url/news_30apr09.html

VMware Enables Users to Easily Test-Drive Cloud Computing Through the VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace (VAM) and VMware vCloud(tm) Service Provider Free Trials
Business Wire (press release) – Apr 20, 2009
IBM is helping companies of all sizes address the challenge of managing huge volumes of data by helping them implement an Information Agenda to quickly transform data into a strategic asset, and, in turn, unlock its full value to make smarter business decisions,” said Boris Bialek, program director for IBM Data Management. “VMware’s virtual appliance model simplifies this approach by delivering InfoSphere Warehouse, DB2 and Informix database software ready to work in cloud environments, and making it easier than ever for new clients to put this powerful software to work for their businesses.

/url/news_20apr09.html

VendorRate Reports Iron Speed Races Past All IT Vendors to Post Highest Customer Satisfaction Score
Business Wire (press release) – Apr 16, 2009
Iron Speed received an overall score of 97, four points higher than second-place Informix. Security encryption maker BOSaNOVA was third with a 91. Among resellers, Newegg and PC connection tied for the highest score with 91. Oracle consultant Cloud Creek Systems took top consultant honors with a 93.

Informix resources Back to top

Informix blogs and things

  • The IIUG forums at /forums/technical.php **** these are very good****
  • Blogs, Videos, News and more at http://planetids.com
  • IDS Experts at http://www-03.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/idsteam
  • Guy Bowerman at http://www-03.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/gbowerman
  • Madison Pruitt at http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/roundrep
  • Jacques Roy at http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/jacquesroy
  • Cathy Elliott at https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/InformixVoices ** New **
  • Informix blogs at http://www.ibmdatabasemag.com/blog/main/archives/informix/index.html
  • Kate Dawson at http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/katedawson
  • Fernando Nunes at http://informix-technology.blogspot.com/
  • Virtual Worlds, MMOGs, Serious data – Informix Technology for Persistent Worlds http://informix4virtual.wordpress.com/
  • IBM DATABASE MAGAZINE at http://www.ibmdatabasemag.com
  • The Informix Zone at http://www.informix-zone.com
  • The Informix mag at http://www.informixmag.com/
  • IIUG developers Desktop /devnews/Vol_1_Iss_4/Home.html
  • There is now an Informix group on LinkedIn. The group is called “Informix Supporter”, so anyone loving Informix can join, from current IBM employees, former Informix employees to users can join. It will also be a good occasion to get in touch with others or long-time-no-seen friends. If you fancy showing the Informix logo on your profile, join. To join, simply go to: http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/25049/5E4B2048E558

 

Calendar of events Back to top
May – 2009
Date Event Location Contact
20 Informix Tech Fair IBM Facility, Beaverton Oregon John Miller
26-28 ISV/TP Workshop Valamar Dubrovnik President Hotel, Dubrovnik, Croatia Sonja Bulic, Hrvoje Zokovic
June – 2009
Date Event Location Contact
2-5 IBM Information on Demand EMEA Conference 2009 Berlin, Germany Gayathri Srinivasan

 

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. The 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
Tammy Frankforter

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.