March 1, 2007

Dear Customers and Business Partners,

This past year (2006) has been an exciting one for me, visiting with hundreds of International Informix Users Group (IIUG) members, Informix^® (IDS) clients and partners - most recently at an IIUG session held in Washington D.C. Seeing the passion and commitment of this community is without parallel in my experience. It also makes me confident that IBM's continuing commitment to the Informix community is a sound investment.

I wanted to take this opportunity to give you an update on IBM's strategic direction for Informix^® software. Your existing Informix database software investments will be extended in future releases. IBM is fully committed to the Informix platform, and we are backing up that commitment by investing to support and enhance the Informix software portfolio as technology evolves.

A proof point of that commitment will be the release of the Informix Dynamic Server (IDS) Cheetah later this year. IDS Cheetah is the next major release of IDS, since we released IDS v10. IDS Cheetah is now in open beta testing for customers and business partners. If you have not already, please download and test run our exciting beta code. If you are running a back level version of IDS today, it is still a great time to upgrade to IDS v10 and gain the benefits of the superior features and performance it offers. It's the fastest, most reliable and most scalable IDS database ever. In short, IDS v10 is a strategic full featured pure OLTP data server. To download a special IIUG evaluation version of IDS 10, you may also go to the IIUG web site and download it. This is available at no charge to all IIUG members (www.iiug.org).

Delivering high quality IT services today is harder than ever; requiring development and management of highly complex systems. IBM is simplifying this task for our Informix customers by providing a broad spectrum of industry-leading business integration, systems management, collaboration, application development and information management software that is integrated and certified with Informix products.

The current Informix plan outlines product strategy thru a five year period (2012) for Informix enhancements going forward. This is consistent with the IBM software policy in regard to roadmaps for product strategy.

We've based our strategy on what you've been telling us. We understand that your business relies on Informix solutions to achieve Information On Demand. As a result, IBM will continue to support the worldwide ecosystem of Informix application providers, solution providers and resellers. And you'll continue to enjoy the flexibility of running Informix on your choice of hardware and operating system platforms.

IBM has the largest R&D organization in the world. Since Informix software became part of the IBM family, IBM R&D has delivered significant improvements to Informix' overall capabilities. IBM's depth of innovation, superior service and support, solutions integration, adherence to standards, strong business partnerships, and solution value remains unmatched. I am personally committed to the success of your business, and to delivering the best available technology to support your current IT investment.

For more information and details on Informix (IDS) please visit our website at http://www.ibm.com/informix.

We had a great growth over the last two years. We are looking forward to another great year in 2007. Thank you for continued support and commitment around IDS. We will keep working hard to deliver you leading edge technology in support of your business objectives.

Sincerely,

Ambuj Goyal
General Manager, Information Management Software
IBM Software Group