Highlights: Informix Security Notices

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 Informix community.

Table of Contents

Editorial

Please read the security notices carefully and make sure your Informix instance is not vulnerable.

I would like to be able to visit the RFE (Request For Enhancements) and share your new requests. This month there were no new requests but I’m sure it is not because you are not interested in new features.

This year there will be elections for the IIUG Board of Directors. We would like to see new board members. Election announcements will be coming soon.

Thank you.

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

Highlights

Informix Security Notices

Since the beginning of August, three new critical security notices were posted by IBM about Informix Dynamic Server.

These impact all version 14.10 and 15 servers prior to 14.10.xC13W13 and 15.0.1.14.  Please review your systems and patch accordingly.

In this time of ever-changing IT landscapes, always be mindful of keeping your systems up to date.

To sign up for IBM security bulletins please visit: IBM PSIRT News.

Please share this email with others who might need to know this important information.

Thomas Beebe
IIUG Board of Directors, President

Conference Corner

IBM TechXchange Conference 2026

IBM TechXchange 2026

October 26 – 29, 2026

Atlanta, Georgia, USA

REGISTER HERE!

NOTE: You will be taken to the IBM sign in page to register and submit your session for this event. You must have an IBM account for this event. There is a link on the page to create your IBM account.

Informix Sessions for TechXchange User Day, October 26 (only!):

TITLE	SPEAKER	DESCRIPTION
International Informix User Group(IIUG): Vector Search Inside IBM Informix: Building a Native AI Embedding Engine with DataBlade [MUP-4657]	Xavier Escoté Airtool, Deister	Vector similarity search is the backbone of modern AI applications such as RAG pipelines, semantic search, and recommendation systems. While most architectures rely on separate vector databases, this session demonstrates an alternative: a full DataBlade implementation in IBM Informix that integrates vector search natively within the database engine. We introduce a native vector opaque type and an HNSW approximate nearest-neighbor index, enabling embeddings and business data to be queried in a single SQL statement. The design includes a float32 type with AVX2 SIMD-optimized distance functions (cosine, L2, inner product, L1), SQL operator overloading, and a custom HNSW index via Informix’s Virtual-Index Interface. We also compare against pgvector, highlighting its 2,000-dimension HNSW limit versus Informix’s support for up to 8,191 dimensions, enabling full-resolution OpenAI embeddings. The session covers benchmarks, extensibility constraints, and hybrid SQL patterns that combine vector similarity with metadata filtering in a single query without post-processing.
International Informix User Group(IIUG): Migrating Applications to Informix Version 15.0 [MUP-4656]	Art Kagel ASK Database Management	Migrating your applications to Informix V15.0 entails unique challenges. While existing applications continue to work with existing tables created by earlier releases of Informix, in order to take advantage of the new features included in Informix V15.0 some coding changes and recompilation is required. This session discusses these issues as well as outlining the relevant changes in Informix V15.0.
International Informix User Group(IIUG): What’s new in Informix 15.0 – Unlimited and Future Proof [MUP-4658]	John Lengyel HCL	Covering all the new benefits of the Informix 15.0 release and priorities for the future. 15.0 is the latest and greatest Informix version and join us to find out what’s new and priorities moving forward.
International Informix User Group(IIUG): External SmartBlobs in IBM Informix 15: Configuration Deep Dive and AI-Ready Architectures [MUP-4659]	Vicente Salvador Cubedo DEISTER, S.A.	This session explores the new External SmartBlobs feature in IBM Informix 14, providing a technical deep dive into configuration methods, architecture, storage management, and operational best practices. We will review how SmartBlobs stored directly in external files simplify large object management while opening new integration possibilities for modern AI and analytics environments, where file-based access is often required for model training and data pipelines. The session also includes a real customer implementation, covering deployment decisions, lessons learned, and production results.
International Informix User Group(IIUG): Meet the Expert: Licensing to technology. All you want to know about IBM Informix [MUP-4660]	Anup Nair – Product Manager Mark Jamison – Technical Product Manager Karen Qualley – Dev Product Manager John Lengyel – Chief Informix Architect	All your Informix related questions ranging from licensing to architecture answered live by the Principal Product manger and the Technical Product Manager.

For additional details regarding the above Informix sessions, please refer to the full catalog. Click on User Group Led, and IIUG.

Full Session Catalog

Stay tuned for future updates!

#IIUG #IBMTechXchange #Informix

Rhonda Hackenburg
IIUG Board

Informix Corner

A simple way to use Windows powershell to validate an Informix connection

System.Data.Odbc.OdbcConne$conn.Open()

$conn.State

$conn.Driver

$conn.Database

$cmd = $conn.CreateCommand()

$cmd.CommandText = “SELECT DBINFO(‘dbhostname’) FROM sysmaster:sysdual”

$cmd.ExecuteScalar()

$conn.Close()

Paul Watson

Informix Tech Talks on YouTube

Upcoming Informix Tech Talks

Title: Migration of the Informix 4GL “green screen“ application to web-based application

Date/Time: September 17, 2026 1:00 PM EDT

Speaker: Jan Musil, IBM

Description: The goal of this session will be to turn an old Informix-4GL terminal application into a modern Java web application that can run in containers with Kubernetes. Using simple prompts, IBM Bob will convert it into a clear multi-layer architecture based on Spring Boot. This new design separates the user interface, application logic, and data access, while keeping the existing Informix database. As a result, the application is easier to maintain, extend, and scale.

Bio: Jan is a Partner Technical Professional at IBM, specializing in data platform technical sales. He is responsible for data products, primarily Informix and watsonx.data. His current focus also includes IBM Bob, an AI assistant designed to support and accelerate the software development lifecycle.

4GL Migration Registration

Rhonda Hackenburg
IIUG Board

Last Informix Tech Talks Replay

Replay of the Last Informix Tech Talks: August 2026 – Informix TimeSeries implementation using IBM Bob – by Jan Musil, IBM

Informix Tech Talks YouTube Channel

Our YouTube Channel now has:

600 subscribers (3 new subscribers)
125 videos (1 new video)
28,450 views (313 additional views)

Informix Tech Talks YouTube Channel Videos

Past Informix Tech Talks Replays

In Search of Tech Talks Speakers

We are looking for passionate voices to present at our monthly Tech Talks for 2026! Whether you are a seasoned expert or a fresh voice in the community, your insights can spark the next big breakthrough.

Why Join Us?

Connect: Engage with a global community of Informix peers.
Support: Help others solve challenges by sharing what you know well.
Grow: Build your professional brand with the IIUG and Informix ecosystem.

Presentations need only be 15 – 45 minutes. If you haven’t done this before you won’t need to do this alone; the board will assist you with preparing you presentation.

Tech Talks are normally the third Thursday of the month around 1:00 pm ET. However, we are willing to adjust the timing to meet your needs. The IIUG promotes the event and will set up the registration for the event.

All presentations are recorded and will be offered as replays on our YouTube Tech Talks channel page.

Maybe you are too shy to be a presenter. If you have a topic you would like to see as a presentation, you can submit the topic to us and we will try to find a presenter.

You don’t have to be an IIUG member to present or attend the Tech Talks. If you are interested, please contact either Art Kagel or Bruce Simms for additional information.

Rhonda Hackenburg
IIUG Board

Actian Informix Events

Title: Upcoming German-Language Webinar: HCL Informix® modernisieren: Mit VectorBlade vorhandene Daten für KI nutzen

Date/Time: September 10, 2026 / 16:00 CEST

Speaker: Dr. Steffen Kläbe, Chief Researcher at Actian

Description: In this one-hour session, will explore how HCL Informix® and VectorBlade can help you use existing data for modern AI applications – without requiring an external vector database.

Topics include:

HCL Informix® VectorBlade: Learn how to store and query Vector Embeddings natively in HCL Informix – without an external vector database.
RAG without additional ETL: See how Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) can bring operational data and Embeddings together securely in one database.
The Road to HCL Informix® 15: Get an insight into the 2026 roadmap and new capabilities designed to support AI at scale.
Integration with modern AI technologies: See how HCL Informix® can integrate with modern AI agent frameworks and the Model Context Protocol (MCP) using tools you already know.

The webinar is designed for developers, DBAs and IT professionals interested in evolving their existing database environments to support modern AI applications.

Please note: This webinar will be presented in German.

Title: Actian Database User Day – on location

Date/Time: September 17, 2026 / 9:00 – 17:30

Location: Mercedes-Benz World, Weybridge, Surrey, UK
(close to Heathrow Airport)

Speaker: John “JC” Lengyel, Informix Chief Architect

Description: HCL Informix® users across EMEA are invited to join us for an in-person Database User Day on 17 September at Mercedes-Benz World in Weybridge, UK.

John “JC” Lengyel, Informix Chief Architect will be joining us for the day to share the latest developments in HCL Informix®, what’s coming next and how HCL Informix® is evolving to support new AI use cases.

The HCL Informix® program will include:

What’s new and coming in HCL Informix®: Hear the latest on HCL Informix® 15, including new capabilities, performance updates and what’s ahead.
VectorBlade and AI: See how vector data types, embeddings and LLM integration bring modern AI capabilities to data already held in HCL Informix®, including a demonstration of Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG).
A closer look at HCL Informix® capabilities: JC will explore features and capabilities that HCL Informix® users may not yet be taking full advantage of.
Practical experience from the HCL Informix® community: Hear real-world experiences, lessons learned and best practices from organizations running HCL Informix® today.
Looking ahead: Exchange ideas directly with the HCL Informix® team and other users about future requirements and priorities.

The day is designed to be as much about conversation as presentations, with plenty of opportunity to ask questions, meet other HCL Informix® users and speak directly with JC and the wider HCL Informix® team.

Informix Training

Free Informix Tutorials Videos – a step-by-step approach to using Informix Database Servers is available at https://advancedatatools.com/tech-info/informix-tutorials/

RFE Corner

IBM has an RFE – Request For Enhancements website.

Please visit the RFE site to vote for your favorite enhancements and place new requests. It is friendly and has a nice look and feel.

Recent

No new submissions

Gary Ben-Israel
IIUG Board

IBM Informix Forum Corner

Join and visit the IBM Informix Community Forum

Recent Posts:

Is that SBspace really empty?

data insertion in multiple sbspaces

external optimizer directives not working

CDR stopped working if one of 9 targetservers were offline

IFX 14.10 FC14 License File

Gary Ben-Israel
IIUG Board

Informix Resources

IIUG Website
Not a member? Become an IIUG member and keep updated on all things Informix. It’s free.

IBM Informix Community
Not a member, join the IBM Informix community and connect with other Informix data experts.

Blogs / Newsletters

Art Kagel – https://informix-myview.blogspot.com/

Mary Schulte – ACTIAN https://www.actian.com/blog/databases/user-friendly-external-smartblobs-using-a-shadow-directory/

Gerd Kaluzinski – German Informix Newsletter

IBM Informix RFE

IBM Informix RFE – Informix Requests for Enhancements.

Technical Articles

Oninit Group
WAIUG (Washington Area Informix User Group) Tech Tips
Over 10 Years of Informix Webcast Replays
Over 30 Years of Informix Blog Posts

Social Media

YouTube

Facebook

IIUG’s own Art Kagel was recently features on the Tech Sharmit Podcast to talk about his life and involvement with Informix and database systems.
Catch the podcast here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l81pLa7i-J0)

Forums, Groups, Videos, and Magazines

Informix Marketing channel on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/user/informixmarketing?feature=results_main

Closing and Credits

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 exceeds 25,000 entries and enjoys the support and commitment of IBM’s Information 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, Rhonda Hackenburg

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