Highlights: Elections for IIUG Board of Directors 2010
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:
The IIUG Board of Directors met at the IBM Palisades Conference Center 26-27 of February. We had a good meeting, and we are sure you will see big improvements in the services we are offering our membership. Stay tuned for announcements in the IIUG Corner of the Insider. On Friday we met Robert Thomas, Vice president, Business Development, IBM Software Group, Information Management. Rob presented to the board IBM’s three-year plan for Informix. In the following issue Rob will lay out the plan in detail. All I can reveal at the moment are the 4 key imperatives that will drive the Informix revitalization:
For the first time since the IBM acquisition, we were presented with a comprehensive plan for Informix. We can take the easy way and wait to see how this plan goes, doing nothing in the meantime. But the IIUG community has an important role in the success of this plan. Both our feedback and our support are valuable. For me, this represents a dramatic change. This is the reason for my new attitude. I could save face and stay quiet, but those of you who know me know that this is not my way. I am writing this editorial because I believe in this plan. I am not naive. I know there is a big difference between planning and executing. But I am convinced this is a sincere effort. No, I am not writing these lines to please IBM. I do not report to IBM. I report to you. I am writing these lines because it is my duty as the IIUG Insider editor to inform you and give you the opportunity to participate. Gary Ben-Israel
Elections for IIUG Board of Directors 2010The elections for the IIUG Board of Directors 2010 are about to begin. Your participation in these elections is very important. It gives you members of the IIUG an opportunity to influence the direction of the IIUG and it gives the Board of Directors the recognition and power to lead the way. Election milestones:
The new board will start its term right after the IIUG Informix Conference on April 29.
2010 IIUG Informix Conference — Register before March 16th and save $150 The 2010 IIUG Conference is less than two months away. This year’s conference will be better than ever! Register today if you haven’t already. The IIUG Conference Planning Committee is always striving to make each conference better than the last. This year is no exception. This year’s conference will continue to offer the same top quality sessions as in the past with the introduction of six hands-on labs. These labs offer a variety of topics presented by top speakers in the Informix community.
For additional information about the hands-on labs visit /conf/2010/iiug/labs.php. Our hands-on labs have a lot to offer, but if you don’t see a hands-on lab that piques your interest you will still have the full slate of sessions to complete your IIUG Conference experience. All sessions are offered by experienced professionals in the Informix community. For additional information on the sessions visit /conf/2010/iiug/sessions.php. So join us at the conference and increase your knowledge and skills to maximize your investment in Informix. Register at /conf/2010/iiug/register.php. NOTE: The $699 price has been extended through March 15. After that, the price will be raised to $849. Rhonda Hackenburg Make Plans Now to Attend IOD EMEATake advantage of the unparalleled free certification testing, pre-assessment exam and even more education opportunities available at the Information On Demand EMEA Conference 19-21 May in Rome, Italy. Get certifications in Rome that will keep you at the top of your game and provide return on your current IT investments. Network with the most talented IBM experts and developers and get first-hand hints & tips by participating in the popular Usability and Hands-on Labs. Register today! Visit: http://www.ibm.com/software/uk/data/conf/ You can follow us on twitter visit: http://www.twitter.com/IOD2010
IBMGet Your Free Copy of the New Informix E-book http://www.ibm.com/software/data/informix/discover-informix/ Register for the March 3 Data in Action: Making the Planet Smarter Web Cast /url/smart_planet.html See you there! Advanced DataToolsInformix Data Warehouse Webcast Topics by Advanced DataTools: Business Intelligence dropped from the #1 Technology Priority in 2007-2009 to the #5 Priority in 2010 Gartner CIO survey. Does this mean that BI and Data Warehouses are no longer relevant to business? Or, as one blog that did follow-up surveys said “They (CIO’s) stated BI was consistently burning them and burning them bad. They have gone into a wait and see hibernation.” How do you prevent from getting burned? See our keys to success to building the Informix Data Warehouses correctly in our next webcasts. Successfully Transform and Load Your DataWarehouse – Using the Informix Data Warehouse Feature
Key to Enterprise Data Warehouse Development – Data Marts are Building Blocks to the Enterprise
To Register or Replay a past Webcast go to: http://www.advancedatatools.com/Solutions/DataWarehouseWebcast.html Informix DBA Training at Advanced DataTools Do you want to learn how to be the FASTEST Informix DBA? This is the course our Fastest Informix DBA contest was developed from and will increase your database performance tuning skills. http://www.advancedatatools.com/Training/InformixTraining.html
Informix Chat with the Lab
For more information about the March Chat and to register, go to the program’s Web page: https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/wikis/display/ifmxchatwithlab/Home Audio replay for Feb 24 Informix chat with lab available now!In case you were not able to attend the session or would like to share with someone… Audio replay for topic Top 10 reasons to consider IBM Data Server Driver for JDBC and SQLJ for IDS servers is available on the Chat with the Lab website: http://www.ibm.com/informix/labchats New in DeveloperWorksAutomatically extend dbspaces in Informix Dynamic Server 11.50
Information Management and XML technology
DBA Central
IBM Informix
Data warehousing
For more information go to DeveloperWorks – Informix:
2009 Survey ResultsThe IIUG Annual Feature Request Survey has been compiled. We had an enthusiastic response from our membership giving us some great information for future directions of the Informix product. This is the first of a series of articles of the results of last year’s survey. Thank-you to everyone who responded. Results So who actually took the survey this year? The first section of the survey was to get the demographics of our voting community. We once again had a higher voting percentage from people who identified themselves from EMEA than we did from North America — which verifies how critical it is to recognize our user group as truly International rather than just a USA user group. If you are from EMEA, you should be considering going to the IBM Information On-Demand EMEA conference in Rome, Italy this May. You can get more information on the IBM IOD EMEA event registration at https://www-950.ibm.com/events/wwe/iodemea/iodemea10.nsf/enrollcode. Of course, our own IIUG Informix Conference is coming up in April, and many Europeans have told me that with the current exchange rates it is pretty affordable to fly to Kansas as well. Here is the link for that: /conf/2010/iiug/register.php. 1. Where are you physically located?
Job functions of our surveyors varied, but the top two were as expected: 2. What is your primary job function?
Other Questions about the Surveyors: 3. How many employees are in your organization?
4. How many end users do your Informix instances support?
This year we decided to get more information about the range of products of our user community. Notice that in the next question you could check more than one choice, so the total will not add up to 100%. 5. Which database technologies are currently used in your organization?
6. Which Business Integration (BI) tools to you currently use in your organization?
7. Which versions of Informix are you currently running in your organization?
The top five features wanted by our surveyors. (The ranking numbers were compiled automatically by survey monkey). Please rank the following potential IBM Informix Dynamic Server enhancements by importance to you.
What about the other end? What features are not that desirable by our survey takers? Here were the two least wanted features: <ta |
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Release a 4GL version for Windows 1.58 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Update and improve Informix Standard Engine (SE) 1.13 |
In the next couple Insiders I will continue to give you more results from the survey. Next month the article will be about the 4gl usages of our IIUG community. If you have any questions about this survey or content for the our 2010 survey, please contact Kate Tomchik (kate@iiug.org) or Andrew Ford (andrew@iiug.org).
Kate Tomchik
IBM Corner | Back to top |
Discover the New Face of Informix in New York City March 16
This complimentary Discover Informix event scheduled for March 16 at 3:00 PM in New York City offers a unique opportunity for you to learn how IBM Informix can be instrumental in transforming your business — improving service levels across the enterprise with hassle-free data management. Arvind Krishna, IBM Software Group, Information Management General Manager and other IBM executives will lead this event addressing the issues faced by IT managers of current and prospective IBM clients and by business partners. Register now:
/url/discover_informix.html
Message from the Director
This year is off to an exciting start. It’s only February and there are already some special events planned that may be of interest to the Informix Community. I hope you can join us next week for a virtual conference where the keynote will address how innovations in data management help make the planet smarter. I will also have the opportunity to talk about Informix in a later session, where I’ll get to show how Informix is “hassle free” — one of the reasons we have such loyal clients. This virtual event offers much more, so please take a moment to review the complete agenda and details that follow.
I’m also excited about an event we have planned in New York City later in March. This is the year where we want people to discover Informix, or re-discover Informix! As most of our loyal clients know, Informix offers world-class functionality at a great value, and we continue to invest. We plan to spread the word, and hope you can join us if you’re anywhere near New York on March 16. I’ll be there, together with Arvind Krishna, General Manager of IBM Information Management, and Rob Thomas, Vice President, Worldwide Business Development, IBM Information Management. Please see all the details attached.
We’re also planning our first quarter Informix newsletter, so look out for it soon. In the meantime, I wanted to spread the word about these upcoming events. I hope you can join us!
Regards,
Jerry
Business Partners: Sign Up for the Informix Dynamic Server 11.5 Bootcamp Scheduled for a City Near You
Join us in a city near you for our three-day training on IBM Informix Dynamic Server Version 11.5 in a classroom setting. You’ll learn from detailed presentations and hands-on labs. Other related technologies, products, and offerings such as IBM Data Studio and IBM solidDB Universal Cache will be covered. Check the latest schedule and register today:
/url/ids_bootcamp.html
Last Call to Submit Nominations to Participate in the Early Access Program for the Next Release of Informix Dynamic Server
IBM is seeking Business Partners and Clients from a variety of industries to participate in the Early Access Program for Informix Dynamic Server. Be sure your voice is heard to help guide the development of the next release. Submit your nomination today!
http://www.ibm.com/informix/beta
An education session will be scheduled in early March in preparation for the first early drop.
Informix news | Back to top |
IBM Joins Enterprise Desktop Alliance
MarketWatch
February 10
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Feb 10, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — The Enterprise Desktop Alliance (EDA) today announced that IBM has joined the collaborative of software developers that help further the deployment and management of Macs in the enterprise. By joining the EDA, IBM has broadened the categories of cross-platform integration which the EDA represents to include collaborative and social software from Lotus, software delivery automation capabilities from Rational, and database software from Informix.
/url/marketwatch_10feb2010.html
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
WSJ Blogs
February 10
International Business Machines is expanding an initiative to win over students and professors on its products. How do they lure the college crowd? Free software. The Armonk, N.Y., company said it will offer its portfolio via the Web so professors can use database and business-intelligence programs like IBM Rational, WebSphere and Informix in classes. IBM plans to add Cognos, Lotus and Tivoli to the cloud over time.
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/02/10/ibm-expands-college-outreach/
Informix resources | Back to top |
- 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 Pruet 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
- 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 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. 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 |
March – 2010 | |||
Date | Event | Location | Contact |
2-4 | 2010 IDS 11.5 Bootcamp | Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | |
3 | Data in Action: Making the Planet Smarter Webcast | ||
16 | Discover the New Face of Informix Event | IBM New York City | |
17-19 | 2010 IDS 11.5 Bootcamp | Buenos Aires, Argentina | |
16-18 | 2010 IDS 11.5 Bootcamp | Shanghai, China | |
22-24 | 2010 IDS 11.5 Bootcamp | Taipei, Taiwan | |
22-24 | 2010 IDS 11.5 Bootcamp | Caracas, Venezuela | |
April – 2010 | |||
Date | Event | Location | Contact |
25-28 | 2010 IIUG Informix Conference | Lenexa, Kansas | |
May – 2010 | |||
Date | Event | Location | Contact |
19-21 | IBM Information on Demand EMEA Conference 2010 | Rome,Italy | Nancy van Broekhoven nancyvanbroekhoven@nl.ibm.com |
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:
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. |
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Editors: | Gary Ben-Israel Tammy Frankforter |
For comments, please send an email to gary@iiug.org.