IIUG Insider (Issue #307) February 2026

Highlights: Elevate Informix Observability: Let’s Bring Official Support to Datadog

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.

Editorial

Letter from the IIUG President:

It has been almost 10 years since IBM and HCL signed a partnership to collaboratively develop and support Informix. I am sure there was much management speak about ‘synergy’ and that it would “Move the needle” and lots of other management speak. However, what they were really doing was putting together a solid foundation for a partnership between two firms with a strong investment into the database market and a lot of resources on both sides to make a project like this work.

Over time things have changed and priorities shifted. IBM focused more on the internal model of the database and working to integrate it into other products such as CloudPak and IBM Cloud. While HCL was focusing on public cloud offerings and specific performance functionality. Eventually this led to a product split with HCL renaming the product OneDB.

The reality is the products were effectively the same, with new development going into OneDB also going into IBM Informix, and on the flip side, pieces such as 4gl being ported for an HCL release. In time the product was renamed from OneDB back to HCL Informix to make it clear that it is still the same product we know and love and rely on.

This brings us to the present. There are now two products that are technically from two different companies. However, they are the same product. They have the same releases, the same features, the same development, the same support. They just have slightly different branding. It is still all Informix at the end of the day.

So that raises the question: what is the IIUG doing?

The International Informix Users Group is not the IBM Informix Users group, nor were we acquired by HCL. We are an agnostic organization there to support Informix users regardless of which version or which vendor they use. We want to promote Informix regardless of which company it comes from and offer resources to Informix users regardless if they are IBM or HCL customers. We also want to take the community feedback and give that to both IBM and HCL to help continue improving the product.

While we have a long standing relationship with IBM and do appreciate the extensive support they have given the group over time, we have never been beholden to them. We help support their products and they helped provide resources to the IIUG which benefited both sides.  We also have a growing relationship with HCL and want to see both continue to flourish.

We may also from time to time let either company share Informix relevant content with our members by including information into our publications or by having TechTalks provided by the companies. The intent of that is to help provide relevant resources and information to Informix user base.

The IIUG does not take sides nor does it play favorites. Our mission is to the users of Informix. We will continue to get resources and content from both companies to put out to our members. As the board, we will continue to remain independent with a focus on the user community and not an arm for any specific company.

 

Tom Beebe
IIUG Board of Directors, President
tom@iiug.org  

 

Highlights

Elevate Informix Observability: Let’s Bring Official Support to Datadog

Informix continues to be a cornerstone of high-performance data processing. As more teams adopt Datadog for unified visibility, there is an exciting opportunity to bring these two powerful technologies together.
 
While there is active interest on the IBM Ideas Portal (INFX-I-681), we can accelerate this progress by showing Datadog the strength and enthusiasm of the Informix community.
 
The Vision: Seamless Integration
An official, native Datadog integration for Informix will provide:
  • Instant Visibility: Pre-configured dashboards for engine health and session activity.
  • Streamlined Operations: Automated metric collection and log correlation.
  • Future-Proof Monitoring: A dedicated integration maintained by Datadog’s engineering experts.
How to Take Action
Datadog thrives on customer feedback to shape its roadmap. By submitting a brief request, you help highlight the value of the Informix ecosystem:
  1. Submit: Open a support ticket or reach out to your Datadog Account Manager.
  2. The Goal: Share your interest in seeing Informix added to their premier list of supported integrations.

Anup Nair
IBM

 

Conference Corner

IBM TechXchange Conference 2026 – Save the Date!!

IBM TechXchange 2026

October 26 – 29, 2026

Atlanta, Georgia, USA 

 

Receive a 40% discount to IBM TechXchange 2026 if you register now.

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

Stay tuned for future updates!

Invite colleagues to join us at IBM TechXchange 2026!

We can’t wait to see you in Atlanta in 2026!

#IIUG #IBMTechXchange #Informix

Rhonda Hackenburg
IIUG Board

 

Informix Corner

Informix Tech Talks on YouTube – March 19, 1:00 EDT

Upcoming Informix Tech Talks

Title: An Amazon-style B2B e-commerce application fully powered by Informix

Date: Thursday, March19, 2026

Time: 1:00 PM EDT

Speaker: Xavi Escoté Llopis

 

Description: We’ve built an enterprise-grade platform for customers that mirrors the core capabilities of Amazon — product catalogs, ordering workflows, pricing rules, customer portals, and more — all running natively on Informix. In the session I’d walk through the application itself and dive into the architecture behind it: how we leverage Informix to handle the data model, performance, and scale that a feature-rich B2B commerce platform demands.

Bio: Xavi is a technical lead at Airtool, a Barcelona-based company helping enterprises run their entire business — ERP, CRM, HR, and more — on a single AI-powered platform.

 

 REGISTER HERE

Rhonda Hackenburg
IIUG Board

 

Last Informix Tech Talks Replay

Replay of the Last Informix Tech Talks: January 2026 – Understanding how Indexes in Informix Work by Mark Jamison

 

Informix Tech Talks YouTube Channel

Our YouTube Channel now has:

  • 584 subscribers (3 new subscribers)
  • 119 videos (no new videos)
  • 26,687 views (365 additional views)

Informix Tech Talks YouTube Channel Videos

Past Informix Tech Talks Replays

 

In Search of Tech Talks Speakers

We are looking for additional speakers and especially any new speakers to share your Informix knowledge with our user Community via the IIUG Tech Talks. We will assist you in preparing for your Tech Talks presentation by prerecording your session. This will allow you to be available to answer any questions that come up in the chat during your presentation.

If you are interested in producing a 15 – 45-minute presentation, please contact either Art Kagel or Bruce Simms for additional information.

Rhonda Hackenburg
IIUG Board

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/

 

2026 Update to Informix Badging Process

The Informix 14.10 Badge exam is NOW available.

Click here for information on how to register for the exam.

Rhonda Hackenburg
IIUG Board

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

Informix HQ schema compare between two database

New configuration parameter to enable sbspace logging by default

Informix latest version 14.10 and 15.0 on OS: Ubuntu 24.04.03 LTS (Noble Numbat)

 

Popular 

Informix should be able to change owner on tables and any other objects (110 votes)

Backup Individual database, not entire instance (95 votes)

IBM Informix Forum Corner

Join and visit the IBM Informix Community Forum

Recent Posts:

Memory block header in pool ‘rsam’ corruption

IDE 15.0.1.0 : JDBC could not open database table

IPL commit (tx:

Changing from raw to cooked

How to get access to Informix products as developer

IDS 11.70FC4 Timeseries Bug

Parameters adjusted at startup

How to estimate the free size of smart blob dbspaces?

Replication no replicating

Query F.E. Version in sysmaster ?

Obtaining IBM ODBC driver for Informix

Update to utils2_ak

 

Rhonda Hackenburg
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 – NEW!!

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 LinkedIn X 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