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Uptime, Conference Time, Revenue Time

I'm no data warehouse expert, but Informix Warehouse looks pleasantly familiar

Stuart Litel, CTO, Kazer Inc.

Stuart Litel is president of the International Informix Users Group (IIUG; www.iiug.org/president), CTO of Kazer Technologies (www.kazer.com), an IBM Gold Consultant, member of the IBM Data Champion Inaugural 2008 class, and recipient of the 2008 IBM Data Professional of the Year award.

Summary: A look at Informix Data Warehouse and info on the 2010 IIUG Conference

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Date: 30 Jun 2009
Level: Introductory

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Years ago, back in the '90s before Informix became part of IBM, there was a version of Informix V8 that was also known as Informix XPS, which is still supported and used today. Although I did a short consulting assignment about 10 years ago on an XPS system, I never really got involved in the nuts and bolts of the system. However, two good warehouse expert friends, fellow IBM Data Management magazine columnist Lester Knutsen and IBMer Martie "The Brain" Lurie, both swear to me that XPS was about the best database warehouse product out there-and I will defer to Lester.

Now, IBM has Informix Warehouse, which is effectively the Informix version of IBM InfoSphere Warehouse. Informix Warehouse (ibm.com/software/data/informix/warehouse) actually incorporates some of the more commonly used features of Informix XPS directly into IBM Informix Dynamic Server (IDS) 11.5. It also adds several other IBM tools to enable you to build a mission-critical data warehouse on top of what anyone who spends any time with IDS knows is an extraordinarily fast, reliable database engine.

Making a point: Informix uptime

How fast and reliable is it? Just this morning I got an e-mail from one of the Informix architects at IBM asking me why the IIUG Web site is still using Informix V11.0 when the latest version is 11.5? It's because the IIUG server database has been up for almost two full years without a restart. Now, this is no knock on 11.5, and the upgrade would take only 15 minutes, but this old-school uptime hound just loves being able to say that our database has been up for that long. Yes, Informix really does stay up and running without a restart for well over a year on a server that receives more than a million hits a month!

2010 IIUG Conference location

Now that I have tried to fulfill the request from the editor to include something on data warehouses, let's get to some IIUG business. We have confirmed that the very successful annual IIUG Informix Conference will be at the Marriott Overland Park for the third year in a row, from April 25-28, 2010.

A call for papers-or, as I call it, "Submissions from Potential Presenters"-will go out later this year to encourage more users to submit their writings. The deadline will be November 15, 2009. Remember: if I can present, anyone can. And anyone selected to present gets a free conference registration pass. For more conference information, visit www.iiug.org/conf.

Speaking of conferences, I hope everyone will try to attend this month's IBM Information On Demand 2009 Global Conference, running October 25-29 in Las Vegas. If you are going to be there, make sure you say hello if we pass in the halls.

Go Informix and go huge

Finally, I have a great tip for ISVs. If you are not yet on the Informix bandwagon, meaning your product does not work with Informix, IBM has started a new program to lend a hand. Just port your existing or new product to IDS, and IBM will let you keep all the database sales for the following year (excluding maintenance).

Yes, you heard me right: port your existing ISV product to work with IDS, sell a billion dollars' worth of Informix databases, and you get to keep almost all of the database sales revenue, too.

Now, of course there are restrictions and I don't represent IBM, so you should contact Luis Pereira of IBM at lcpereira@us.ibm.com (tell them I sent you) for more information about the program. And special thanks to Robert Thomas, vice president of business development for IBM Information Management, for putting this all together.

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