Compare the Informix Dynamic Server Version 11 editions

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Carlton Doe (cdoe@us.ibm.com), Executive IT Specialist, Informix Technical Sales, Americas, IBM

10 Jan 2008
Updated 16 Jun 2008

Confused about the various editions of IBM® Informix Dynamic Server (IDS)? In this article you’ll get an introduction to each edition, and then you can compare features, benefits, and licensing considerations in a side-by-side table. Regardless of which edition you choose, IDS brings you legendary ease-of-use, reliability, stability, and access to extensibility features.

Introduction

As IBM's premier data server for high volume online transaction processing (OLTP) as well as integrated applications, IDS has supported thousands of companies as they've expanded, added new applications, and dynamically grown their business. As these companies have grown and their needs increased, IDS has kept pace with them without costing them a fortune for ongoing maintenance and administration. In most cases, these companies have grown without requiring significant infrastructure upgrades because IDS is so efficient. It doesn't require constant hardware upgrades to provide adequate performance for increased workloads. In some cases, companies have opted to move to higher powered hardware, sometimes running the same operating system, other times not. The transitions occurred smoothly with little, if any, downtime because, as they like to say about IDS — "it just works!"

It simple terms, this means IDS works without a problem or major administrative issues regardless of the operating system IDS is running on, so you can manage your application needs as your business dictates. Another advantage to IDS is that it has the broadest operating system support of the IBM data server family with ports for Windows®, HP-UX, Sun Solaris, SGI IRIX, AIX®, and Linux® - iSeries™, - pSeries®, - xSeries®, and - zSeries®. With the release of IDS 11.5, a new supported platform was introduced — Apple Macintosh with their Mac OS X, Version 10.5.2 and later. Both the client and server versions of Mac OS X are supported. Through its Virtual Table Interface (VTI) and Virtual Index Interface (VII), IDS has for years provided programmers with the ability to create primary and secondary access methods to data objects stored outside of the data server, such as spreadsheets, word processing documents, ISAM structures, flat files, and more. With IBM Informix Enterprise Gateway Manager, you can extend the IDS SQL API with transparent access to non-IBM relational databases (for example, Oracle or Microsoft SQL Server) and materialize non-relational data sources such as Virtual Storage Access Method [VSAM], and IMS® as relational tables. Recent enhancements enable the use of other non-standard data sources within the data server, such as XML and message queues. Forward looking application developers have leveraged these capabilities to create a corporate-wide data model with in-place access to data wherever it resides in the enterprise.

Not all customers need the same data server features and functionality though. In some cases, this is a technological decision, for example, a customer is not using Enterprise Replication or some of the advanced backup and recovery features. In other cases, this is driven by licensing requirements and the expenses involved. From a product perspective, IDS is well attuned to both cases. With the first, a customer decides at installation time what features and functionality to install to meet their current requirements and licensing terms. As their needs change or they purchase licenses for additional functionality, it’s a simple process to add (or delete) functionality to meet their requirements. From a licensing perspective, IDS can be purchased in different editions, each tailored from a price and functionality perspective to a specific market segment. Regardless of the edition purchased, IDS comes with the full implementation of the Dynamic Scalable Architecture (DSA) and its unmatched performance, reliability, ease of use, and availability. Pricing varies based on functionality and scalability differentiation. Below is a brief comparison of the three editions and their feature sets.

• IBM IDS Developer Edition (IDS-DE) — For application development and testing only, this edition packs a full suite of functionality into a very attractive price point: free! IDS-DE includes all the functionality available in the Enterprise Edition. It contains scalability limits for non-production use including processing, memory and storage limitations. It is available on a wide range of operating systems in 32 and 64 bit versions where appropriate. IDS-DE comes without formal support from IBM. A number of forums exist in the IDS development community, which you can join and turn to for help and support using IDS-DE. You can upgrade IDS-DE directly to any other edition simply by installing the new data server binaries.
• IBM IDS Express Edition (IDS-Express) — This edition is targeted to small- to medium-sized businesses requiring enterprise-class OLTP performance without all the extra features and price tag. This edition is licensed by "authorized user" and processor Value Unit (VU). It is limited to 200 VUs and 4 GB of RAM ((calculated by summing the total instance memory allocation of all instances operating on the physical server) and is available only for 32 bit Linux and Windows. You can upgrade IDS-Express directly to any other edition simply by installing the new data server binaries.
• IBM IDS Workgroup Edition (IDS-WGE) — This edition stakes out the middle ground for mid-sized companies or departmental servers in an enterprise deployment. Available on all supported operating systems, this edition has higher hardware limits than IDS-Express: 480 VU and 8 GB of RAM (calculated by summing the total instance memory allocation of all instances operating on the physical server). IDS Workgroup’s licensing model is slightly different, though. It can be licensed by "authorized user", "concurrent session", and processor VU.

  IDS Workgroup Edition gives you additional data server functionality with the optional Parallel Performance for Workgroup Feature to utilize partitioning, parallel query, high performance loader, and parallel backup and restore. Parallel Data Query metrics can be used to reserve data server resources for complex SQL operations. You can also use the High Performance Loader and the parallel backup and restore options in the ON-Bar utility suite as part of the Parallel Performance option. An IDS Workgroup instance can be a leaf node (or target) in an Enterprise Replication (ER) cluster receiving data updates from other nodes in the clusters. Finally, an optional feature called High-Availability Data Replication (HDR) can be purchased to instantiate a disaster-recovery, hot-site failover node. With IDS 11.5, you can extend the business value of the HDR secondary by purchasing a licenses to execute end-user SQL operations while connected to this node. These licenses can be purchased on either a concurrent session or authorized user basis.

• IBM IDS Enterprise Edition (IDS-EE) — Includes all the features of IDS Workgroup with unlimited scalability required for the highest OLTP performance. This edition can be licensed by processor VU, concurrent session, or authorized users. With this edition, full HDR and ER functionality is included, along with a limited number of DataBlades pre-bundled with the data server, such as the spatial, node, and basic text search DataBlades. New to version 11 is the ability to buy optional features, such as Advanced Access Control and the Continuous Availability Feature. The first provides Label-Based Access Control (LBAC), a form of mandatory data access controls, while the second provides access to the full MACH-11 feature suite for creating a high-availability fabric for the instances.

IDS can be licensed through one of three pricing metrics depending on your needs. A brief description of each metric is listed below.

Note: The descriptions are only a summary of the licensing definitions. They are not intended to be full and legally binding. For a full and complete description, refer to the IDS licensing agreement.

• VU (also known as processor-based pricing) — Calculated on the number of processor cores in the physical server multiplied by the corresponding value units based on processor architecture. This could be considered an unlimited user or connection license and is usually the optimal choice when the user or session load can not be controlled or counted.
• Authorized User — A single named user accessing one installation of IDS on a single physical server. That authorized user can establish multiple connections to an IDS instance on the server. Each connection is for the exclusive use of that one authorized user from a single client device.
• Concurrent Session — A single logical connection from a client device to an IDS instance on a single physical server. Each connection, whether active or not, requires a license, regardless of if it comes from one client device with multiple users or a single user establishing multiple connections. If connection concentrators or multiplexers are used in the application pathway, the number of concurrent sessions is counted from the client device, not at the IDS level.

Not all pricing models are available for all IDS editions.

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Easy comparison table

Confused on which edition is right for you or your customers? The following table is designed to make it easier for you to determine the unique characteristics of each IDS edition. If a specific feature you’re looking for is not listed in the table, you can assume (for the most part) that it exists in all IDS editions. Again, this is only a general description of the features and license parameters. For exact definitions, refer to the published license agreements available at ibm.com

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Conclusion

Quoting a commonly used phrase, "your needs may vary." Regardless of your data processing requirements though, IBM IDS has the right blend of technological features and feature options to give your business a cost-effective, robust, and scalable foundation on which to build. And since "IDS just works," you can rest assured that IDS has the flexibility to grow with you to scale out or extend the power of your IDS data server.

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Notice

The information in this article is presented on a best effort basis from the author's personal knowledge and not intended to be an official communication from IBM. Neither the author nor IBM is liable for any incorrect information in this article.

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About the author

		Carlton was an Informix customer for years and joined Informix just before the IBM acquisition. A member of the IBM TechWorks team, he has technical pre-sales responsibility for Informix in the North, Central, and South American territories.

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