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Looks like our dear ol Informix is alive and kicking well. Per IBM site,
license
revenue grew by double digits in 2006 (Q1+Q2).


http://www-03.ibm.com/developerworks...erman/20060802

"
The rise of Informix

The Q2 numbers are in and Informix Dynamic Server experienced another large
increase in revenue to build on the growth of Q1. As usual the details are
not released publicly but I am officially allowed to say, and I quote..


IDS license revenue grew by double digits in the first half of 2006 "

It is funny to see how Informix performs without serious
marketing from IBM and how DB2 seems to stagnate.

If you look at the official IBM quarter sales numbers
for Q2/2006 they had an increase of 4% in segment
middleware (Websphere, Information Management, Tivoli,
Lotus and Rational) compared to Q2/2005.
Websphere (17 %) and Tivoli (12 %) have been the key
drivers in this segment and even Rational (8 %) and
Lotus (6 %) performed well.
So if Informix as a member of the Information management
portfolio had also a double digit growth rate (in Q1 it has
been 22%, don't know the excact number for Q2) I guess
that the DB2 growth rate is very very low or even
declining.

This should be a alarm signal for IBM. However they might
notice that a little bit later when the fog around the new
DB2 Viper release has cleared out and they are faced with the
reality and realize that the XML hype around Viper tends to
be the same flop as the object-relational technology in the
middle of the nineties.

Even worser for DB2 will be be the PVU (Processor Value Unit)
pricing coming from IBM. Reality shows that IDS based on
the elegant multithreading technology consumes less hardware
resources than a comparable DB2 installation. So customers
will save a lot of money in terms of hardware and software
pricing (PVU) if they favor IDS instead of DB2. Performing
reality based benchmarks is the best strategy to proof this
and customers should invest the time to do this before making
a database decision.

At the Infobahn roadshow IBM made a lot of promises regarding
a better, serious marketing for IDS. We will see if those
promises are more than lip services and will get reality
in front of the launch of the next IDS release (10.5).
If yes, I expect a bright future for IDS -


Tambi Dude wrote:
> Looks like our dear ol Informix is alive and kicking well. Per IBM site,
> license
> revenue grew by double digits in 2006 (Q1+Q2).
>
>
> http://www-03.ibm.com/developerworks...erman/20060802
>
> "
> The rise of Informix
>
> The Q2 numbers are in and Informix Dynamic Server experienced another
> large increase in revenue to build on the growth of Q1. As usual the
> details are not released publicly but I am officially allowed to say, and
> I quote..
>
>
> IDS license revenue grew by double digits in the first half of 2006 "

"Tambi Dude" <tambidude@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:44d3ea1b$0$17999$892e7fe2@authen.yellow.readf reenews.net...

>and I quote..
>
>
> IDS license revenue grew by double digits in the first half of 2006 "

Hmm. From what is he or she quoting?

It's a shame they won't release this stuff publicly. Does anyone know why?
Is it for fear of drawing unfavourable (or favourable?) comparisons with DB2
on non-mainframe platforms?

Also, with so little detail available, the rigorous statistician in me asks
"IDS license revenue grew by double digits in the first half of 2006 .."
COMPARED TO what????!!!!!!!!!

Eric Herber" <eric@I-hate-spam.org> wrote in message
news:eb1oku$rk8$1@online.de...

> Even worser for DB2 will be be the PVU (Processor Value Unit)
> pricing coming from IBM. Reality shows that IDS based on
> the elegant multithreading technology consumes less hardware
> resources than a comparable DB2 installation. So customers
> will save a lot of money in terms of hardware and software
> pricing (PVU) if they favor IDS instead of DB2.

Expect IBM to hammer home this point.

> Performing
> reality based benchmarks is the best strategy to proof this
> and customers should invest the time to do this before making
> a database decision.

Only the largest companies have the resources to do this, even assuming the
vendor will let them have the relevant software. This is why vendors time
and effort in benchmarks. Excpet for Informix of course.

Neil Truby wrote:
> Also, with so little detail available, the rigorous statistician in me asks
> "IDS license revenue grew by double digits in the first half of 2006 .."
> COMPARED TO what????!!!!!!!!!

1H 2005
>
>

Eric,

Excellent commentary!

I am curious about the licensing model in light of every increasing
complexity in CPU engineering. There is now dual-core everywhere,
and getting to quad-core is not too far off, so the CPU-based licensing
model is getting rather old. A lot of software is now being sold by
specint ( www.spec.org ) rather than CPU. I am also seeing a lot of
press for DB2 but nothing for Informix at all, not even anecdotal
references. Curious why the open source community knows nothing
about the new Informix. Even Oracle has a big involvement in the
open source movement, very curious why still there is nothing for
Informix--very little to nothing for DB2 as well. DB2 seems to get
a lot of press, but not as much interest from open source community
as what I've seen for Oracle. Both DB2 and Informix seem to come
from a company too interested in Eclipse and Derby but not much else,
and even these items don't get much press.

Questions:

1. Is multi-threading the only hook Informix has? Every product has
a hook that sells the product.

2. What is the developer angle? What is the "thing" that developers
are going to get excited about with Informix?

3. What is the increase in sales? Who is buying Informix and WHY?

4. Why are there no press articles about Informix?


Eric Herber wrote:
> It is funny to see how Informix performs without serious
> marketing from IBM and how DB2 seems to stagnate.
>
> If you look at the official IBM quarter sales numbers
> for Q2/2006 they had an increase of 4% in segment
> middleware (Websphere, Information Management, Tivoli,
> Lotus and Rational) compared to Q2/2005.
> Websphere (17 %) and Tivoli (12 %) have been the key
> drivers in this segment and even Rational (8 %) and
> Lotus (6 %) performed well.
> So if Informix as a member of the Information management
> portfolio had also a double digit growth rate (in Q1 it has
> been 22%, don't know the excact number for Q2) I guess
> that the DB2 growth rate is very very low or even
> declining.
>
> This should be a alarm signal for IBM. However they might
> notice that a little bit later when the fog around the new
> DB2 Viper release has cleared out and they are faced with the
> reality and realize that the XML hype around Viper tends to
> be the same flop as the object-relational technology in the
> middle of the nineties.
>
> Even worser for DB2 will be be the PVU (Processor Value Unit)
> pricing coming from IBM. Reality shows that IDS based on
> the elegant multithreading technology consumes less hardware
> resources than a comparable DB2 installation. So customers
> will save a lot of money in terms of hardware and software
> pricing (PVU) if they favor IDS instead of DB2. Performing
> reality based benchmarks is the best strategy to proof this
> and customers should invest the time to do this before making
> a database decision.
>
> At the Infobahn roadshow IBM made a lot of promises regarding
> a better, serious marketing for IDS. We will see if those
> promises are more than lip services and will get reality
> in front of the launch of the next IDS release (10.5).
> If yes, I expect a bright future for IDS -
>
>
> Tambi Dude wrote:
>> Looks like our dear ol Informix is alive and kicking well. Per IBM site,
>> license
>> revenue grew by double digits in 2006 (Q1+Q2).
>>
>>
>> http://www-03.ibm.com/developerworks...erman/20060802
>>
>> "
>> The rise of Informix
>>
>> The Q2 numbers are in and Informix Dynamic Server experienced another
>> large increase in revenue to build on the growth of Q1. As usual the
>> details are not released publicly but I am officially allowed to say, and
>> I quote..
>>
>>
>> IDS license revenue grew by double digits in the first half of 2006 "
>
>

Neil Truby said:
> Also, with so little detail available, the rigorous statistician in me
> asks
> "IDS license revenue grew by double digits in the first half of 2006 .."
> COMPARED TO what????!!!!!!!!!

Tell the rigorous statistician that it's probably last year. And don't
post while you're on the job!

--
Bye now,
Obnoxio

"... no bill is required as no value was provided."
-- Christine Normile

Double Echo wrote:

> 3. What is the increase in sales? Who is buying Informix and WHY?

One massive O shop has selected Informix for its next generation killer
app which needs massive scaling. Good to know that even shops where
O is well entrenched know when not to use it :-)

Eric Herber wrote:
> It is funny to see how Informix performs without serious
> marketing from IBM and how DB2 seems to stagnate.
>
> If you look at the official IBM quarter sales numbers
> for Q2/2006 they had an increase of 4% in segment
> middleware (Websphere, Information Management, Tivoli,
> Lotus and Rational) compared to Q2/2005.
> Websphere (17 %) and Tivoli (12 %) have been the key
> drivers in this segment and even Rational (8 %) and
> Lotus (6 %) performed well.
> So if Informix as a member of the Information management
> portfolio had also a double digit growth rate (in Q1 it has
> been 22%, don't know the excact number for Q2) I guess
> that the DB2 growth rate is very very low or even
> declining.
>
> This should be a alarm signal for IBM. However they might
> notice that a little bit later when the fog around the new
> DB2 Viper release has cleared out and they are faced with the
> reality and realize that the XML hype around Viper tends to
> be the same flop as the object-relational technology in the
> middle of the nineties.
>
> Even worser for DB2 will be be the PVU (Processor Value Unit)
> pricing coming from IBM. Reality shows that IDS based on
> the elegant multithreading technology consumes less hardware
> resources than a comparable DB2 installation. So customers
> will save a lot of money in terms of hardware and software
> pricing (PVU) if they favor IDS instead of DB2. Performing
> reality based benchmarks is the best strategy to proof this
> and customers should invest the time to do this before making
> a database decision.
>
> At the Infobahn roadshow IBM made a lot of promises regarding
> a better, serious marketing for IDS. We will see if those
> promises are more than lip services and will get reality
> in front of the launch of the next IDS release (10.5).
> If yes, I expect a bright future for IDS -


I do believe that with Q figures showing Informix bouncing back,
IBM will have no choice but to give it its due. After all it is Informix
which is selling more than DB2 on LUW. One Q may be a fluke.
Two Qs????. Threee Qs???????????

Already many kernel engineers of Informix who were assigned to other
products
(read DB2) are assigned back to Informix (taken from Bowerman's
blog).

I do not expect IBM to ever treat Informix same as DB2 bcos of
NIH (not invented here) attitude, but if they show clearly that
they won't kill it, that is good enuf for Informix customers.

Tambi Dude wrote:
> Double Echo wrote:
>
>> 3. What is the increase in sales? Who is buying Informix and WHY?
>
> One massive O shop has selected Informix for its next generation killer
> app which needs massive scaling. Good to know that even shops where
> O is well entrenched know when not to use it :-)
>
>

Right. Same story different day. Always a whisper never anything else.
I guess if you like working with a truly embedded database it's a great
product. It's embedded in obscurity. Can't even get a press opportunity
out of it, pathetic.