Guys,
While I don't want to pour oil on troubled waters - I do think that we
should stop raking over the coals of the acquisition. It doesn't change
anything, and only reiterates the pain of the dying years of Informix and
the troubled years following the takeover.
OK so IBM don't regard Informix as sufficiently worthy to be treated
alongside Oracle and SQL Server:-} Or is it that they arrogantly don't
expect us Informix users to ever want to migrate in a negative direction:-o
I certainly don't want to migrate to DB2.
People are not migrating based on the features.
People are not migrating based on the price or availability of tools to help
them.
People are migrating to Squeal and Orrible because those two products are
perceived as being the leaders.
I am regularly looking at the employment situation. I see lots of jobs for
Orrible, lots for Squeal, and even jobs for slybase, but very few for DB2 or
Informix. That is why people aren't migrating from Informix to DB2.
We complain a lot in this newsgroup at the lack of publicity about Informix,
but from what I can see they are publicising Informix as well as they
publicise DB2. OK if you go the web-site it is still easier to find DB2
than Informix, but if you were a new or migrating customer you wouldn't be
looking at the IBM web-site anyway. People still perceive IBM as the
mainframe database company and DB2 as the mainframe database product. And
nothing IBM has done has convinced the existing Informix users that DB2 is a
viable alternative.

Only last week I was talking to some developers and asking them what they
would use as a server to develop against. They mentioned just two. Guess?

regards

Malcolm
----- Original Message -----
From: "Andy Kent" <andykent.bristol@virgin.net>
To: <informix-list@iiug.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 2004 11:49 AM
Subject: Re: IDS to DB2 conversion


> Good reply Serge, thanks. But ...
>
> Serge Rielau <srielau@ca.eye-be-em.com> wrote in message
news:<bv6mdd$lga$1@hanover.torolab.ibm.com>...
>
> > I don't agree that the Informix MTK is an afterthought.
>
> How come the tools for Oracle and SQL Server are already in place
> then, according to Neil's earlier post? This speaks for itself that
> IBM didn't think of Informix as a credible player when it first went
> about writing migration tools, and while the acquisition should have
> changed this point of view, the acquisition wasn't exactly yesterday.
>
> As for the lost business, it's bad enough being told "if you want to
> stick with us you'll have to switch to a product we like better", but
> I think most of the real damage was done in the first year when there
> was no evidence that Informix was not going to be summarily dumped.
> Although there is now some kind of game plan in place the lack of a
> long-term commitment to Informix and the intention to wind it down
> couldn't be more obvious, and the comments elsewhere in the Newsgroup
> about the quality of the Passport Advantage programme don't exactly
> inspire confidence. The lack of any marketing and the punitive,
> archaic maintenace costs seem to drive the final nail in the coffin; I
> know of at least one company that is currently in the process of
> dumping Informix for SQL Server for this last reason alone.
>
> Although you say that DB2 will more closely resemble IDS in the future
> I don't think anyone will accept this as a sufficient second-best to
> hang on if they can possibly avoid doing so.
>
> Andy
>
>
>
>
> > A successful migration needs a lot more than just a tool.
> > It just takes so long to pull all the pieces together.
> > These pieces include: MTK, language interfaces (like 4GL, ESQL/C, ...)
> > Transfer of Informix features into DB2 and lastly synchronization of IDS
> > development with DB2 (aka. ensure one can use new features in Informix
> > and not regret it should one decide to move to DB2 later).
> > When Informix was bought it was too late to rework the DB2 V8.1 plan.
> > Rest assured that DB2 Development is taking great care in introducing
> > Informix features into DB2 (drawing on Informix developers to make sure
> > it's done right and not lost in translation).
> >
> > Those customers who leave now are lost, too bad. Those who stay will
> > find that their options increase over time as DB2 moves closer to IDS.
> >
> > Cheers
> > Serge

sending to informix-list

"malcolm.iiug" <malcolm.iiug@btopenworld.com> wrote in message
news:bv8hpm$pne$1@terabinaries.xmission.com...
>
> I am regularly looking at the employment situation. I see lots of jobs
for
> Orrible, lots for Squeal, and even jobs for slybase, but very few for DB2
or
> Informix. That is why people aren't migrating from Informix to DB2.

People aren't migrating from Informix to DB2 because there are few job
postings for either product??

> We complain a lot in this newsgroup at the lack of publicity about
Informix,
> but from what I can see they are publicising Informix as well as they
> publicise DB2.

Have you got your head up your arse? Do you not see the full-page ads for
DB2 in Computer Weekly every week for example?

> People still perceive IBM as the
> mainframe database company and DB2 as the mainframe database product.

So true.

> I am regularly looking at the employment situation. I see lots of jobs for
> Orrible, lots for Squeal, and even jobs for slybase, but very few for DB2 or
> Informix. That is why people aren't migrating from Informix to DB2.

I think you're getting cause and effect mixed up.

Andy