New pricing strategy

Non-techie types: please read this, I value any and all input on this.

It's been a while since I discussed anything Informix-related on this blog. But given that it's quite a dramatic change to pricing, I wondered what people's thoughts are.

IBM has radically reduced and simplified the pricing of one of their products, it happens to be the one I work with most of all. In addition, they are giving it away on the Windows and Mac platforms, free to develop and, more importantly, free to deploy. There is a maintenance charge, but it's quite low considering what you're getting for that money.

My take on this is that they're hoping to a) eat into SQL Server's market share and b) buy the Apple market by offering seriously high-end technology at a very competitive price: free. By reducing the price of the software on the more traditional platforms, I guess they're hoping that the existing user base won't migrate away to either of these free platforms.

But aside from that, it looks to me like IBM is finally starting to pull its finger out when it comes to selling Informix by adopting a more aggressive market strategy.

In general, what would you think of someone adopting a strategy where they give away their product (but you have to buy support) in a market where they don't have much presence? Do you think it will work?

I just can't be arsed any more!

I'm going to stop doing the Informix Roundup. It's tedious and of limited interest to most of my blog readers. If anyone else wants to pick it up, let me know.

Informix Roundup: 11 October 2009

Informix Roadshow in Hursley this month.

Informix Roadshow in Lisbon this month.

Informix community event in the UK in November.

Informix bootcamp in Hursley in December.

Security vuln in CSDK.

RSS "delayed apply" feature.

ER "knowledge collection".

IDS Warehouse Roadmap.

The IDS Information Centre has become slightly more interactive.

A small oversight: "U2 came to us as part of the Informix acquisition in 2001, and it was not something IBM acquired intentionally" ... and it took you eight years to work out what to do with it???

Informix Roundup: 30 September 2009

IDS 7.31 went EOS today. The king is dead, long live the king.

Text search webcast.

Call for presentations for IIUG 2010.

Make space in your diary for the UK community event.

Informix Bootcamp in December.

Informix Roadshow in October.

IBM sells U2 to Rocket. Anyone wanna buy Informix?

Informix in a box academic initiative.

vNext Feature survey.

Fundamentals preparation courses keep coming.

Ex-Informixer gets a namecheck.


Another reason to upgrade.

The King is dead. Long live the King!

Today, Informix-Dynamic Server 7.31 finally goes EOS (End of Support, or retirement for the non-techies among you.) The first GA release of 7.31 was UC2, officially released on 26 February 1999. More than ten years and seven months later, and to the accompaniment the wailing and gnashing of teeth of thousands of users, this version has finally ceased to be supported.

Bow your heads in reverence at the passing of the king.

Informix Roundup: 16 September 2009

Holy crap! I haven't done one of these since AUGUST! Absolutely shameful, sorry folks!

xC5 released. Fernando's take.

Informix is the top rated vendor again.

Get lab chat materials here.

TrafficMaster press release.

Cloud stuff.

Fernando on time.

Data Warehousing seminar (tomorrow)

Eric looks at Informix in Telecomms and comes away ... unmoved?

IDS fundamentals certification preparation series.

Get a Brazilian. Blog, I mean!

Installing IDS on Ubuntu.

Dead for six years? Somebody better tell IBM.

PHP DataGrid supports Informix.

Informix integrated with OpenSim. What this actually means.

Informix job in Pune.

dbschema bug.

Centera supports Informix. Odd place to announce it, though.

4GL job.

IIUG 2010 announcement.

Oy vey, have I got a job for you!

Hey mon, why you lookin' so stressed? You want a job?

VendorRated again

The latest report is out. Informix is, once again, very highly rated.

Informix Roundup: 26 July 2009

11.50xC5 is out.

IDS Fundamental certification.

New webpage on embedding Informix.

Article on compression with SAP.

ER enhancements in 10.0.FC9.

Migrating from Oracle to IDS Redbook.

The world's fastest DBA competition, part two.

Job in Jeddah.

New Informix Case Study.

Job in Market Harborough.

Microsoft shit, Informix great.

Ex-Informixer gets a namecheck.

MonkeyBread supports Informix. (I know, who cares?)

Informix logo?

Informix Roundup: 03 July 2009

The IBM edition!

Migrating from Oracle to IDS Redbook.

Article about Data Encryption Expert.

Article about anonymising flat files.

Using InfoSphere Data Architect, Part 1 and Part 2.

Informix Roundup: 02 July 2009

Why database optimisation matters. Simple enough to give to your manager.

OAT 2.25 is out, with new schema management and ER management gubbins.

Madison has something on HDR performance.

Chat with Kevin Brown.

McAfee UK, prepare for "excitement".

New IDS demos available.

Compression webcast.

A conversation with Kevin Brown.

A resource for Informix (and other!) code, components and scripts.

Interesting article, mentions Informix only tangentially.

Informix Roundup: 23 June 2009

IDS Ubuntu appliance.

DbVisualizer supports Informix.

Informix Roundup: 22 June 2009

Data Studio has a new release.

Worldwide fastest Informix DBA competition. Should I enter?

Informix on Campus wiki.

Informix and php.

Informix Zone is getting better and better.

C'est un job de Informix.

Planview supports Informix.

Buy your Informix shit here.

Bob Finocchio displays a fine sense of irony. At least, I hope so!

Amazing!

IBM have apparently made Informix-branded marketing "stuff" available.

Better eight years late than fucking never, eh?

Informix Roundup: 15 June 2009

Amazon blog about IDS in the cloud. With added demos.

The IBM support assistant.

Job in India.

Data Architect supports Informix. Amazing.

4GL programmer job in France. Bon!

IDS v9 job in the US.

Informix sandbox.

Analysing performance issues. Leider nür in Deutsch.

Farewell to the king.

Informix Roundup: 08 June 2009

Jacques Roy is doing a round of Informix on Campus sessions in Strasbourg. Lucky bastard!

Worldwide Informix Roadshow program launched.

New IDS online quick reference and portal launched.

End of marketing for everything but 11.x.

Article on which IDS edition to choose.

Job in the Philippines.

Job in London.

Job in Hants.

IBM expands On Demand initiative. W00t.

Xtivia tarting themselves about. Slags.

Virtualisation webcast.

Python dbi driver.

Informix Roundup: 30 May 2009

I finally got around to having a look at SQSL. I quite like it, especially for those quick-and-dirty, one-off jobs. It probably deserves a place in your toolkit.

Configuring WAS CE with IDS.

Compression article.

Informix Roundup: 27 May 2009

New pricing model announced.

Informix Tech Day in Italy. Bene!

Podcast with Jerry Keesee.

Election DataBlade success story.

Getting started with the Informix Warehouse.

Compression ROI Calculator.

Ex-Informixer namecheck.

Moo!

Norma-Jean on marketing.

Scary job in Virginia. No, not all the security checks, you have to work with Notes.

On pricing add-ons. (I agree entirely!)

Informix Roundup: 12 May 2009

Blame Fernando for this one, he made a post that reminded me that this roundup might do something useful for someone, somewhere.

Article about compression.

11-page article about getting started with Informix Warehouse.

Fernando again: what's new in IDS 11.50.xC4? Lots!

Redbook on customising IDS for your environment.

The Amazon Web Services blog talks about Informix. More. Even more, including a demo. Plus: the longer the the name, the more you pay!

Informix is still being mentioned by El Reg.

That cunt Gyenes is in the news, but I'm not going to give him any link love.

The death of the IBM Database Magazine and farewell to that hottie Kim Moutsos.

Fernando falls into /dev/null.

The InfoSphere Whorehouse now supports Informix and z/OS.

Guardium supports Informix.

Aqua Data Studio supports Informix.

New InformixOnCampus blog.

New InformixVoices blog.

Norma-Jean is blogging on Informix Zone.

Download the compression ROI tool here.

Maptitude supports Informix.

Ex-Informixer gets a namecheck.

TestCenter 6.0 supports Informix.

Go to the IIUG conference. Because you're worth it.

There is an Informix Tech Day in Italy. Va bene!

Why have a blog called InformixNotes and then spend half your time talking about a technically inferior product?

Whew!

Informix Roundup: 22 Apr 2009

Non-techies may want to look away now.

UK IDS bootcamp. Places still available.

More developments in the Amazon cloud.

Job in Minneapolis. Pooves only, by the look of it!

Job in Chennai.

Informix video from Germany. Sadly entirely donkey porn free.

New issue of the IBM Database magazine.

IIUG Conference guide. Looks good, pity my bastard employer is working me to death instead of shipping me overto Kansas. :o(

Job in Tampa. Go Timmy!

Job in Sacramento.

Eric is twatting.

Job in Bangalore.

Informix and Gaia.

Fernando returns null.

Job in Newark.

Eric on interoperability.

Fernando gets real. Or is it authentic?

Eric stirs.

Jacques is green.

Informix Roundup: 31 Mar 2009

WARNING: Non-geeks may want to run away now.

C-ISAM not quite as svelte as it used to be?

Embedding IDS RedBook.

IBM opens a new lab, interesting end to the article: "With 330,000 employees in 170 countries, Big Blue is headquartered in Armonk, New York and includes Informix, Rational Software and Tivoli Systems Inc. as some of its subsidiaries."

DBA job in Bangalore. (Tim!)

Another blogger talking about the Informix Warehouse.

DBA job in Houston.

It is to laugh ... or cry!

Another take on IBM buying Sun and databases.

IIUG conference is coming.

IDS bootcamp in the UK.

Fernando goes green.

Eric goes down memory lane.

Getting from PHP4 to Zend Core 2.5 with Informix.