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IBM Demonstrates Commitment to Informix
Informix customers may have been scared when IBM Corp.bought the database business from the former Informix Corp., now AscentialSoftware Corp. Would customers be left in the lurch by the acquisition? A newrelease from IBM proves Big Blue still cares.
On Monday, IBM release version 9.3 of Informix DynamicServer. According to Jim Kelly, vice president of marketing at IBM, IDS 9.3 isright on schedule, purchase or no purchase. “We did not skip a beat,” he says.IBM plans to maintain Informix products on the same update schedule as before.
IBM has added features to improve interoperabilitybetween IDS and its DB2 database server. Now, databases can be easilyreplicated between IDS and DB2, and data can be shared. Kelly believes that DB2and IDS can peacefully co-exist, both in enterprise environments and in the IBMproduct line.
In addition, IBM has expanded the core functionality ofthe database to meet the e-business needs of its customers. It has built newdata mining and extraction functions into the core database engine, reducingthe need for tools on top of the database.
This is the first new Informix product IBM has releasedsince acquiring the Informix business in April. – Chris McConnell