News

How Informix can fit Your Database Needs

IBM Systems Magazine Article - Ken Milberg (March 2018)

When most people hear that an IBM database is being evaluated, they naturally think of Db2. While that may be a natural reflex of sorts, IBM has expanded its database offerings over the years with Informix, Netezza and Cloudant—the first of which will be discussed in this article.

Informix is perhaps best known best for being used in high transaction OLTP application environments. In recent years it has been enhanced to support the largest of data warehouse workloads. In 2017, IBM and HCL technologies agreed to a 15-year partnership to co-develop and support the product.

• Why use Informix and what does it do for you?
• How has it evolved and what is it today?

Read the complete article on IBM Systems Magazine ...

IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud adds a new plan offering
independent, on-demand scaling of storage and compute,
enhanced backup and restore, and significant improvements in high availability

(IBM Europe Announcement ZP18-0072, dated January 30, 2018)

Overview:

IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud is a fully managed, enterprise-grade cloud data warehouse service that enables true hybrid data warehousing. To complement the existing SMP and MPP plans, a Flex plan is available that offers the performance of MPP with greater flexibility for consumption and deployment of storage and compute resources. The Flex plan packages three key capabilities: independent scaling of storage and compute, self-service backup and restore, and significant improvements in high availability.

With the Flex plan, clients can fully customize their data warehouse, with the option to increase compute cores during heavy database use. Once the extra demand on the warehouse has subsided, clients can scale back down to reduce their costs. In addition, the Flex plan offers immediate storage expansion, so clients can start with the initial storage they need and increase capacity with a few clicks at a later date to accommodate data growth.

The new Flex plan also gives clients more control over their database backups. With self-service backups, clients can keep up to seven backups of their database. They can choose the time of day their backups are taken, and restore from one of these backups whenever they choose. Significant improvements in service availability have also been made through the IBM Cloud Container Service.

IBM Db2 Enterprise Family Bundle
offers deployment flexibility and a powerful analytics engine to optimize data management within hybrid data environments

(IBM Europe Software Announcement ZP17-0708, dated December 12, 2017)

Overview

IBM(R) Db2(R) Enterprise Family Bundle V1.0 brings a new licensing option to increase flexibility and enable you to deploy a combination of offerings to better manage your hybrid data environment. This flexibility helps to optimize the investment associated with shifting data back and forth within the hybrid data environment. Based upon deployment needs, a combination of the following offerings can now be deployed to the extent covered by the specific entitlement:

• IBM Db2 Enterprise Server Edition
• IBM Db2 Warehouse
• IBM Db2 Event Store

Software withdrawal and support discontinuance:
IBM Cognitive Solutions, IBM Hybrid Cloud & Managed Services, IBM Watson & Cloud Platform, IBM Industry Platforms, and IBM Z select products and part numbers - Some replacements available

(IBM Europe Software Announcement ZP17-0450, dated September 12, 2017)

Part of this withdrawal:

Informix Workgroup Limited Use Socket License from marketing

D0D1WLL
IBM Informix WRKGRP Edition
CPU Option Limited Use Socket License + SW Subscription & Support 12 Months
December 12, 2017
No replacement

D0D1XLL
IBM Informix WRKGRP Edition
CPU Option Limited Use Socket SW Subscription & Support Reinstatement 12 Months
December 12, 2017
No replacement