Re: When It Couldn't Get Any Better

Fernando Nunes wrote:
mark.scranton@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Feb 28, 11:28 am, DA Morgan <damor...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Not that I'm flaming certain marketing folks within the IM pillar. They
have their hands tied and are trying to do things that they can't do
"through channels".
Why does it never occur to this group that IBM is not a stupid company
and is doing precisely what it decided to do when it acquired Informix.

You may not like it that your personal playtoy is where it is. But IBM
didn't acquire Informix because it saw a great strategic opportunity
in having a second, competing, database product.

In all of the years Informix has been an IBM product the behavior of
IBM has been consistent. And consistency is a clear indication that
they are perfectly pleased with where things are.
--
Daniel A. Morgan
University of Washington
damor...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (replace x with u to respond)

Well said Daniel. I was there from the start - on the Informix team,
writing a Redbook to help people transition from IDS to DB2 (we told
them it wouldn't happen), and on the Worldwide team that did the IDS
10 tour(s). I agree about the consistency from IBM, whether we like it
or not. I personally know that the initial plan was to move all IDS
customers to DB2. That became clear over time that it wasn't going to
happen, so everything started to change. Slowly, but it did. One of
our poster-people (all pun intended) said that "Janet couldn't utter
IDS"...well - I stood in Tokyo on the same stage with Janet - and all
I talked about was IDS. So did Janet. At that point, it wasn't clear
to all that IDS was here to stay, but tide was starting to turn
already. IBM HAS adopted IDS as the OLTP engine - that has been made
clear. This is a HUGE victory considering one of my first goals handed
down by mgmt was to "help the IDS customers understand the value of
transititioning to DB2." Of course, I didn't do that at all. All I
said in the 18 cities tour I did right after the acquisition was
"learn as much as you can about DB2, and then you can make an educated
decision." Wasn't exactly what was wanted, but as always it was
honest, technically pure, and gave the customers credit and respect
for what they have learned (and loved) about the IDS architecture over
the years.

Mark Scranton
Xtivia Inc.

After reading your post I have the clear feeling that something has changed...
DA said exactly the opposite. And of course, people changed...
Anyway... My point it that things changed... and they are changing... and the product is changing...
But of course, by DA point of view, we should not be talking about Informix as a product by now... It should have been gone a few years ago... Keep trying... But to be successful you should bring Oracle customers here... I'd say only them will believe you by now...


Regards.

No I didn't. The point of the acquisition had nothing to do with
IBM wanting, or needing, a second RDBMS product and on that we are
in full agreement.

IBM didn't change its mind on that either. I decided it was better
to placate unhappy Informix licensees than to lose them all to
Microsoft and Oracle because they sure weren't switching to DB2.

We are still in placate-them mode today. Want to see how it works?
Look at Oracle's purchase of rdb. Oracle bought it when?
--
Daniel A. Morgan
University of Washington
damorgan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (replace x with u to respond)
.

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