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Re: informix market share

From: Michael Segel <MNoSpamSegel_at_NoSPAMSegel.com>
Date: Sun, 27 Nov 2005 20:28:12 -0600
Message-Id: <438a6b37$0$13937$afc38c87@>


rkusenet wrote:

> Add to it, IDS runs on 20 out of 25 top grocery chains in North America,
> and about 80% of all retail shops like Wal-Mart, Sears etc.
>
> I have not heard of one significant customer in the above industry
> switching to Oracle after IBM bought Informix. On the contrary
> Wal-Mart.com switched to Informix from Oracle. [ Wal-Mart.com is separate
> from Wal-Mart stores ].
>

Be carefull what you say.
Anyone who has to agree to follow BCG really shouldn't comment on this issue.

Wal-Mart has been an Informix shop since the early 90's. I believe Eric Olsen (A name from the past) was one of the first Informix consultants on that account.

Wal-Mart does have DB2, Oracle, and Informix within their environment. Beyond that, it wouldn't be advisable to comment as to the amount of Informix present. Note that if Wal-Mart has been an Informix customer since the early 90's, then they must be happy with the performance. ;-)

What I can say is that Informix is still heavily used within retail customer environments. EXE sold a lot of Informix based software to this Industry.

> Much I like Informix (though I stopped working with it for about a year
> now), I also think it is toast for reasons totally different. What
> is happening is that Informix skilled people are rapidly shrinking, just
> like Sybase and other fading products. In my last project I worked with
> some UK folks and was shocked to learn that they were exposed to only one
> RDBMS: SQL Server, right thru their college days. Little bit of research
> told me that this trend is bit global with most of the fresh graduates
> hardly proficient in lesser known databases.

No, the skills are still there.
4GL will never totally die, however, because of its limitations, and other paradigms it will never gain in popularity. Over time it will fade away.

But the engine skills are there and they will be around for a while. Outside of deep tuning skills, working with Informix would be approx the same as H'oracle or Sybase, or DB2.

-- 
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and send replies. ;-)
Received on Sun Nov 27 2005 - 20:28:12 CST

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