IBM wants Informix customers onboard

May 4, 2001 —

There is reason for Informix customers to be both relieved and nervous in the wake of last week's announcement by IBM that it plans to buy Informix's database business for $1 billion.

Relieved, because they will now deal with a vendor that observers agree is going to be around for the long haul, whereas Informix has had its ups and downs in recent years. Nervous, because migrating important applications on Informix software to a database such as IBM's DB2 could be difficult, if not impossible.

So far, IBM is saying what users want to hear. Janet Perna, general manager of IBM's data management division, says IBM will continue to support and enhance existing Informix products. An updated version of the Informix database, now in beta test, will be released on schedule this summer, she says.

"We're going to be promoting DB2 . . . but we're not asking [Informix users] to rip out what they have," she adds.

Perna says DB2 Universal Database will continue to be IBM's strategic platform and the company will encourage Informix customers to turn to DB2 for supporting new applications.

IBM's approach seems logical, observers say.

"Most of these mission-critical applications have been custom-built on Informix," says Stuart Litel, a database consultant who's specialized in Informix software for 17 years. "It will cost companies a lot of money to re-create these applications [on DB2 or products from Oracle and others]."

"The job of moving an application to another database will vary greatly depending on the language it's written in," says Ron Flannery, a longtime Informix consultant with One Point Solutions in Novi, Mich. "If IBM is going to continue to maintain the database and the tools, it shouldn't be a problem."

IBM is anxious to avoid problems, because it bought Informix mainly to beef up its share of the Unix/Windows database market, where it lags far behind Oracle. Market researcher Gartner Dataquest's most recent database market share figures (for 1999) show Oracle with a 63% share, far outpacing IBM and Informix, which had shares of 12% and 10%, respectively.

The acquisition should give IBM a better chance to convert Informix users -- particularly in vertical markets such as retail where both vendors are strong -- into DB2 customers, says Terilyn Palanca, a director at Giga Information Group.

Many Informix users are facing a migration decision in any case: The vendor has been working on a project called Arrowhead that centers around a next-generation database combining object relational features, with high-end analytics and a massively parallel architecture. IBM officials say the DB2 Universal Database already has much of what Arrowhead intended to create.

Perna says IBM will incorporate selective Informix technologies into DB2. Among those being considered are some of Informix's DataBlade modules, which handle spatial and time series data. IBM will also consider technologies acquired by Informix, including data-analysis technologies from RedBrick and a small Java database for handhelds developed by Cloudscape.

IBM is evaluating the widely used Informix 4GL language and tools, and has not yet made any decision on the future of those products, other than to promise continued support. IBM plans to keep mmost of Informix's 2,500 employees, though some marketing staffers might be let go.

Stripped of its database assets, which accounted for about 80% of revenue, Informix will become Ascential Software when the deal is completed, probably in June.

Last year, Informix split into two businesses: Informix Software for databases; and Ascential, which consisted mainly of data integration software from Ardent, a company bought by Informix in 1999, plus newer content management applications.

Network World