IBM Informix Reviews

We are using IBM Informix for OLTP systems. We are using IBM Informix although it is a technology that is not very popular compared to others. We are using it because our application was initially built on it. It is quite difficult for us to move to some other database to design the application. There is some dependency on it, which is why we are still using it.

For analysis purposes, we are using Greenplum and some other tools, but I haven't used IBM Informix for geo-special analysis. IBM Informix is only for OLTP systems and SQL.

I have been working with IBM Informix for around 10 years. We are quite comfortable with IBM Informix's performance in handling time series data.

In the last 10 years, I haven't seen any security issues with IBM Informix. Security is quite high, which explains why I haven't encountered any security issues in the past decade.

IBM Informix support regarding SQL uses the latest SQL. It is quite similar to MySQL, SQL, or Oracle SQL. It uses the standard and latest SQL.

We find some bugs in IBM Informix. Maybe we are using it more aggressively than others. Every month or every second month, we find some bugs in it, which is not ideal. It should be rare, not this frequent. The good thing is they cover those bugs in the next release within weeks or days on demand.

IBM Informix should become hybrid and should include AI features similar to other DBMS systems such as Snowflake, Redshift, and DataBricks. This would help its value rise with the market.

I have been working with IBM Informix for around 10 years.

It is very rare for IBM Informix to have stability issues. The support is very much better, and we rarely experience any downtime.

In our current environment, we are running hundreds of clients with it. The same installation is used for the whole server containing 100 clients.

I would rate the technical support for IBM Informix seven out of ten.

Positive

I have been called for consultations regarding Greenplum, Snowflake, and IBM Informix; I have been called two to three times before from the same company.

The initial setup for IBM Informix is very simple. It can be set up within minutes without complications.

It is very easy to install IBM Informix, very easy to scale, and support is quite better. It is also cost-effective. The only drawback is it is not prevalent in the market. Employees working on it may not get better opportunities in the market because it is not very common.

IBM Informix is purchased directly from Informix, HCL. It is now named as HCL.

IBM Informix is cost-effective. That is why the company is still using IBM Informix rather than other market DBMS solutions such as Oracle and other databases. We are evaluating some other databases, but it is currently cost-effective, which is why it is still in use.

There is a cost reason to move from IBM Informix. It is relatively cheaper than Oracle. The second reason is that moving the whole application to a new database would require significant cost. The third reason may be that the owner is thinking about selling off the business, which is why they're not interested in spending so much.

Someone has reached out to me regarding Snowflake as well.

I am currently working with IBM Informix. We don't see prices for IBM Informix as it is handled by other departments such as procurement.

I would rate IBM Informix as a product four to five out of ten just because it's not in high demand in the market. Otherwise, with performance and support, I would rate it seven to ten. I have been working in my current field for nine to ten years.

Overall rating: 5/10

IBM Informix is a central database solution across various environments, supporting multiple applications and business intelligence tools.

The key areas for improvement revolve around understanding the current customer trends and demands, particularly in software and database requirements. The product's performance could be better compared to Oracle.

We have been using IBM Informix for five years.

I rate the product's stability a seven out of ten.

A team of 10 engineers in my team use IBM Informix. I rate its scalability a six out of ten.

The technical support services need substantial improvement.

Neutral

We have used SAP before.

We have deployed the product on two cloud instances. We have installed it on four servers in production and test environments. It took us around a week to complete the process.

I wouldn't recommend IBM Informix to others. I rate it a six out of ten.

I use IBM Informix for education purposes of myself. To test those capabilities, especially locking and concurrency issues. From time to time, some customer of mine wants me to help with, for example, performance tuning or something like that. In the Czech Republic, IBM Informix is not a very widely used database. But there are people who need it at this scale.

Informix is similar to Microsoft SQL Server due to locking facilities. Language is a bit different, but it is simpler than that of Oracle. So, this is a very robust database server that can run in very parallel mode. It is suitable for large-scale database processing. Since I am a developer, I don't directly profit from this database system's capabilities. My work is to make programs for other customers. So my profit is indirect.

The most valuable feature is concurrency and locking because my customers usually use databases in OLTP mode. So, for a large number of competitive users. Other features that are well valued are quick large-scale data types. It is better than Oracle.

In my opinion, the packages could be improved. The version I use doesn't allow for packages. I can do some general procedures, but no packages like in Oracle. So, develop separate modules in SQL language. This would be most beneficial for me.

I have been working with IBM Informix for two years as a developer.

The solution is stable. I would rate the product's stability an eight out of ten.

I would rate the tool’s scalability an eight out of ten.

I didn’t use any technical support from IBM.

Positive

Before IBMInformix, it was Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server.

I am mostly an Informix programmer, so it was easy for me. The deployment took one to two hours. This is some development addition, so deploying it on a real Informix server would take more time. But nothing extremely long. I did the deployment myself. This server runs on Linux.

As for the steps of deployment, You need to download Microsoft. Then I registered with IBM and got a link. I downloaded a package and software, and then I checked the product with it whether they were all fulfilled and supported the operating system, and then I ran installation scripts.

I did the deployment myself.

I am a small developer.

I would recommend others to use IBM Informix on PowerPc and IX. My experience is to run database servers on hardware and operating system that is provided by the same vendor. This is true in the case of Oracle, Microsoft Java server, as well as in the case of IBM Informix.

I do not use technologies that I do not trust. Overall, I would rate the solution a ten out of ten.

I am a consultant.

Replication, all levels of replication, query charting, and the MongoDB embedded are the most valuable features of this solution.

It is extremely resilient and cannot be compared to anyone else on the market.

There most likely is a very large system, where some design modifications should be made to be ported on very large systems. When we're talking about terabytes of memory, things get a bit hectic, and some architecture design should be done at this level. Otherwise, nothing else needs to be done, because Informix is nearly perfect.

They are working on improving the administration interface. 

In terms of Oracle compatibility and the SQL language, I know that they are working on it, but it would be easier with the SQL Server.

It would be helpful to have IBM salespeople know that Informix exists, and sell it. Currently, it is completely ignored by IBM.

The initial setup can be improved slightly.

I have been working with IBM Informix since 1986, it's been close to years.

There is no product as stable as IBM Informix.

There was a flaw about five years ago when IBM made the deal with HCL. 

It took about a year to stabilize things, but I don't think IBM does support it; instead, IBM forwards technical calls and tickets to HCL. 

HCL support is provided by genuine Informix engineers. Perhaps slow at times, perhaps understaffed at times.

But, in general, it's good. When you speak with someone at HCL, you are speaking with someone who is very knowledgeable about the product, which is very different from many other DBMS systems, in my opinion.

I have never used any other relational database tools.

I have been doing it since 1986, for me it is straightforward. 

The setup depends on who is installing it. 

It may appear complicated, but if we are talking about a regular DBA, it is fairly simple. 

The installation process could be enhanced.

Installing products starts at 30 XEF and ends there. This will vary depending on the type of system you are configuring. If it is a small company, with one instance, I can do it in half an hour or less.

If it is a large company, you have to sit down and think about this architecture and what is where, et cetera, it can take a little longer, but the installation is simple. Configuring is simple, but because we are dealing with complex systems, it has to be complex somewhere.

Our clients range in size. I have small, medium, and large, as well as government and banking.

For me, it's always too expensive.

The problem is that Informix sometimes competes with free products, so yes, it's very expensive, but when we're talking about licensed products like SQL Server or anything, the midsize pricing could be significantly improved.

IBM's licensing is quite complicated. It has additions, and then it has features or does not have features. To make a quote or sell Informix, you must be extremely knowledgeable in the sales field.

I would rate the pricing model a four out of ten because it is complex.

A low range is acceptable. Mid-range is not acceptable. The high range is pretty much the same as the competition, but many customers, in my opinion, are leaving Informix, first because Informix is no longer a household name in the industry, and second, because the mid-range is not properly addressed in terms of pricing.

My advice is to take it. You will never regret it. I have never seen a customer who was technically dissatisfied with Informix.

It is extremely reliable. It takes some time to properly configure it but once done, it will run for decades.

I am a partner of IBM Informix.

I would rate IBM Informix a nine out of ten.

We are an integrator and we implement solutions for several kinds of customers. My largest customer is a paper mill but we also have SMB customers that deal in other industries including telecommunications, government, and others. They need accounting solutions and other types of implementations

I have used this product for several of my customers.

This is a feature-rich product.

There is almost zero maintenance required.

This product could be made easier to use for beginners. As I have worked with it for quite a while, it is not difficult for me. However, some of my customers complain that it is too difficult to install and configure.

The stability is incredible. I have customers with uptimes of several years.

This is the most scalable data management system on the market.

I have not needed any technical support for a few years. Before that, the support was great. However, I know that they changed because they made an agreement with an Indian company. Since that time, I don't know what it has been like.

The initial setup is complex.

Some of my customers have complained that it is too difficult to install and configure. For me, it is easy, but for my customers, it is not as easy.

If you know the solution then it takes between half an hour and an hour to deploy. It only requires one person to deploy.

In order to properly implement IBM Informix, it is necessary to hire people that are skilled with the product.

The return on investment can be very rapid but this depends on the use case.

I have evaluated other options, but they were mainly open-source solutions.

Overall, this is a great product. It works really well, is very stable, and is very scalable. Aside from being difficult to install, I don't see anything lacking.

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.

We primarily use the solution to store some customer information in our database. Basically, this customer information will be used by all the applications that are in our company.

The solution is quite stable and reliable. We use it mainly due to its general stable nature.

There's a lot of flexibility for us to create a DB schema. 

They provide some replication for us - XDR, or something like that.  

So far, we do not have a lot of issues. It's pretty problem-free. 

The solution really doesn't add new features very often. Other solutions are much more actively pushing out upgrades and improvements. Informix just isn't extremely innovative.

Something we are looking for is, for example, data reduction. We want to do masking and it doesn't give a lot of flexibility. Oracle already has something to support us and can set out a policy for the data reduction and then you just simply set up and then you can use it without any writing of functions - plus, it's easier to do masking.

I've been using the solution for more than 20 years at this point. It's been two decades. I've used it for quite a long time.

We've found the solution to be pretty stable. It doesn't crash or freeze. There are no bugs or glitches. It's been good.

The solution scales well. If a company needs to expand it, it can do so without too much difficulty.

We do have a support contract with this vendor. 

From the marketing you get, IBM seems to really push that you get more from them than Oracle. They've been aggressive in selling their product to us. Oracle hasn't been as aggressive. They seldom come to us or approach us. Typically, it's our company that goes to Oracle.

IBM is much more aggressive in selling their product as opposed to Oracle. They're always checking in.

Our team wasn't directly involved in the installation process. Therefore, it would be difficult to comment on how complex or straightforward it is.

We instructed a team to set up a database, a blank database, and then we created a schema and all of these kinds of things. While the server installation was handled by another team, the creation of the database is done by us.

We had another team set up the solution for us.

We are professional services providers. Basically, we review some applications on the Informix DB, and then the application, and we will roll out to production. We have another team to support the second level of support. The first level of support would come from the help desk.

We have a corporate license with IBM. We also have a global account. We have a contract of a few years with them. 

We're currently looking at Oracle as an option to replace this solution.

With IBM, we're finding there aren't a lot of new features coming out. Oracle, in contrast, always seems to have something new. 

In terms of data security, we see some improvement in Oracle, however, we don't see a lot of new things coming from Informix. While both have data replication, in terms of bi-directional replication, both vendors are still not that good, especially when there's a very huge volume of data replication. Right now, we have to use a third-party data replication by SharePlex.

We are using the latest version of the solution in our organization.

I was in the company for almost 20 years. Initially, we had quite a lot of databases. Basically, most of our big database was using Informix. And then, 10 years ago, we started the first migration to Oracle due to the licensing costs. On the first attempt, we changed to Oracle due to the fact that we got a very good deal from Oracle. Then, we moved one of the applications to Oracle. This year, the company direction is to go completely over to Oracle. That said, we still have one application, which until today we still use Informix for. That's why there's the intent to also migrate to Oracle, so that our company will focus on Oracle only, instead of multiple kinds of application databases.

I look at the current market trends. It seems like IBM Informix is a little bit behind compared to other big vendors like Oracle. Competitors invest a lot in new features, such as in-memory and those kinds of things. We don't see a lot from Informix. 

In general, I would rate the solution at a six out of ten. It's an okay solution, however, if a company is looking for something more innovative, there are other options on the market.

We are using Informix in Brazil for mapping two company emails. We are using it here in Rio De Janeiro and also in Sierra. The main system of Informix in Rio is the commercial system and is very important to the company. The technical system using Informix is in Sierra. However, in Rio, it is now more important as the commercial system is being used by the call center which is using the Informix database.

There are many great features within the solution. For myself, from what I have witnessed, there isn't just one valuable feature.

I'm overall quite satisfied with this solution. I have 20 years with Informix. I like everything about it.

The initial setup is pretty easy.

The stability is very, very good.

The scalability of the solution is great.

What they're saying today is that IBM did not do the right thing with the old database of Informix. 

We need more marketing solutions for Informix as the marketing for Informix is very low here in Rio. They need to push it out more, to give it more visibility. In comparison, for example, Oracle is everywhere. They market everywhere. They are very visible.

The solution should offer replication.

It would be helpful if the solution would allow us to access third-party tools. Oracle, for example, has that capability.

The pricing is a bit expensive.

I've been using the solution for 20 years or so. It's been about two decades. I've used it for a very long time.

We don't have any problems with the Informix Database. We haven't had any problems with the stability for 20 years. There are no bugs or glitches. It's extremely reliable. It's a very good database.

The scalability of the solution is very good. It's not a problem to scale the solution if you need to.

In Rio we have about 1,900 users on the system, the commercial system. In Sierra, we have about 500 users using the Informix database. They are basic users that are not developer.

I've only used technical support a few times. It's been very little in terms of interaction. I can't really speak to how they are with so little experience. 

That said, from my few interactions, I've been satisfied with them.

The company decided to not use Informix for the new system. The new system we'll be using is Oracle or Paradox. We'll not be using Informix anymore in the near future. It's a decision from management and not necessarily my own.

The initial setup is not complex. It's pretty straightforward. A company shouldn't have too much trouble with the implementation.

The last database we deployed was 20 years ago. We never deploy the new database with Informix. I can't recall how long the deployment took, as so much time has passed.

The pricing is a little high, however, Oracle, for example, is a bit higher still.

We're an end-user and customer.

While I would recommend Informix, today it is so difficult due to the market and the price. It's difficult to convince people to use Informix due to this. If the price was less than Oracle, it's likely people will use it more.

On a scale from one to ten, I'd rate it at an eight.

My primary use case for IBM Informix is for case application.

When I tried to make a connection, I started with the driver. I'm not sure in terms of IO, because we're experiencing the bad performance. So, I'm not sure if it's the database or the operating system.

Moreover, I have had difficulty finding skilled workers. There is room for improvement in terms of performance and ease of use.

I have been using this solution for three years now.

I wouldn’t recommend Informix is a stable solution.

In our company, there are around 2,000 users.

It is deployed on HP-UX, running on IBM hardware, and supports in-house-built applications in .NET and VB6.

We use Informix for the database, for replication and for backup. The solution is a repository for our clients' data. I'm the technical engineer manager and we are integrators. 

Replication is the most valuable feature and it's relatively easy to use. We can use both SQL and non-SQL connections in the one database. Informix can support huge quantities of data with less memory and less capacity. We don't need to expand capacity to compute a huge quantity of data.

I'd like to see more functionality in Informix HQ to facilitate the administration of products. It's currently based on the UNIX command line and we don't have a very graphical interface to administer the data. I'd like to see more development in the language we use for developing a third procedure. 

I've been using this solution for five years. 

The solution is very stable.

The solution can be customized to increase capacity.

The support is very good. If we report a level one incident, support can connect to the machine and resolve the incident remotely without a problem. 

The initial setup is straightforward if you know what's required. It can be installed with 10 command lines. It takes about an hour to install on a new machine. 

Informix is very sturdy, but the problem for us is the marketing action around Informix. IBM doesn't provide the roadmap of the product, at least here in Morocco. There's nowhere we can go to access information about product functionality. 

I rate this solution nine out of 10. 

I act as a consultant to my customers, who use the database for processing data. 

I like the solution's performance and facility. 

I would like to see backups from secondary servers. 

We have been using IBM Informix for five years. 

I have encountered no issues with the stability.

The scalability is very good, there existing a problem-free cluster for around ten months.

Thus far, the technical support has been very good. 

The initial setup is very simple.

It took me around 13 minutes to deploy the solution. 

Two people are sufficient for the deployment. 

I am not aware of the licensing costs or terms. 

I act as a partner.

The security is sufficiently good. 

There are around 2,000 people who are making use of the solution at present. 

I rate IBM Informix as a ten out of ten.