In this IBM Redbooks publication, we provide an overview of Informix Dynamic Server (IDS) 11. IDS is designed to help businesses leverage their existing information assets as they move into an on demand business environment. Requirements here call for a flexible data server that can accommodate growth, in applications, data volume, and numbers of users. And it offers the capability to minimize downtime and to provide the high availability required today. A new suite of business availability functionality provides greater flexibility and performance, automated statistical and performance metric gathering, improvements in administration, and reductions in operating costs. The IDS technology enables efficient use of existing hardware and software, including single and multiprocessor architectures. And it helps you keep up with technological growth, including such things as the use of nontraditional data types. Built on the IBM Informix Dynamic Scalable Architecture™ (DSA), IDS provides a next-generation parallel data server architecture that delivers mainframe-caliber scalability; manageability and performance; minimal operating system overhead; and automatic workload distribution. IDS delivers a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) by leveraging its well-regarded general ease of use and systems administration. It enables customers to use information in new and more efficient ways to create business advantage.

This book provides an overview of the high availability and enterprise replication features of Informix Dynamic Server (IDS) Version 10, which can simplify and automate enterprise database deployment. Version 10 offers patent-pending technology that virtually eliminates downtime and automates many of the tasks associated with deploying mission-critical enterprise systems. The high availability capability can reduce or eliminate costly downtime through, as examples, the introduction of online index rebuild, the capability to create and drop indexes online without locking tables, and point-in-time table-level restore. Enhanced enterprise replication provides solutions for those customers requiring reliable and quick dissemination of data across a global organization. The replicated data can also participate in the high availability environment with capabilities such as seamless online resynchronization of enterprise replication nodes at startup, for example. There is also enhanced capability for high-availability disaster recovery customers in the form of the ability to resend primary server indexes to HDR secondary servers without requiring a rebuild of the index on the primary server. These significant and powerful capabilities can enable you to intelligently replicate (distribute) your enterprise data to improve the availability of that data to better service the requirements of your enterprise.

This IBM Redbooks publication provides an overview of the Informix Dynamic Server (IDS), Version 10. IDS provides the reliability, flexibility, and ease of maintenance that can enable you to adapt to new customer requirements. It is well known for its blazing online transaction processing (OLTP) performance, legendary reliability, and nearly hands-free administration for businesses of all sizes--all while simplifying and automating enterprise database deployment. Version 10 offers significant improvements in performance, availability, security, and manageability, including patent-pending technology that virtually eliminates downtime and automates many of the tasks that are associated with deploying mission-critical enterprise systems. New features speed application development, enable more robust enterprise data replication, and enable improved programmer productivity through support of IBM Rational development tools, JDBC 3.0, and Microsoft .NET as examples. Version 10 provides a robust foundation for e-business infrastructures with optimized Java support, IBM WebSphere certification, and XML and Web services support. Ready for service-oriented architecture (SOA)? This book also includes descriptions and demonstrations of support that are specific to IDS for an SOA.

The acquisition of Informix by IBM has provided the opportunity for Informix customers to consider new alternatives to further enrich their data management systems infrastructure. They can now more easily take advantage of available products, services, and capabilities as they grow and change. This IBM Redbooks publication focuses on strategies, techniques, capabilities, and considerations for using Informix Extended Parallel Server (XPS) and DB2 Universal Database (UDB). It provides detailed discussions and data to give a good understanding of the two products, their capabilities, and their similarities. XPS customers can choose to adopt a database strategy of coexistence or consider transitioning to DB2 UDB. The features and functionality of each DBMS are briefly described for a better understanding, in areas such as architecture, partitioning techniques, SQL considerations, configuration, indexing, data types, DML, and DDL. It also discusses products and tools to complement these database management systems. With this information, you can better decide which products satisfy your particular requirements, and better plan on how to achieve your objectives as you develop your database management system strategy. You will be better positioned to make informed decisions that can give you the best return on your DBMS investment.