IBM owns two products, Informix and DB2. What is the difference
between the two and how reliable are they for very large databases?
Are they focussed for any specific area?

Rohit wrote:
Under the Universal Database umbrella is the Universal database and the
Unidata database, which is similar to the Informix Database.

If Unidata is about the same as Informix, then I can talk about Unidata.
Unidata is a database that is or has the ability to be a non 1st
normal form database which can build fields which are multivalued and
associations or structure similar to a sub-table or a table inside a table.

If you look for the Universal database you can download technical info
on the Unidata Database. I think that informix is also a derivitive of
the Pick Database or the Pick package or system or vice versa.

I work with the Datatel Colleague Education Software package. It is
kind of like an ERP for education. They also make products for HR,
Accounting, facilities management, etc. These products can work with
Oracle or with Unidata Databases.

Last Boy Scout wrote:
As I recall it, Informix and Unidata are completely different. Since I
have not used neither of them I googled and found:

http://www.unixadmintalk.com/f49/inf...iverse-201372/

For the the OP, you might get more answers in either:

comp.databases.ibm-db2 or comp.databases.informix


/Lennart

[...]

On Aug 12, 1:13 am, Last Boy Scout <BadB... (AT) whitehouse (DOT) gov> wrote:
That is not the case. Informix has a history that can trace to the
Ingres relational DBMS while both UniData and UniVerse, which make up
the two databases in IBM's U2 offerings, stem from the MultiValue, aka
Pick, databases. These are two altogether different approaches to a
DBMS. Informix is more similar to DB2, which comes from the IBM
System R family tree. Informix and DB2 were both developed to align
with relational theory. UniData and UniVerse (thankfully IMHO) were
not, so they are not saddled with people employing three-valued logic
or putting data in 1NF (as it has been traditionally defined).

Yes, that is accurate. If that is also a feature of Informix, it
would be in accordance with more recent relational theory, so instead
of lists (which are ordered), as U2 has, it might permit relation-
valued attributes (but I have not kept current on Informix to know).

It is UniVerse, not Universal, that is a DBMS from IBM, where Informix
has a Universal server IIRC.

Nope. You can get a pdf with the MultiValue (Pick) Family Tree from
http://www.tincat-group.com/mv/familytree.html
It is a few years old, so there are new members in the family tree,
such as InterSystems Cache' with their new implementation of Pick, but
you can see that Informix is not in this family (assuming you trust my
research on that).

Ah, I'm a former Datatel employee as well as a former customer too. I
am guessing your misconception might be due to the fact that Informix
acquired UniData and UniVerse shortly after they merged to become
Ardent. Both at that time and then after IBM acquired the assets of
Informix, there have been attempts to put UniData and UniVerse under
the Informix product line heading. These have, thankfully, ceased.
There was a short time when we attempted to have a U2 user group align
in some ways with the Informix user group, but there really was little
in common other than both being owned by IBM.

Or SQL Server, but in any case, the application programming is done in
a "data basic" language aligned with the Pick data model. The SELECT
statements done through the application (by users, for example) are
not SQL SELECT statements, but Pick selects.

Back to the OP, DB2 and Informix are similar, but there might be
little reason to adopt Informix if you are not already running it.
IBM keeps it going for those who were already users of the database,
but has promoted their DB2 database as their premiere relational
database. I'm sure there are many who think Informix is superior in
one way or another, but not as many who would think it a good business
decision to start with Informix instead of DB2 if building a new
application (although some of us would prefer to start with U2).

Best wishes. --dawn

25 word or less:

DB2 is a whole family of SQL databases for many different platforms.
It has very good Standards conformance.

Informix has an SQL inside it, but it is more of a development tool.
Many mainframe applications are written in Informix 4GL. It is an
Algol-like language and there is also a report writer.