IBM Informix is a family of relational database management system (RDBMS) developed by IBM. It is positioned as IBM's flagship data server for online transaction processing (OLTP) as well as integrated solutions. IBM acquired the Informix technology in 2001.

Informix is leading the next great wave in database innovation to enable the world's leading corporations to manage and grow their businesses. With its focused technology strategy, superior customer service, and best-of-breed partnerships, Informix is the demonstrated technology leader for corporate computing environments ranging from workgroups to very large OLTP and data warehouse applications as well as a catalyst in major new IT trends such as dynamic content management, the Web, smart cards, and mobile computing.

Originally named Relational Database Systems Inc., this software company was founded by 25-year-old entrepreneur Roger J. Sippl. Sippl's background included a B.A. in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley, and a stint as manager of database research and development at Cromenco, a manufacturer of microcomputers. In 1980 Sippl invested $200,000 in the new company and became its president, chief executive officer, and chairman.
Relational Database Systems was a pioneer in 1981 in distributing fully relational database management systems (RDMS) for multi-user computers through its product line, INFORMIX. RDMS programs link multiple files together and permit the comparison and analysis of the data in these files. RDMS software had existed since the 1970s as customized or proprietary software for mainframe computer systems. Relational Database Systems was one of the first companies to specialize in offering RDMS software packages designed to run on the UNIX operating system used on many microcomputers.
Relational Database Systems quickly became a leader in the new field of UNIX-based database management software. The company gained a technological edge over its competitors by developing its products specifically for workstations and personal computers. Oracle and Relational Technology Inc., other leading RDMS companies at the time, had instead revised software they had originally developed for mainframes and minicomputers.
In the summer of 1985, Relational Database Systems introduced a significant new product, INFORMIX-SQL, a RDMS that featured an ANSI-standard query language that was based on International Business Machines Corporation's (IBM) Structured Query Language (SQL). Although the software was for UNIX, the use of IBM's SQL opened up a potential market of IBM computer users familiar with that query format. The company also introduced INFORMIX-ESQL/C, which offered additional programmable features in the C language.
Also in 1985, the company introduced the first SQL-based RDMS software version for local area networks of DOS-based personal computers. The design of separate "front-end" and "back-end" components of the company's SQL software, developed several years prior, made it most efficient when running on client/server networks. On this type of system, multiple users at individually networked computers could share database files kept on a designated computer known as a server.
The company moved further into providing software for programmers when, in February 1986, it introduced INFORMIX-4GL, a programming language designed especially for developing databases. This was its first application-building language to combine the needed fourth-generation application programming features along with SQL, and which further could be used under all versions of UNIX. Later in 1986, it introduced versions of INFORMIX-4GL and INFORMIX-SQL that ran on the VMS operating system of Digital Equipment Corporation's VAX minicomputers and MicroVAC workstations. Also in 1986, the company began development of INFORMIX Datasheet Add-In, a product that added true RDMS capabilities to Lotus 1-2-3.

Roger Sippl and Laura King worked at Cromemco, an early S-100/CP/M company, where they developed a small relational database based on ISAM techniques, as a part of a report-writer software package.
Sippl and King left Cromemco to found Relational Database Systems (RDS) in 1980. Their first product, Marathon, was essentially a 16-bit version of their earlier ISAM work, made available first on the C8000 from Onyx Systems.
At RDS, they turned their attention to the emerging RDBMS market and released their own product as Informix (INFORMation on unIX) in 1981. It included their own Informer language. It featured the ACE report writer, used to extract data from the database and present it to users for easy reading. It also featured the PERFORM screen form tool, which allowed a user to interactively query and edit the data in the database. The final release of this product was version 3.30 in early 1986.
In 1985, they introduced a new SQL-based query engine as part of INFORMIX-SQL (or ISQL) version 1.10 (version 1.00 was never released). This product also included SQL variants of ACE and PERFORM. The most significant difference between ISQL and the previous Informix product was the separation of the database access code into an engine process (sqlexec), rather than embedding it directly in the client — thus setting the stage for client-server computing with the database running on a separate machine from the user's machine. The underlying ISAM-based file storage engine was known as C-ISAM.
Through the early 1980s Informix remained a small player, but as Unix and SQL grew in popularity during the mid-1980s, their fortunes changed. By 1986 they had become large enough to float a successful IPO, and changed the company name to Informix Software. The products included INFORMIX-SQL version 2.00 and INFORMIX-4GL 1.00, both of which included the database engine as well as development tools (I4GL for programmers, ISQL for non-programmers).

It took a new chief executive with more professional management experience to turn Informix around. Sippl, retaining his post as chairman, turned over the management of the company to Phillip E. White in early 1989. Until then, White had been president of Wyse, and prior to that spent 15 years at IBM before two years as vice-president of sales and marketing at Altos. Sippl eventually gave up day-to-day control as chairman in 1990 and left in 1992, feeling that his start-up company had grown too big for him to manage.
White announced a corporate reorganization in January 1989. He laid off about 200 employees--15 percent of staff--and eliminated the dual nature of the company. Instead he created two product divisions, the Workstation Products Division in Lenexa and the Advanced Products Division at the headquarters in Menlo Park. The Advanced Products Division was responsible for Informix's traditional database, network, and application-development software, while the Workstation Products Division became responsible for Wingz and other office productivity software.
White also took over the presidency of Informix and the management of the Advance Products Division, while former Informix president Michael Brown became president and general manager of the Workstation Products Division. In 1990 White relocated some of the manufacturing operations to Kansas, where labor costs were lower. By the end of 1989, office automation software, developed primarily by the Workstation Productions Division, accounted for 27 percent of Informix's revenues, while database management software accounted for 36 percent. Software development tools, such as INFORMIX-4GL, made up 37 percent of sales.
White's turnaround of Informix proved spectacular. At the beginning of 1990, Informix introduced a new, high-end RDMS product for enterprise-wide use called INFORMIX-OnLine. Designed for online transaction processing, it featured distributed processing, fault tolerance, and multimedia capabilities permitting the storage and retrieval of digitized sounds and graphics. The company returned to profitability in 1991 after losses of $46.4 million in 1990. The following year, sales increased 46 percent to reach $283 million, and net income quadrupled to $47.8 million. Contributing to 1992 sales was a single $26.8 million contract for the Army National Guard and Army Reserves. Informix's stock price, which had fallen as low as $1.31 a share in January 1992, shot up to around $38 a share by the spring of 1993. The market capitalization of the company rose 24 times in the same period to reach $1.2 billion. Manufacturing costs dropped from 13 percent of revenues in 1989 to only five percent in 1993.
Most significantly though, Informix was able to continue growing by taking advantage of the accelerated demand for UNIX-based business software applications among corporations switching from mainframe computers to networks of server-based personal computers and workstations. In 1989 Informix introduced INFORMIX-STAR, software that enabled users of its new INFORMIX-OnLine RDMS to retrieve data from not one but multiple network servers.
In 1988, Informix purchased Innovative Software[citation needed], makers of a DOS and Unix-based office system called SmartWare and WingZ, an spreadsheet program for the Apple Macintosh.
WingZ provided a graphical user interface, supported larger, 32768x32768 dimension spreadsheets, and offered programming in a HyperCard-like language known as HyperScript. The original release proved successful, becoming the number two spreadsheet[citation needed], behind Microsoft Excel. In 1990, WingZ ports started appearing for a number of other platforms, mostly Unix variants. During this period, many financial institutions began investing in Unix workstations as a route to increasing the desktop "grunt" required to run large financial models. For a brief period[not specific enough to verify], Wingz was successfully marketed into this niche. However it suffered from a lack of development and marketing resources. By the early 1990s WingZ had become uncompetitive, and Informix eventually sold it in 1995[citation needed]. Informix also sold a license to Claris[citation needed], who combined it with a rather updated GUI as Claris Resolve.

However, the tide turned suddenly in 1997 when the company lost $140 million in its first quarter. Shares plunged 35 percent, and the company was forced to lay off ten percent of its employees. White, soon after replaced by Robert J. Finochio, attributed the loss to the company's failure to close sales on existing products while gearing up for the introduction of Universal Server. Finocchio ordered a refocus on basics, and the building of a new management team to define Informix's marketing mission, but the company's financial woes continued. In August, as shares dropped another 22 percent, it announced that it had booked questionable sales as completed transactions and planned to restate its 1996 financial results. The restatement eventually extended to three and one half years and involved a reduction of more than $250 million in sales and earnings. For 1997, the company suffered losses of $357 million as revenue fell to $662.3 from $727.8 million. Informix's share of the database market dropped to 5.6 percent, and its stock hovered at a low of $4.
In an attempt to move forward, Finocchio trimmed Informix's product line to one main product aimed at the largest corporations--spatial information systems examine relationships between demographic information and geography--and began to focus on high-profit niche markets like electronic commerce, retailing, and media, instead of selling cut-rate database packages. The company was reorganized into two new business units: Data Warehouse Business Unit Group and i.Informix, which focused on web commerce. As the only company in its industry to cover Unix, NT, and Linux, Informix sought to remarket itself, changing its logo and tag line to "The one with the smartest data wins." By the second quarter of 1998, it had once again turned a profit. It expanded its staff to nearly 3,600 and agreed to buy California-based Red Brick Systems Inc. Revenue rose 11 percent to $735 million and net income was almost $58 million for the year.
Finocchio stepped down in 1999, replaced by Jean-Yves Dexmier. Under Dexmier, the company attempted to put the past to rest by paying out $142 million to settle a lawsuit with stockholders concerning Informix's recent losses. Moving forward into the next century, it unveiled its Foundation 2000, a data and content management platform for the Internet and announced its new strategy of going direct to customers rather than focusing on technology for use in developing products for end-users.
Principal Subsidiaries: Informix Software, Inc.


Statistics:
Public Company
Incorporated: 1980 as Relational Database Systems Inc.
Employees:3,984
Sales: $734.98 million (1998)
Stock Exchanges: NASDAQ
Ticker Symbol: IFMX
NAIC: 51121 Software Publishers


Address:
4100 Bohannon Dr.
Menlo Park, California 94025
U.S.A.
 
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