Event Summary
"NEW YORK, February 2, 2000-Informix Corporation (NASDAQ: IFMX), the technology
leader in the software infrastructure for the i.Economy and a leading Linux
vendor, at LinuxWorld 2000 announced its continued commitment and investment
to the Linux community with the release of Foundation.2000 and Cloudscape 3.0
on Linux.
Informix
committed to bring all core server products to the Linux platform, including
its business intelligence suite. Linux demonstrated versions of Informix Internet
Foundation.2000, Cloudscape, Redbrick and Extended Parallel Server (XPS)
at LinuxWorld 2000.
Informix
also announced special price promotions for Foundation.2000, Intel Architecture
on Linux, and demonstrated the first Linux-based web-warehousing solution. Customers
have a variety of purchase options. A single developer user license for Foundation.2000
Intel Architecture on Linux is priced at $199. The pricing for a single CPU
version of Informix Internet Foundation.2000 Intel Architecture on Linux is
$2,000.00 and two to four CPUs are $10,000 per CPU.
According
to Janet Smith, senior director of Linux marketing at Informix Corporation,
"We see the tremendous growth potential of the Linux market and are announcing
this aggressive price promotion on Foundation.2000 to help lower the barriers
to entry."
Market
Impact
Following on the heels of Oracle's announced price cuts, and with the rising
popularity of the Linux operating system, Informix is cutting its prices for
its databases by over 80 percent. This is obviously a loss leader designed to
get them into the market. The offer is good from February 10 through October
10, 2000.
What
remains to be seen is whether Informix can be successful given its late entry
into the Linux arena. Other vendors such as Imprise/Borland were much quicker
to market.
User
Recommendations
Customers who have interest in the Linux operating system as a database platform
should investigate this offering. Informix's new "Try & Buy" Foundation.2000
promotion is currently free for a 30-day trial from the Informix web site.
Informix's
database offerings have long been respected for their core functionality and
feature set, and being able to test it out for free is an attractive offer.