Informix customers migrate to Oracle9i Database for technology compatibility, product viability

Oracle Corporation, the world`s largest enterprise software company, today unveiled new research indicating strong preference of Oracle9i Database over IBM DB2 by European Informix customers.

According to a commissioned study conducted recently by Harte-Hanks among more than 150 Informix customers in Europe, 61% of those customers who already have migrated from Informix chose Oracle, while a mere 10% elected to go with IBM. This Informix to Oracle trend is even more prevalent in the government sector, where approximately two-thirds of customers have chosen Oracle versus IBM.

According to the study, respondents who had migrated cited product viability as the top motivator for migrating away from Informix and showed strong preference for Oracle due to its technology compatibility with Informix software. Results also indicated that Oracle offered the best migration tools for Informix users among three options offered in the survey.

Additional survey findings include:

• Among those customers who have not yet migrated, more than half state that they plan to migrate to Oracle9i Database in the future.

• Support for packaged applications is the number one criterion in selecting a database vendor for an Informix migration. (According to the FactPoint Group, in a separate study, Oracle is the number one database vendor under 76% of SAP installations, 81% of Siebel installations, and 72% of PeopleSoft installations.)

• Oracle9i Application Server is the number one application server used with Informix databases.

"IBM spent a billion dollars to purchase a customer base that is now deserting it. At the time it didn`t seem like a sensible investment, and this latest research only reaffirms this assertion," said Tim Payne, senior director, EMEA Oracle9i Marketing.

"Oracle has always been at the forefront of database technology innovation and we continue to out-deliver IBM on things that are important to Informix users including availability, performance, scalability, application portability and innovation. Add to this easier and faster migration tools and it`s no wonder IBM is losing Informix customers to Oracle."

The study, commissioned by Oracle, was conducted during October 2002 by Harte-Hanks, a leading market research firm.