Industry Comments on Informix/Illustra Merger
and Universal Server Announcement

"This acquisition positions Informix to take and hold a strong leadership position in the emerging market for advanced DBMS for managing new types of digital information and complex data structures which has broad applicability in traditional computing environments, but particularly for Internet based applications."
Bill Shattuck
Alex Brown & Sons Inc.

"In the business of providing supply and demand chain solutions to global companies, we see the Internet as an extremely cost-effective vehicle for organizations to dynamically exchange information with their customers and suppliers. We share Informix's vision in supplying a product that will help us provide better access to real-time information, quickly and easily on the Internet."
Rocky Gunderson
Vice President, Marketing
Baan, Inc.

"As far as BASS supporting the concept of the Universal Server, we believe that Informix is moving in exactly the right direction. A data warehousing server that will accommodate a variety of data types, and can be accessed via the Internet, is really going to be a leader on the information highway. On top of the great storage and referencing capabilities provided by the Universal Server, we also believe that the OLAP applications will provide the grocery industry, which we serve, with the critical day-to-day operational views that are needed to run such high speed, low margin businesses."
Michael A. McCall
President
BASS Inc.

"Our target market, colleges and universities, have been pioneers in utilizing Internet technology. Our leadership integrated product suite running on the Informix platform will enable us to offer a new generation of powerful capabilities. CIS believes Universal Server will provide us a significant competitive advantage to offer multimedia technology available across the Internet. With Universal Server, we can offer all our clients the ability to handle audio, video, images and other complex data types within the IS Product Suite."
Duane Burris
Vice President, Advanced Technology Group
CIS Information Group

"With the Informix Universal Server, Informix continues its drive to provide the infrastructure and tools required to allow organizations to manage their information assets. This technology provides yet another confirmation that our recently announced partnership with Informix will bring value to our mutual customers as they create, manage and exploit their information architecture."
Anthony DeTarano
President
Computer Systems Advisers, Inc.

"With their Universal Server technology, Informix recognizes the business imperative of breaking down the barriers for capturing and utilizing data. Informix, like Documentum, sees that the key for the future is managing not just standard data types, but all the intellectual capital of a company. Our strategies complement each other, with Documentum managing the business-critical documents and workflow of an organization, and Informix further extending the information repository to all parts of the organization."
Rob Reid
Vice President, Marketing
Documentum, Inc.

"Informix and Excalibur have long shared a visionary commitment to content management of multiple information types in their native form. Our OEM partnership enables Informix customers to benefit from Excalibur's information retrieval toolset, including both our text and servers. The Universal Server will enable Excalibur and Informix to work together even more closely to deliver best of class storage, retrieval and management of text, video and signal-based information."
Patrick C. Condo
President and CEO
Excalibur Technologies Corporation.

"This is a highly strategic acquisition that appears to now place Informix in the lead ahead of Oracle in supplying database technology to the Internet."
Terence M. Quinn
Furman Selz

"The explosion of the Internet and Web space drives the requirement of customers to a database management system that will be able to store and access valuable information quickly and efficiently. By combining Informix's Dynamic Scalable Architecture and Illustra, Informix will be able to optimize the management of all data types, not just text and numbers. HP sees this solution as an important move by Informix to capitalize on the opportunities in the Internet, Web applications, and to benefit core HP customers in all industries."
Carol G. Mills
Hewlett-Packard
General Manager, General Systems Division

"As a Value Added Partner of Informix for the past 4 years, we have had the opportunity to work closely with their management and technical staff across the country. Hi Tech Consultants takes pride in representing Informix and their products and returning the level of commitment they have shown HTC. The marriage of Informix and Illustra can only be viewed as a positive move for clients and partners alike."
Paul A. Hemond
Director of Marketing
Hi Tech Consultants, Inc.

"The emergence of multimedia and other complex data types is driving the need for more processing power, from the home, to the desktop and up through the enterprise. With this comes the need for a database management system that can control this rich data and facilitate the development and deployment of multimedia. Both companies have been important partners for us because of their technologies. We see Illustra as a primary enabling technology for this next generation of computing applications. Informix has the scalability and parallel processing features essential for making dynamic multimedia content ubiquitous, whether it's delivered on an interactive entertainment appliance to the home, or on a massively parallel computer to the enterprise."
Dave House
Senior Vice President and General Manager,
Enterprise Server Group Intel

"We believe that the merger enhances Informix's long-term position. Informix has gained a 1 to 2 year lead over Oracle and Sybase and will begin to establish mindshare as the next-generation RDBMS company."
John Faig
Lehman Brothers Inc.

"The promise of enterprise-wide access to spatial applications is about to be realized through emerging technology such as the INFORMIX-Universal Server. When combined with MapInfo desktop mapping software for geographic data analysis, corporate end-users will ultimately send spatial queries to the Universal Server to access, manipulate and display the specific data they seek on their desktop system. Such routine access to spatial data will allow corporations to view databases in a whole new way."
Brian D. Owen
President and CEO
MapInfo Corporation

"Informix has made a bet on the Web and multimedia based applications that could redefine the company's role in the industry."
Charles Phillips
Morgan Stanley & Co.

"This announcement is a major step forward for the industry. Historically, relational database companies have done a great job with structured data but haven't addressed unstructured content. The Internet revolution makes handling and manipulating documents, images, video, and a wide range of other unstructured media types extremely important. The combination of Informix and Illustra shows that Informix is really stepping up to the plate by providing state-of-the-art systems for handling unstructured content to its customers and partners. In addition, the Netscape LiveWire Pro visual environment does a great job of connecting Web servers to relational databases such as Informix and Illustra. Netscape LiveWire Pro, in conjunction with the Informix/Illustra database technology, will make storing and manipulating data on the net easier than ever."
Marc Andreessen
Co-founder and Vice President of Technology
Netscape Communications Corporation

"The acquisition by Informix of dynamic content management capabilities is good news for users of PeopleSoft's enterprisewide application suite. PeopleSoft will be able to leverage this type of technology to bring about exciting advances in client/server applications including Internet-enabled multimedia information access."
Dave Duffield
President and CEO
PeopleSoft

"The advent of the Universal Server allows for the handling of the multiple data types customers require today. Omni/Replicator from Praxis International is specifically designed to replicate multiple data types into an Informix server data hub. Praxis is looking forward to working on the opportunities that the Universal Server provides."
Gareth Taube
VP Business Development
Praxis International Inc.

"By acquiring Illustra, Informix is taking the lead among the database companies in addressing the huge market for software that helps manage unstructured information."
Jamie Kiggen
Prudential Securities

"Pyramid and Siemens Nixdorf's upcoming Smart Transactions program, coupled with emerging technologies from Informix and Illustra, will enable our customers to conduct high value complex queries and to implement web-based electronic commerce. These are capabilities that our data warehousing and transaction customers demand. Together with Informix and its Universal Server technology, Pyramid/SNI offers the enterprisewide parallel processing solutions required by our customers to bring structure to inherently complex data types and gain new business value from the information highway."
S. Boyd Pearce
Vice President, Marketing
Pyramid Technology

"Rogue Wave has many customers needing both the performance of a relational database and the data handling flexibility of object databases. The Universal Server will be an ideal solution for them. Instead of creating work arounds to resolve the 'impedance' mismatch to utilize a single database, or resorting to the complexity of multiple databases with dissimilar programming interfaces within an application, they will benefit from a single solution that meets both their data handling needs and performance requirements.

"With the introduction of the Universal Server, Informix is reaffirming its technology leadership role among major database vendors. Informix is delivering database technology that meets today's complex data handling needs without sacrificing the reliability and performance on which we rely."
David Rice
Product Manager
Rogue Wave Software

"Early on, Informix recognized client/server as the information architecture destined to lead enterprise computing into the 21st Century, by delivering to their customers the Dynamic Scalable Architecture.

"Our partnership with Informix has allowed our customers to realize the power of DSA as a strong solution to take enterprisewide R/3 applications to their maximum potential with us. Informix has now taken their technology leadership and has combined it with the right vision that can take Fortune 1000 corporations into advanced information systems."
Paul Wahl
CEO
SAP America, Inc.

"Silicon Graphics and Informix share an enterprise vision of scalable computing solutions for the next generation of data warehousing and World Wide Web technology. By integrating Informix products with our wideband CHALLENGE server platform, users will be empowered to dynamically develop media-rich applications that realize the business benefits of new data types."
Tom Jermoluk
President and Chief Operating Officer
Silicon Graphics, Inc.

"Silicon Graphics is at the forefront of producing, processing and visualizing complex data. Since its foundation, there has been a proliferation of content rich applications--such as the WEB--throughout the enterprise. The INFORMIX-Universal Server is the first sophisticated database engine combining robust, scalable, enterprise solutions offered by relational databases with flexible, extendable, content management capabilities. With Informix, Silicon Graphics has a partner who can manage the rich content that enterprises now produce."
Javid Aziz
Senior Vice President
Silicon Graphics, Inc., Europe

"We believe this new technology from Informix will add richness and help support the direction we're heading with Enterprise Support Management tools. As Software Artistry's Expert Advisor was one of the first products for the service and support industry to provide multimedia capabilities, this added extensibility from Informix can only enhance the power and flexibility of our products too."
Gary Lemke
Vice President of Marketing and Development
Software Artistry, Inc.

"Sun has been focusing on enabling innovation on the Web, specifically through the Java programming language. Illustra and Informix share this commitment to innovation. This will allow customers to innovate more quickly or adapt more readily to emerging data types. Having a client/server database that can manage all the multimedia content enabled by Java is crucial for customers who want to exploit Web technology. With the scalability features of Informix and the extensible architecture of Illustra, these two companies represent a powerful combination. Their combined technologies will be uniquely suited to support applications developed using Java."
Eric Schmidt
Chief Technology Officer
Sun Microsystems, Inc.

"Introduction of the Universal Server is one more example of Informix Software's vision towards the future. As an Informix-based application developer, we are confident that Informix will continue to provide us with products that position us with strategic technology advantages in the marketplace."
Stephen G. Sanderson
Vice President, Sales and Marketing
The Technology Group, Inc.

"As consultants, we cannot forget that the purpose of automation is to allow our clients to perform their work with greater efficiency, knowledge and productivity. The INFORMIX-Universal Server will help us create systems for our clients that will help them achieve a sustainable competitive advantage over their competition. As technologists, the Universal Server sends a jolt of electricity through the veins, as all the past impossibilities become possible."
Mark Lichtman
President
ZonaComp Incorporated Informix Systems Integrator