Forum 2000 Speakers

SESSION: Friday Keynote

SPEAKER: Jean-Yves Dexmier, President and Chief Executive Officer

9:00 am Friday
 

Jean-Yves Dexmier is the president and CEO of Informix Software and was instrumental in organizing the financial turnaround of the company

SESSION: Web Administration for Informix Servers

SPEAKER: Ray Canuel, Principal Engineer, Advanced Technology Group

10:30 am Friday
 

ISA, the Informix Server Administrator (formerly ONWeb), is a lightweight, CGI/Perl based management tool for Informix Dynamic Servers. ISA provides Informix DBAs with a tool that is rich in functionality and easy to use for server releases 7, 8, and 9. ISA provides access to every Informix Dynamic Server command line function and presents the output in an easy-to-read format.

Ray Canuel joined Informix in May 1992. He spent his first 6 years with Informix engaging in consulting activities within the commercial and government markets. His consulting engagements focused on system life cycle development with an emphasis on data architectures, relational database design, database administration, data replication and performance tuning DSS and OLTP environments. Today he is part of the Advanced Technology Group where he is responsible for implementing prototypes and proof of concept demonstrations for strategic accounts working with Informix technology.

SPEAKER: Jack Parker

10:30 am Friday
 

How to turn 40 hour queries into 15 minute queries and other tips.

Jack Parker is a Database Administrator at Engage Technologies.  He is a 14 year Informix veteran and occasional speaker at user conferences. He can be reached at  jparker@engage.com

SESSION: Developing Object-Relational Databases

SPEAKER: Paul Brown

10:30 am Friday

Object-Relational DBMS technology provides answers to many database development problems, but prompts new questions too. In this talk, you will learn how to apply what you already know about database analysis and design to the new technology, and also what new modes of thought are useful. You get the most from your ORDBMS by adopting a more holistic philosophy to information system implementation than was usual with RDBMSs. Consequently, the approach to take is a hybrid of object-oriented and relational analysis and design.
 

Paul Brown is INFORMIX's 'Chief Plumber'. He works in the Chief Technology Office, and came to INFORMIX from Illustra, the pioneering object-relational startup. Before then, he worked at UC Berkeley in the Postgres and Sequoia 2000 projects. He is the co-author of Object-Relational DBMSs : Tracking the Next Great Wave and the author of the forthcoming Developing Object-Relational Database Applications, and numerous research papers and technical reports.

Moderator: Walt Hultgren 

Authors: Jonathan Leffler, Ron Flannery, Carlton Doe, Paul Brown

12:00 pm Friday

This moderated panel discussion will provide an interactive forum for getting in-depth technical answers to questions posed by audience members. Noted authors will share front line knowledge of state-of-the-art topics related to Informix ranging from application development tools to server installation and tuning. Bring your questions for our panel of experts!
 

Paul Brown, Panelist

Paul Brown is INFORMIX's 'Chief Plumber'. He works in the Chief Technology Office, and came to INFORMIX from Illustra, the pioneering object-relational startup. Before then, he worked at UC Berkeley in the Postgres and Sequoia 2000 projects. He is the co-author of Object-Relational DBMSs : Tracking the Next Great Wave and the author of the forthcoming Developing Object-Relational Database Applications, and numerous research papers and technical reports.
 

Carlton Doe, Panelist

Carlton Doe founded the Utah Informix Users Group in 1992 in Salt Lake City and is its current President. Carlton opened DBA Resources, Inc., in 1993. He specializes in OnLine administration and training. Carlton has written two books for Informix Press, The Informix-OnLine Dynamic Server Handbook, and Administering Informix Dynamic Server on Windows NT. He served as IIUG President for the 1996-97 term. 
 

Ron M. Flannery, Panelist

Ron Flannery is the lead author of Informix Handbook (www.informixhandbook.com ), a comprehensive reference that will be published in April of 2000. He is also on the board of directors for the International Informix Users Group and is the president of the Michigan Informix User Group. Ron is the president of One Point Solutions, an Informix and Web-based company.
 

Jonathan Leffler, Panelist

Jonathan Leffler started using Informix SQL and Informix 4GL in 1986. He joined Informix UK in 1990, and moved to the USA in 1993 to be the technical lead for the I4GL maintenance team. He wrote a book, Using Informix SQL, which is now out of print. He has been involved with D4GL since its introduction in 1998. He has long been active in the comp.databases.informix newsgroup, and developed and maintained the Perl DBD:Informix module.
 

Walt Hultgren, Moderator

Walt Hultgren has worked with Informix products since 1985 and has been active in user advocacy for much of that time. He started the informix-list email list in 1991, and shortly thereafter chartered the comp.databases.informix newsgroup and guided it into existence. He is the founding president of the International Informix Users Group, and now manages the IIUG Software Repository. He is president of the Southeast Informix Users Group.

SESSION: Informix Performance Tuning and SQL Optimization

SPEAKER: Kevin Fennimore

1:30 pm Friday
 

In this session we will discuss various performance tuning topics such as indexing strategies, schema, query and application optimization, correlated sub-query enhancements in 7.3 and optimizer directives.

Kevin Fennimore has been working with Informix for over 11 years, specializing in the area of performance tuning. Most recently his company, UCI Consulting, Inc., has concentrated on tuning PeopleSoft applications running on Informix and has become one of the top companies in this area. He can be reached by phone at 1-888-UCI-FOR-U or by email at kfenn@uci-consulting.com.

SESSION: Turbo-Charging your Data Warehouse/Mart with XPS

SPEAKER: Marty Lurie, Principal II Systems Engineer, Informix Software

1:30 pm Friday
 

Data Warehouses and Marts can be "Turbo-Charged" with Informix leading technology to derive more performance from existing hardware. Using the Advanced Decision Support Option can deliver faster query processing and advanced decision support (DSS) capabilities at minimal cost. This talk will show comparative performance of the Advanced Decision Support Option and will show how to migrate to this technology. The benefits from scalability, new index and join technology, data loading, and data partitioning will be covered. DBA's, IT Managers, and power users will gain a better understanding of the advantages and steps required to move to the Advanced Decision Support Option.

Martin Lurie is a Systems Engineer at Informix Software. His focus is applying Informix in the financial sector for DSS and OLTP applications. His interests include data warehousing and n-tier transaction processing. He has worked with massively parallel processing (MPP) databases, object relational databases, and relational databases on both UNIX and NT. He has presented at several conferences and to the IEEE and ACM on MPP issues including system design, scalability, collocation, and skew. Prior to Informix, Martin spent 17 years at IBM in systems engineering, development, marketing, and finance. Martin holds a Bachelor's degree in EE from MIT and an MBA from Boston University. He is an Informix Certified Professional, a Certified AIX Instructor, Certified AIX Administrator, and Certified in Production and Inventory Management.

SPEAKER: Jim Bolton, General Manager of Cloudscape

1:30 pm Friday
 

SESSION: Building a Web Enabled Data Warehouse

SPEAKERS: Lester Knutsen & Jerry Bramstedt

2:45 pm Friday
 

Jerry Bramstedt graduated in 1983 from Wichita State University with a BBA in Accounting. Prior to his current position with the Department of Agriculture (USDA), Jerry was the accountant for several small companies. In 1992, Jerry was hired by USDA as an internal control systems auditor and in the last several years, Jerry has been a project manager for special projects including data warehousing.

Lester Knutsen has been developing applications with Informix software since 1983. He is president of Advanced DataTools Corporation, an Informix Solutions Alliance Consulting, Training, and Tools Partner specializing in data warehouse development, database design, performance tuning, and Informix training and support. Currently, Lester specializes in developing web-enabled data warehouse systems. 

SPEAKER:Martin Terwilliger

2:45 pm Friday

FuGEN, Inc.

If you need to modernize the Information Infrastructure of your organization then this is information you "must" know. Come and learn how not to make costly mistakes that have cost others huge dollars. This short topic is targeted for both technicians and managers. The following area's are covered:
-Establishing an Enterprise Application Architecture (EAR)
-How to Choose the right N-tier design
-Determining whether to choose COTS-vs_Open Softwares
-How to design a component based architecture
-Why and when to use Object Oriented, Relational, Object Oriented Relational, embedded or flat file data source
-What are the goals of the design of the data source
-When and why to use Message Oriented Middleware (MOM)
-How to design for security concerns in the Intra-net -vs-Internet
-Will you use embedded systems in the future?

Martin Terwilliger is the founder and President of FuGEN, Inc., a Rockville based Open Systems consulting
company. He has spent the past 18 years designing, architecting and building large integrated systems for the federal government and Fortune 1000 companies. He is currently a member of the Architectural Steering Committee for the Internal Revenue Service, and the Department of Interior Bureau of Land Management. He has been an expert witness for large government IT contracts and has spoken at numerous International User Conferences.

SPEAKER: Ralph Kimball

9:00 am Saturday

Ralph Kimball
13150 Highway 9, PMB 116,
Boulder Creek, CA 95006, USA.
Phone: (408) 395-8778.
FAX: (408) 395-3603

Web: http://www.rkimball.com/
E-Mail for Ralph: ralph@ralphkimball.com

Ralph Kimball is founder of Red Brick Systems and author of "The Data Warehouse Toolkit" - The Marriage of the Data Warehouse and Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Ralph Kimball was co-inventor of the Xerox Star workstation, the first commercial product to use mice, icons, and windows. He was vice president of applications at Metaphor Computer Systems, and founder and CEO of Red Brick Systems. Ralph is a leading proponent of the dimensional approach to designing large data warehouses. He currently teaches data warehousing design skills to IT groups, and helps selected clients with specific data warehouse designs. Ralph is also a columnist for Intelligent Enterprise magazine. His book, "The Data Warehouse Toolkit", is considered a must-have reference for anyone working in the field.

SPEAKER: Ralph Kimball

10:15 am Saturday

See above Keynote session.

SPEAKER: Ray Canuel, Principal Engineer, Advanced Technology Group

1:30 pm Saturday
 

This tutorial consolidates ten years of experience isolating and trouble shooting Informix database server problems. Techniques will be discussed in trouble shooting IDS as well as separating IDS from application, hardware, or network problems. A proactive technique of auditing an IDS configuration and recommending best practices will be highlighted. And lastly, real world case studies will be discussed highlighting successful customer examples.
 

Ray Canuel joined Informix in May 1992. He spent his first 6 years with Informix engaging in consulting activities within the commercial and government markets. His consulting engagements focused on system life cycle development with an emphasis on data architectures, relational database design, database administration, data replication and performance tuning DSS and OLTP environments. Today he is part of the Advanced Technology Group where he is responsible for implementing prototypes and proof of concept demonstrations for strategic accounts working with Informix technology.

SPEAKER: Jonathan Leffler

1:30 pm Saturday
 

Ignoring the issues of how to install the product, this class will cover the basics of how to modify existing I4GL code to take advantage of the features available in Dynamic 4GL under the GUI clients.

Jonathan Leffler started using Informix SQL and Informix 4GL in 1986. He joined Informix UK in 1990, and moved to the USA in 1993 to be the technical lead for the I4GL maintenance team. He wrote a book, Using Informix SQL, which is now out of print. He has been involved with D4GL since its introduction in 1998. He has long been active in the comp.databases.informix newsgroup, and developed and maintained the Perl DBD:Informix module.

SESSION: Solutions that Utilize Java User-Defined Routines

SPEAKER: Shawn Swart

1:30 pm Saturday