Informix launches Web-enabled database

Online XPS server now bundled with Netscape tools.

Mike Ricciuti Staff writer, CNET News

Mike Ricciuti joined CNET in 1996. He is now CNET News' Boston-based executive editor and east coast bureau chief, serving as department editor for business technology and software covered by CNET News, Reviews, and Download.com. E-mail Mike.

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Mike Ricciuti

July 10, 1996 9:00 a.m. PT

Informix Software is bringing its big-system database server to the Web for hosting massive data warehouses and transaction processing systems.

The company today launched Informix-Online Extended Parallel Server 8.1 (OnLine XPS), a rewrite of its high-end parallel processing database server. With the release, Informix is attempting to give corporate IS users the tools they need to ease onto the Web massive corporate databases used for core business applications. The company is bundling Netscape Communications' Navigator Gold Web browser and Enterprise Server software with OnLine XPS 8.1.

Competitor Oracle is already taking a similar tack by bundling its Web Server with its Oracle 7.3 database server. Both companies are building Web-ready databases in anticipation of corporate users starting large-scale conversions of existing client-server applications for intranet use.

Intranet development and spending will ramp up considerably over the next few years, said Stan Dolberg, an analyst with Forrester Research.

OnLine XPS 8.1 is priced from $30,000 and will be available by month's end. The database runs on massively parallel and symmetric multiprocessing hardware from Hitachi, IBM, ICL, and NCR.

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