IBM Informix vs Microsoft SQL Server

• Informix since its conception has a distinct multi-threading architecture no other engine has, it is unique of its kind. This is precisely how the engine is able to scale up like no other, with the lowest footprint, without killing the host and profiting each bit of the hardware. The threads are sub-proceses like any other one, but the difference is that they are are not controlled by the OS process dispatcher. This is why you will never be able to see these threads running at OS level. Informix is an OS itself, on top of the OS.
• Informix has the best replication techniques. Not many ppl know that MongoDB (the NoSQL engine) scales out because of its data sharding replication technology, and Informix is able to store Mongo BSON documents using the same data partitioning as MongoDB does. This way Informix extends the SQL or structured data with the unstructured data natively, together within the same data repository. This means that it is not only able to store JSON/BSON documents, but the engine is able to behave as it would be the MongoDB engine itself. Any application using MongoDB can be redirected to the Informix Mongo wire listener transparently. What´s more, it also improves the NoSQL (BASE) characteristic, making it ACID by allowing transactions to the CRUD operations. This last is something MongoDB is working on, promised to be delivered next year.
• As described previously, MongoDB's sharding concept relies on data partitioning, this is how it scales out, and as I also described previously Informix scales up given the described multithreading unique architecture! It implements the data sharding with one of its best replication technologies called Enterprise Replication. This is an Active-Active replication technology that allows replicating even between different platforms. This is actually how I managed to migrate the whole Informix platform from Solaris to Linux, with just a DNS change. There was almost ZERO downtime nor application change - this was really amazing!.

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• If configured correctly with the proper hardware, SQL Server can be incredibly powerful, delivering millions of data points in the blink of an eye
• If you're just starting with relational databases, you would probably be fine with opting for an open source solution. However, if you need a solution that can handle an enormous number of requests and return results with considerable speed, SQL is worth researching to see if it fits your needs.
• Managing database using SQL Server Management studio provides very good flexibility

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• The name of Informix is almost invisible on the market, which is very frustrating. This give the feeling that IBM is not interested in Informix without providing any reasons for why IBM makes no effort to sell Informix.
• The pricing policy is very complex

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• The latest implementation of SSIS does not work as well as the previous versions when it comes to importing datasets from Access or Excel files. Rather than using the datatypes in those source files, it tried to figure out the datatypes by looking at the first few columns. This has been frustrating for us.
• It would be good if SQL Server came equipped code checking. We currently use SQL Enlight to ensure that our code meets certain standards.

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• As I have explained earlier, Informix has had along the past 15 years, the lowest number of vulnerability defects reported in NVD. Informix allows you to disregard the vulnerability defects, and spend your time building and growing your business instead of wasting it in patching and fixing every quarter! This to me is the best example I can empirically prove that Informix is definitely one of the best return of investment and so that any CDO or CIO should pay attention at the time to consider what platform to chose, to build on top!
• The other return of investment any CDO or CIO should pay attention to, is the number of DBAs a DB platform should be required to support it! Informix with the SELF-everything, is getting chosen by companies as the best suited engine given its low footprint and little maintenance to get it embedded in their hardware.
• Given its uptime and minimum planned outages Informix allows you to have, it is yet another reason Informix is not means an investment and not a money waste!

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• Our company's tools are based on SQL Server (mostly), so the name recognition and integration has certainly been useful to align with customer goals.
• The easy integration of .NET tools has meant that we can easily build features for our systems without much effort on understanding APIs or connectivity.
• The security integration with AD, and the Azure AD, means that we can extend our authentication to remote users without much effort or development time.
• The costs of SQL Server have gone up over time, and these certainly impact ROI, especially for smaller applications.
• I'm sure most platforms have bugs, and there are certainly some in SQL Server. The limited fixes or issues we've seen in a few cases of implementing certain database features have meant we needed to implement workarounds. We have also had some tuning issues with plan regressions, however these are likely to occur in many systems.

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