Tibco and Informix Team Up To Create Event-Driven Message Datablade Package

LONDON--Tibco has announced a joint venture with database software vendor Informix, of Menlo Park, Calif. The resulting product, the Message Datablade, is currently being demonstrated in London as a beta version.

The Message Datablade is essentially the Informix database with Tibco's Rendezvous messaging technology embedded into its architecture, says Sven Thiele at Tibco. A Datablade is what Informix calls a plug-in software module that can be used to extend the database. This allows a user to make an initial topical request to the database. All relevant data from multiple sources can then be pushed out of the database and sent via the TIB to the user, says Thiele.

Tibco announced its relationship with Informix at its Tibnet Internet middleware launch late last year (Dealing with Technology, December 13, 1996). In addition to Informix, Tibco also announced relationships with Cisco Systems, Verisign, Sun Microsystems and its parent company Reuters. In Sept ember, Oracle and Tibco signed a technology licensing agreement that allows Oracle to embed TIB/Rendezvous into Oracle's product line.

Since the announcement, officials at Informix reported in September that the database maker's revenues last year of $939.3 million might actually be off by $200 million or so. There may also be a discrepancy for the 1995 revenues of $714.2 million, which are likely to be adjusted downward by $50 million. The revelations sent the company's stocks and its watchers' expectations into a downward spin (Trading Systems Technology, September 29). The company's turmoil also included a change at the top when Phil White was ousted and replaced by Bob Finocchio, who is the new CEO and chairman (TST, August 4).

Users must make an initial request of the database in the form of a topic or "event" via the Message Datablade, says Frederick Thompson, director of product marketing at Informix. A Listener Agent then registers the event with the database, he says. From then on, the database acts as a listening agent and pushes all data relevant to the event out to subscribers via a publishing agent, says Thompson.

The Message Datablade took nine months to develop, says an Informix spokesperson. Three Tibco clients, one in London and two internationally, are already testing a beta version, Thiele says. Tibco and Informix decided to start marketing this product first to the financial sector because of the unique data needs of that industry. However, other industry sectors will be targeted, he adds. Both Informix and Tibco expect a December commercial availability for the product.

--Elizabeth Porter