Informix joins with Netscape to build workgroup database

Informix Software Inc. and Netscape Communications Corp. last week announced a workgroup database solution targeting intranet applications.

The Informix Workgroup Solution consists of Informix intranet-enabled database technology, Netscape's FastTrack Server World Wide Web server software and Netscape's Navigator Gold browser and authoring tool.

The package is designed to help users quickly build Web sites. "You can literally, out of the box, create your Web site using these components," said Dave Nahmias, federal product marketing manager with Informix. The product will soon be available through the company's General Services Administration Schedule A contract.

The intranet product line includes two databases: the Informix-OnLine Workgroup Server, for local-area network-based deployment, and Informix-OnLine Workstation, for small branch offices and remote sites.

Nahmias said the product is on track with the decentralization trend in government. He said responsibility for maintaining citizen services is being pushed out to regional and local groups, which can benefit from having information readily at hand on an intranet server.

Informix Workgroup Server runs on Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT. The company plans to offer its Informix-OnLine Workgroup Server database component on Unix platforms later this year.