As expected, IBM is uncaging Cheetah, or the IDS 11, on Tuesday.

The database, which IBM calls the second major release in two years, was optimized to run well on distributed commodity blade servers. IDS 11 will enable continuous availability in blade-based multi-node server environments and will provide workload balancing across those servers, said Bernie Spang, IBM's director of marketing for data servers.

This release should signal Informix partners that IBM is serious about continuing to build on the Informix database technology it acquired six years ago, Spang said.

Issuing something of a mea culpa, Spang said IBM could have been clearer to the "vibrant and loyal [IDS] community" about the company's short- and long-term plans.

"We sowed some confusion among partners and clients. We put out a Fusion-like vision for a merger across data servers" which was fine stratetic vision for the long haul, but not realistic for the short term.

"Fusion" was the name for Oracle's plan for converging its business apps line ups, which many found confusing.

Informix IDS has strong presence in retail and telecom verticals and is known for its online transaction processing (OLTP) strengths.