This spring marks the 12th year in a row that Dr. Sumali Conlon's Advanced Management Information Systems classes, in the UM School of Business, have used an Informix database system provided by MCSR on our cypress platform. This arrangement has provided the MIS 408 students a practice platform for writing SQL (Structured Query Language), "...which includes DDL (Data Definition Language) and DML (Data Manipulation Language). DDL allows users to define databases and create tables, and DML allows users to manipulate the database, for example, inserting data, making changes, and querying the data in the database."

Students also get to build a class project with Informix. "The way these projects are built is similar to the way systems are built in the real world. So this gives students important practice that they will use on the job."

MCSR is retiring the Informix license on cypress after this year, in order to standardize and cut costs. Going forward, MySQL accounts will be made available on willow for students/classes wishing to get practice with SQL. In addition to being free, MySQL is the RDBMS that MCSR staff has used for several years for our own internal web/database applications, and so provides a better opportunity for us to provide support.