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In this Issue |
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From the editor:
Database wars heat up...again |
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Featured Topic:
Database wars |
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Expert Technical Advice:
New expert advice, forum posts, and tech tips
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Site Highlights:
* White Paper Library - Get the latest research on database technology
* Audio Archive: "Programming SQL Server 2000 with Visual Basic .NET"
* The SearchDatabase Buyer's Guide - Browse for database technology vendors
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From the Editor: |
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by Tim DiChiara, Site Editor
In case you hadn't noticed, we're in the midst of the
seemingly annual flare- up of the database wars.
For those of you new to the trials and tribulations of
the database industry, the race for supremacy in the $11
billion DBMS market is between three vendors: Oracle, IBM,
and Microsoft. The competition is cutthroat, to put it
mildly. Dueling "independent" analyst studies, leapfrogging
benchmark wins, and even name-calling are common. Last
year's highlight for me was IBM exec Janet Perna calling
Oracle technology "a pig with lipstick." And of course
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is a veritable fount of quips and
put-downs: declaring Sybase dead ("may they rest in peace"),
reducing Microsoft to a "game maker" (a reference to their
XBox video game product), mocking IBM Global Services as
IBM's real raison d'etre, etc.
Do market share shenanigans really matter anyway? We
surveyed SearchDatabase members and industry experts and
found out-- read the article here. (I also asked you last week
who would ultimately be victorious in the database wars. In
case you're wondering, a whopping 9,000+ of you took the
poll, but voting "irregularities" put the overwhelming win
by Oracle in doubt.)
Much has been made about Oracle's decline, and certainly
Oracle has taken a beating in the past year. However, as I
wrote last week, we don't know the real sales stats, since
IBM and Microsoft include other products in their figures,
while Oracle does not. And "overall market share" is a
misleading metric: Oracle is still the clear leader in the
Unix database market, Microsoft is number one on Windows
systems, and DB2 is the acknowledged mainframe leader.
Will that be the end result of the database wars? Or will
Oracle continue to decline and go the way of VisiCalc and
Digital, as a poster in our discussion
forum wrote? Let's wait until the inevitable
next skirmish before drawing any hasty conclusions. Most of
you are probably preoccupied with more technical battles
anyway!
Cheers, Tim
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Featured Topic: |
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Database wars
by Tim DiChiara, Site Editor
Who is the king of the $11 billion DBMS hill? Recent data
apparently show some surprising changes. Keep up-to-date
with the latest news and analysis about the ongoing DB2 vs.
Oracle vs. SQL Server battle inside...
Read more about this topic
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Expert Technical Advice: |
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Featured Expert Karen Morton, Owner, Morton Consulting, Inc
Category:Oracle
Karen has over 15 years IT experience and 10
years Oracle experience. She has co-authored several Oracle
training coursebooks and taught hundreds of individuals in
skills ranging from introductory Oracle to advanced DBA
topics. She holds a B.S. in Computer Science and
additionally holds OCP DBA credentials for Oracle 8i. Ask
Karen your toughest Oracle questions!
View all Karn's answers
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This Week: In the forums
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Snapshot replication issue
Member "d/b/a" is trying to configure snapshot
replication, but is wondering if he can make both sites
master and snapshot for each other (i.e., "two-way
un-updatable snapshot replication"). Possible? Go to our
"DBA Water Cooler" forum if you can help "d/b/a" figure out
the problem. |
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Help on dimension design
Member "CL" has a question about the best
design for his multidimensional database. Check out his
table structure and offer some advice in our "Data
Warehousing and Data Analysis" forum. |
| Tip of the Week: |
| This tip shows you two ways find the disk space
used by each table in a database. One uses the
sp_msforeachtable stored procedure to iterate through all
the tables in the database, while the other uses a modified
sp_spaceused to give a more detailed, clean output. |
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Quick way to find space used by each table in a database |
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