This Week: Oracle vs. SQL Server

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Title: TechTarget

June 02, 2003 >> Receive this email as text  >> About this email   In this Issue >> From the Editor: Oracle vs. SQL Server >> Featured Topic: Oracle applications >> Expert Technical Advice: New expert advice, forum posts and tips >> Site Highlights: * Even more database info * Visit the DBA Water Cooler forum * Consolidating your servers?  From the Editor: by Tim DiChiara, Site Editor These days, heterogeneous systems are a fact of life. In fact, research shows that most large companies run upwards of 10 different DBMS products and/or versions. Many of you DBAs now have experience with multiple products, which may explain why a recent tech tip we posted hit such a nerve. Why Oracle wins in a comparison with SQL Server, written by Eli Leiba and culled from his own experiences and discussions he has read around the Net, detailed the differences in platform dependency, performance and tuning, PL/SQL versus T-SQL, clustering, reliability and more. Eli argued that Oracle comes out ahead in many of these areas. The article generated an avalanche of feedback. Upset readers were in the majority, but not by much. These comments ranged from "pure dribble" to "fundamentally wrong" to "the author is an Oracle bigot" to more constructive criticism and detailed feature comparisons. On the other hand, many supported Eli's claims, saying "Oracle is superior to SQL Server in the way that a Rolls Royce is superior to my Nissan Sentra" and "I'm glad that this brave DBA had the guts to speak the truth against Microsoft vaporware" and "it's like comparing little league baseball to the major leagues." Clearly, the two sides are far apart, but some found a middle ground: "Each product has its strengths and weaknesses" and "All of this talk about who is better than the other or who has what is a lot of wasted air. Both do a good job." This approach is probably the most prudent, given the fact that system heterogeneity is getting worse, not better. We'll all have to play together peacefully sooner or later. If you have any additional thoughts on the superiority of Oracle or SQL Server -- or even if you believe that DB2 is the real champion or "none of the above" -- let me know. Cheers, Tim  Featured Topic: Oracle applications by Tim DiChiara, Site Editor The E-Business Suite is Oracle's fast-growing set of business applications built on an open architecture. Learn more with the latest news, analysis and advice inside... Read more about this topic  Expert Technical Advice: Featured Expert Brian Peasland, Database Administrator, Raytheon, Inc. Category:Oracle Brian is an OCP and has been in the IT field for 15 years working as a computer operator, operations analyst, systems administrator, application developer and finally a database administrator. Ask him your tough Oracle questions! View all of Brian's answers This Week: In the forums >> Help needed with ODBC text driver Member "Salil" is using a Microsoft Text Driver to read text files and import data into either SQL Server or Oracle. Alas, he's having character encoding problems when trying to internationalize the app. Go to our "DBA Water Cooler" forum if you can help. >> FTP or dblink or ??? Member "mbouge's" company is having a battle over whether it is better to extract data to flat files, transfer via ftp and then use sql loader OR use dblink to move data between different Oracle databases. Go to our "Oracle Tech Forum" if you have an opinion. Tip of the Week: What is Oracle's Procedural Language/Structured Query Language (PL/SQL)? What it is good for and how does it fit into the world? Find out in this exclusive tip. >> PL/SQL: What, when and where  Site Highlights Find even more database info here Have you been to our database Best Web Links page lately? To bring you the most comprehensive, up-to-date database site for your needs, we've added many new links to our Best Web Links page. Visit today! Visit the DBA Water Cooler forum What's the buzz in the database market? Find out. Our virtual water cooler allows you to talk amongst database developers and administrators. Visit today to find tips, tricks and insights from other DBAs. Consolidating your servers? Server consolidation does not necessarily require a large-scale, expensive effort. Learn how to achieve increased efficiency and improved service while reducing your total costs and gaining greater control over your IT infrastructure. This technical white paper focuses on Dell's Server Consolidation ROI Analyst Tool, latest generation enterprise servers and system management software. Read it today! Sponsored By: Dell Update your subscriptions Select newsletters you would like to receive from the list below. Database Administrator Tips DB2 Tips Oracle Tips E-mail    Not a member? We'll activate your membership with your subscription. Data warehousing Find all of your data warehousing needs in one place -- including clickstream analysis, case studies, Web-based warehousing, star schemas and more! Visit today Are WLANs Secure? The common objection to implementing WLANs is their potential for exposing critical data to outside attacks. How vulnerable are wireless networks? Click below and find out. Details here Looking for storage? The more data you have, the more storage you need. Sign up for your free Storage magazine subscription today to read the latest in data storage developments. Subscribe now A B O U T   T H I S   N E W S L E T T E R Created by TechTarget TechTarget - The Most Targeted IT Media Copyright 2003, All Rights Reserved. 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