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In this Issue |
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From the Editor: |
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by Tim DiChiara, Senior Site Editor
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There is indeed life beyond the big three DBMS vendors.
Last week, I asked users of legacy and niche database management systems to answer one question: why? Why do you forsake the big three? Is it just too expensive or complex to migrate legacy data? Do niche products better serve your specific industry? Are you planning on migrating to one of the big three, or is diversification a specific part of your IT strategy? Or has heterogeneity been forced on you due to mergers, changing company leadership, etc? Apparently, many of you are indeed satisfied. Here is a sampling of your thoughts:
"Shame on you," writes Dave I. "for not mentioning IDMS!" He says that the performance and resilience of both the ICL and the CA version show "that the 'Big Three' still have some things to learn."
Dave F. also believe that "legacy" products out-perform the current market leaders: "Are the products of the Big Three able to retrieve data as quickly as Model 204 for large queries and processing? No."
Member Albert J. traces the mess to the client-server revolution: turf wars resulted, with each group demanding their piece of the data pie on their desktop, which in turn led to different versions of the data in different DBMS products. He believes that XML will help solve the heterogeneity problem but that's it's not mature enough yet for large enterprises. In the meantime, stick with what works for you.
Dean D. has had to deal with integrating many "homemade" systems and it's not easy. His advice: future-proof your systems by building your applications so that they run on *any* DBMS. It helps people like him in the future!
Finally, Mike H. offers this excellent point: "I would urge any business looking to migrate to one of the "Big 3" DBMS vendors to consider the following: If you consolidate to the same software on the same platform on the
same hardware as everyone else, what competitive advantage are you left with?"
Thanks again to all those who sent me their thoughts. If you'd still like to offer your two cents about using, integrating, or updating legacy and niche databases, email me at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Until next time, Tim
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Featured Topic: |
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Ask the experts
by Tim DiChiara, Senior Site Editor
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Our panel of industry leaders and super geeks has answered over 2000 of your tough Oracle, SQL Server, DB2, data warehousing, relational model, and SQL questions. Browse this useful knowledgebase or submit your own question!
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Read more about this topic
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Expert Technical Advice: |
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Featured Expert Rudy Limeback
Web and SQL Design Consultant, r937.com
Category:SQL
Rudy has worked with commercial databases since the mid-1970's, starting with IDMS, a Codasyl network system, and progressing through IBM's DB2 and Microsoft's SQL Server relational databases. He has developed data warehouses and transactional databases, always with an emphasis on making them easy to use for developers and end users alike. He specializes in writing SQL statements that are simple and easy to maintain. Rudy now operates r937.com, developing databases for use with dynamic Web sites. Ask him your tough SQL questions!
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Read Rudy's answers to previous questions
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This Week: In the forums
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Backups: Oracle versus Sybase
Member "Louisa" knows how easy Sybase backups are but is having trouble with Oracle's online backups. Go to our "DBA Water Cooler" to read the detailed responses or offer your own thoughts. |
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Overflow error in SQL Server 2000
Member "Ranga" is getting an "arithmetic overflow" error when running his stored procedure. Check out his code and help him figure out his problem in our "SQL Server Tech Forum". |
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| Tip of the Week: |
Limiting DB2 result sets with FETCH FIRST and OPTIMIZE FOR
The FETCH FIRST and OPTIMIZE FOR clauses are useful for limiting the
amount of rows if your result sets get large. Here's how to use them in DB2. |
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Read complete tip |
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Site Highlights |
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Live webcast: Heterogeneous database management
Join us Tuesday, October 28th at 2 p.m. ET and listen as experts Guy Harrison, Kevin Kline and Deb Jenson explore key applications, technologies and market trends impacting the evolution of heterogeneous database management.
Register now
Sponsored By: Quest Software
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Featured webcast, "Integration of globally diverse data"
Tune in to this webcast and learn more about the rationale for global data integration. Listen as expert James Bean discusses several options for capturing, validating, processing and integrating globally diverse data.
Click here to tune in to this webcast
Sponsored By: Oracle Corporation
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Performance Tuning for Mission-Critical Database Applications
Download this white paper now
Download this week's featured white paper and learn more about the process of performance tuning for different PeopleSoft components, how to unlock business efficiencies and maintain performance throughout the application lifecycle.
Sponsored By: LECCOTECH
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