vince@mbunix.mitre.org (Ventrone) (12/27/90)
I am looking for information about experiences that medium/large organizations have had with using a relational DBMS, running on a UNIX system, to implement a corporate database server. The sort of environment I have in mind is one in which the organization's operational, transaction-oriented systems (some of which may employ databases) live in a "roped-off" world of data producers. The information-consuming world is served by a logically distinct store of shared, integrated corporate data. This latter data store would be designed according to a logical data model of the organization, and would offer essentially "read-only" access to data for planning, management and decision support. The shared data repository would presumably receive some--possibly most--of its data from the operational database(s), and would be refreshed on a regular schedule. The shared repository should be accessible from a wide variety of desktop platforms, and should offer facilities that make it possible for users to access data using common off-the-shelf tools such as spreadsheets and report generators without (much?) programmer assistance. In sum, the goal is to offer distributed access to a shared, integrated repository of corporate data from the desktop in a vendor-independent, client-server environment using any relevant standards. (Did I omit any key buzzwords? :-) Specifically I'm interested in information about leading relational DBMS products--Sybase, ORACLE, Ingres, Informix, etc.--and their suitability for the task I've described. Relevant questions are: 1. What has been the experience in providing access to the server from the desktop (a Macintosh, PC, workstation) in ways that offer a reasonable degree of ease and transparency? What mechanisms and/or products were used? 2. Which data-modelling methodologies and tools were used to design the shared, integrated repository? Were CASE tools used? If so, which ones? 3. How was access to the server provided from the desktop--via products offered by the DBMS vendor (e.g., Informix-Net, IngresNet) or other products (e.g., DAL, TechGnosis SequelLink)? 4. How were security issues addressed? 5. Finally, any experiences integrating CASE tools and RDBMSs? Any and all suggestions, warnings, tales and "war stories" are most welcome. Depending upon the response, I will consolidate and post to the net. Thanks. Vince Ventrone vav@mitre.org