forrest@blia.UUCP (06/04/87)
From the responses I've read on the net it appears that technical discussion of DBMS's by its developers is OK. This is what I thought. To stir things up a bit I thought I'd discuss another factor in evaluating DBMS's. Many companies start database projects intending to create applications that will run in a homogeneous environment. This means computers of the same type running the same O.S. If the project is successful there is often a need to expand the scope of the application so that the data can be accessed concurrently by different kinds of computers, running different O.S.'s. In addition, all the expected security features present in the single O.S. environment, e.g. locking, are expected to exist in the heterogenous environment. This is where many existing DBMS's have trouble. Several DBMS systems can provide a heterogenous environment. For example, one the least advertised strengths of our database machine is its ability to provide the same services in a heterogenous environment as it does in a homogeneous environment. Also, Ingres/NET will do the same thing after what I've heard described as phase 2 is released. (It will also do things which we don't do.) Perhaps there are others that I'm not aware of. If so I'd like to hear about them. This has been a response to some of the postings asking about how to compare database systems. If it offends your feelings about commercialism then I'm sorry. Jon Forrest ucbvax!mtxinu!blia!forrest