Re: Changing from Informix to Oracle

--- Boscia <rwboscia@worldnet.att.net> > wrote: >I work at a large company with a corporate headquarters that tries to tell >us what to do.... Amazing! >Well, we use Informix for all but one of our databases. We use Oracle for >the one. > >Corporate is suggesting that we switch all our databases to Oracle. >Corporate got some fantastic price deal and pays for it on the corporate >level and each individual location does not have to pay for any Oracle >software or support. We pay over $150K for our Informix apps at our >location only, so of course this looks good to some. It sounds like the money is the real deal and not the performance. I'd get with Informix and explain how much business they're going to lose unless they can match the Oracle offer. If money's the key you can point out that the cost of conversion, training and additional personnel (it sounds like you might need more than one DBA - what's the cost in salary, benefits, office space, etc. likely to be) will likely far outweigh the savings and if Informix cuts you a break it can only strengthen your position. Another factor: You gave us the mix of Informix/Oracle for your location, but does that apply across the board for the corporation? >Can anyone tell me if we go this route, how hard is it to convert? Never done it, but any conversion is always more difficult than you anticipate. >And if you can give me any ammunition to use to convince why or why not... > >We have many & quite large databases now - with one of the tables having >over 115 million rows. Right now we are getting slow writes when we select >and write into temp tables and everyone is claiming Informix is causing the >slowness and if we had Oracle, it would not do that. That's just plain stupid. Unless they can identify why Informix is bogging down they haven't a clue as to whether Oracle would perform better or worse in the same situation. >(I feel Informix is causing the slowness & I am in the process of "tweaking" >, but I don't know enough about Oracle to know how they do their select >statements and temp tables....or their disks or for that matter anything at >all.....) > >And unfortunately, we have no Oracle DBA to ask.... I would ask the 'DBA' who decided Oracle 'would not do that.' Now for the bad news. Unless you are highly regarded in the corporate chain of command, you have a daunting task ahead of you. You will have to be the one to collect the cost comparison data, negotiate a corporate-wide deal with Informix and build a case for the sanity of remaining an Informix shop. Then you'll have to present this to the powers that be in a way that hits their hot buttons, not yours. That last part is the most important. Finally, you'll have to be prepared for personal consequences since you will be telling someone who is likely highly placed in that corporate chain of command that their decision was a bad one. Nobody likes to be told they're wrong. == Maintainer of the procrastinator's FAQ. Well, maybe tomorrow I will be. _____________________________________________________________ Want a new web-based email account ? ---> http://www.firstlinux.net