Re: Database scalability study

My responses are hearsay and uninformed opinions, based upon lots of experience with Informix, some with Oracle and Access and none with Sybase. I don't want to start a religious war for 2c. YAMMV, all the usual disclaimers apply! >I need to perform a "scalability" comparison between the following databases: >1a) Sybase FMS V.11.0.3 on SUN UNIX 2.6 >1b) Sybase Cluster V.11.5.1 on SUN UNIX 2.6 >2) Oracle MLT V.2.2 on HP UNIX 7.3 What's this then? Last time I heard, Oracle was on version 8.0.5. >3) MS Access MAP on Win NT 4.0 Server >4) INFORMIX BillDats V.7.30.UC2 on SUN UNIX 2.6 Who's Bill Dats, and why is Informix selling him? :-) >* Characteristics >- Intrinsic limitations: > case sensitivity > max number of foreign keys > (+)SQL syntax: compliance with which version of SQL, proprietary SQL, >stored procedure, dynamic SQL They've all got proprietary extensions to their SQL. > (+)Unit of work (e.g. database or user?) Huh? > Y2K compliance Version and platform dependent. >- (+) Partitioning : > distribution > load sharing Access is definitely out. Sybase, I don't know. Oracle and Informix definitely have, and Informix's is more flexible (for now! :) >- Complexity: learning curve (for DBAs, developers, "technical" users) and >education services available Informix offers the best balance of functionality with ease of learning. Oracle is very difficult to learn and does no more than Informix. Access is very simple, but very limited. Dunno Sybase. Informix's courses are excellent, Oracle's less so. Dunno the others. >* Performance >- (+)Max number of users >- (+)Max number of processors >- (+)Max hard disk space Access will max out long before the others. Only Oracle and Informix get to play much in the really big database environment. According to their marketing departments. :-) But as "proof", you can run Sybase, Informix and Oracle on SGI Origin 2000's, which can cluster up to 6144 CPUs, (I think) 1.5TB of RAM and God knows how much disk. Don't think NT can match that. ;-) >- (+)Performance monitoring tools Sybase, Informix and Oracle have some limited monitoring tools, but third party tools are available. I don't think anything much is out there for Access. >* Compatibility/Interoperability with other applications - Import/export >from/to other database systems Oracle is really horrible with this. Informix is pretty good. Access is mediocre. Dunno Sybase. - (+)Interface with programming languages and >APIs All have ODBC. I think Oracle wins this one, it has an API and embedded SQL tools. All horrid, though. :-) Informix only has ESQL and Sybase only has an API AFAIK. - (+)does it allow you to pick the best components (both hardware and >software) and know that they will work well together? Well, Access (and SQLServer!) lose here. You have to run the world's worst operating system and you're stuck with either Intel or Digital NT. Neither is bad, but they can't really go all the way. And only Oracle will run on mainframes if you want to go really big. >* Adaptability - (+)guaranty that the system will accommodate advances in >technology I think Informix is the most visionary DB vendor at the moment. Oracle are too busy consulting and selling Financials, Sybase is too busy selling middleware, and as much as I love Microsoft (?) I would never accuse them of being technology leaders. Oracle will always catch up and then trumpet that they invented it, MS can always buy someone to catch up. - (+)financial situation of the DBMS vendor (for future >development and support) In order: MS, Oracle, Informix, Sybase - years of presence on the market (maturity) Oracle, Informix, Sybase, MS. (I could be wrong about Sybase and MS) - >(+)quality of technical support In order: Informix, Sybase, Oracle, MS. (Sybase can't be worse than Oracle or Microsoft! :-) >* Affordability MS, then the rest. You can negotiate. :-) But I've seen plenty of gumph that shows that buying MS isn't necessarily the cheapest way to go, either. >- Takes advantage of the plummering prices in the personal computer and LAN >markets. ??? Sounds like bollocks to me. They all do. >- cost scalability (increase of cost vs increase of the size of the database) I'd give this one to Informix. FWIW. Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com