Re: No future for DB2

>> I don't find DB2 to be any easier to learn than Oracle > > There are corners of the product that can be a little more complex - > perhaps locking sometimes, plans and static sql if you decide to use > it. On the flip side there are areas that are much easier. The > glaring one is backup & restore, that's a critical activity that's a > piece of cake compared to oracle. > In fact, the tasks you pointed out are used much more frequently than backup and recovery. > > In my opinion db2 is pretty easy to learn - it would have been far more > difficult to get these guys to the same point in Oracle. > This is a pure assumption. Apparently they have not been Oracle trained. > On the flip side, SQL Server, MySQL, and Postgresql would have been > even easier than DB2 - but then again their scalability limitations > (parallelism/partitioning/optimizer/etc) would have pushed so much > extra complexity into the design it probably would have been tougher > after all. > I agree that SQL Server admin is easier to learn, but development is another story. MySQL is absolutely not easier to learn, perhaps fewer things to learn due to lack of features.

> In fact, the tasks you pointed out are used much more frequently than backup > and recovery. Depends. Locking generally isn't much of an issue in data warehousing, and it usually isn't a challenge in db2 other than in exceptionally high-volume databases. I never bother with static sql, so I haven't had any challenges there in years. Recoveries? Yeah, I seldom need to recover databases. But I think that a primary responsibility of a dba is to be able to restore a database. :-) So, I'm a big believer to running backup/restore drills if necessary to develop that skill. > This is a pure assumption. Apparently they have not been Oracle trained. True. Nor had they been db2-trained prior to starting this project. But I've got the same amount of experience with both databases, and have built similar data warehouse projects on both. Both are great for warehousing, with each having cool strengths. Oracle's partition management and third-party support is fantastic. DB2's MDC (like partitioning) is both fantastic and included in the base product. And supporting and explaining db2 is much easier in my experience. > I agree that SQL Server admin is easier to learn, but development is another > story. I've always found sql server easy to set up for non-production environments, but a royal pain in the butt for real production - where I prefer batch maintenance operations that can be managed via cvs to reentering gui commands in production. > MySQL is absolutely not easier to learn, perhaps fewer things to learn due to > lack of features. Right - it's a very lite feature set.