Re: Illustra's strengths?

"Jason S. Mirsky" <jason@miris.med.yale.edu> wrote: >Can someone please explain to me why illustra is so "revolutionary?" I >would like to understand its relative strengths compared to other >OORDMS. What makes it unique or special? Why would someone choose it >over another system? Thanks in advance. First we are talking about a true RDBMS, not an object oriented database systems with all the problems of them when used for the purposes RDBMS systems have traditionally been emploied. The major revolutionary thing is its extensibility. The DataBlades. Anyone (with the knowledge) can write a DataBlade, install it in the engine, and get all kinds of new functionallity out of it. Not only can you implement any new datatype, but that datatype can have virtually any kind of functionallity. And as I have understood it you still access the data using SQL, but with a number of new functions related to each datablade. And all this is handled inside the database engine with high performance and easy integration. It isn't some add on outside the database with all the problems you might get from that. There may be other products that can do some of the things you can with Illustra, but I know of non that can do it all, particularly no other major commersial products. Illustra by itself is revolutionary. Combined with Informix OnLine for high performance, large database support, we are in a new dimension. And Oracle, Sybase, DB2 and SQL Server are far far behind on this. Nils.Myklebust@ccmail.telemax.no NM Data AS, P.O.Box 9090 Gronland, N-0133 Oslo, Norway My opinions are those of my company