Re: Informix vs Oracle, alleged trade secret theft

Yuan John Jiang <yjj@mci.net> wrote: :When people talking about Informix' technical lead over Oracle, :what do they refer to? I understand that Informix' lead in :OO database (Illustra). What about the DB engine itself :and other aspects? The main lead is in their ORDBMS technology (different from what is usually refered to by OO database). This is not Illustra but their new Universal Server which is based on a combination of Illustra technology and the Informix DSA (Dynamic Scalable Architecture). The DSA itself has several advantages over Oracle. One of them is the fragmentation technology. Informix also have their XPS server (for MPP machines) which has several advantages over Oracle. Thechnology developed for the XPS server is also beeing moved into the DSA servers. Oracle have no ORDBMS technology, and will have non until Oracle 8 (possibly sometime this summer). The annonced technology in that is to use external "Objects", while Informix have integrated them into the database engine itself in the form of what they call datablades. It remains to be seen how well the Oracle ORDBMS will work, but there are several problems with performance, backup and other issues they have to overcome to make Oracle 8 successfull. I have my grave doubts, and there are others seeing the same problems. ORDBMS technology is such a great leap forward in databases that companies will live or die on getting it right. It will however probably take quite some time to penetrate the marketplace so late comers may still have a chance. It's very hard to do right though. Nils.Myklebust@idg.no NM Data AS, P.O.Box 9090 Gronland, N-0133 Oslo, Norway My opinions are those of my company The Informix FAQ is at http://www.iiug.org