Re: Choosing Sybase, Oracle, or Informix?

->Subject: Choosing Sybase, Oracle, or Informix? ->Date: Wed, 21 Sep 1994 18:00:45 GMT ->Reply-To: hotch@netcom.com (Hotchkiss and Wiley) ->Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) -> ->I am a graphics application programmer writing a GUI and imaging front ->end for financial analytics packages. Am using C/Motif/Xlib on a ->Sun Sparc10 (SunOS 4.1.3). We want to put a database on this machine: ->either Sybase or Informix or Oracle. I'm not sure which one to choose. ->My expertise is NOT in db management, so I would want something with ->not too steep a learning curve. Data stored would be simple tables ->with anywhere from 100k to 500k records with 20 fields per record ->containing mostly floating point (double) values but also some integer ->and character. Concurrent access will be limited to 5 or 6 users ->on an NFS network of sparc's and PC's (this is NOT a big shop). ->Requirements are quick retrieval (updating is secondary) based on ->asking for all records from a given table with one or more fields ->matching corresponding range values. -> ->Any comments, ideas, and input would be greatly appreciated!. -> ->Rich Parker ->Hotchkis & Wiley ->Los Angeles, CA ->hotch@netcom.com Rich, For such a system, I would strongly recommend Informix Standard Engine. It requires *MUCH* less DBA attention than either Informix OnLine or Oracle. In Informix-SE the primary tuning technique is the judicious use of indexes on fields used in your "where" clauses. I've not administered Sybase, so I can't comment knowledgeably on it. I have used Informix-Net from Sparcs and PCs running Informix-SQL (now called DBAccess) and Informix-4GL apps to databases on various sizes of Sun with great success. Performance was adequate, even over Florida-to-Colorado network links. My databases were slightly smaller than yours, but the same general size. Sounds to me like Informix-SE would be a good match for your needs. Regards, Alan ___________________________ ______________________| R. Alan Popiel |__________________________ \\ Internet: | Martin Marietta, SLS | / \\ alan@den.mmc.com | P.O. Box 179, M/S 3810 | Std disclaimers apply. / )Voice: | Denver, CO 80201-0179 USA | ( / 303-977-9998 |___________________________| (But you knew that!) \\ /________________________) (____________________________\\