Re: Comparison shopping.....

You may want to consider pricing policies as well: . How much would each DBMS cost per intended user? A good deal would be $500 or less. . How much would I spend if I need to set another DB server in a separate machine? It is better to get a site license as opposed to 'per server' license. . What happens if I upgrade a processor? You will pay something , but your negotiating power ceases when you made up your mind on your vendor . Annual maintenance charges. A minimum of 15%. IMHO, DBMSs are commodity products. Vendors would heartily disagree with this statement. All have features that others don't. We selected Sybase three years ago (for many sites and users) and in spite of all its shortcommings (lack of declarative referential integrity, extremely clumsy restructuring facilities: adding, dropping and altering of columns, some bugs (usage of temp tables in stored procedures)), we do not regret it. Sybase's applications: APT, DBW were largely worthless for us. We intensively use ISQL. Stating the obvious, Sybase's support depends on type of request; your value as a add-on customer and how much you nag your sales rep. Sybase's performance for *our* database (some 400 tables, 3 mill rows, a 100 users at a time) is very good. However, I think that its reliability is its best feature. In two years of 24 hr operation, it has unexpectedly crashed only two or three times. We have been fortunate enough to never need to reconstruct a corrupted db. Re-stating the obvious, once you are committed to a DBM and you have successfully used it, then you wil have to live it 'for better or for worse'. Under this consideration, how do you relate to your vendor representatives becomes very important. Good Luck Pedro Guarda