Why not database SaaS?
After a flurry of recent announcements of database SaaS (Software as a Service), eWeek has published a backlash article. The angle is that database SaaS is too expensive, because you can get decent DBMS for free and per-gig usage charges might be expensive for big databases.
I think that’s missing the point. Most OLTP databases are pretty small. Or, if they’re big, they get that way through a lot of transactions. In the first case, hosted management is cheap. In the second case, hosted management is taking care of a large burden for you. Read more
| Categories: Kognitio, OLTP, Software as a Service (SaaS) | 2 Comments |
EnterpriseDB joins Elastra in the Amazon cloud
When Elastra announced their service to host MySQL and PostgreSQL in the Amazon S3/EC2 cloud, I immediately told my dear darling clients at EnterpriseDB they should do the same. Whereupon they told me it would happen soon. However, they neglected to tell me when it was actually announced. So I know no more than can be found in this Computerworld article.
But I’ll say this — it’s a very tempting option, both for new web-based applications or businesses, or simply as a development platform pending later redeployment.
| Categories: Amazon and its cloud, Cloud computing, Elastra, EnterpriseDB and Postgres Plus, Mid-range, OLTP, Open source, Software as a Service (SaaS) | 2 Comments |
What hard-core transactional applications have actually been built in MySQL, PostgreSQL, EnterpriseDB, or FileMaker?
And here’s the biggie.
Question of the day #3
What complex, high-volume transactional applications have actually been built in mid-range DBMS such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, FileMaker, or EnterpriseDB?
I’ve been flamed for suggesting that MySQL or FileMaker aren’t fully equal to Oracle and DB2 in supporting hard-core transactional applications. (Which is ironic, because I’ve also been flamed for suggesting hard-core transactional support isn’t as big a deal for DBMS selection as some relational purists insist. But I digress …) So I’m putting the question out there — what impressive transactional applications do the stand-alone mid-range DBMS actually support? Read more
| Categories: EnterpriseDB and Postgres Plus, FileMaker, Mid-range, MySQL, OLTP, Open source, PostgreSQL | 20 Comments |
Who is actually using native XML?
Question of the day #2
Who is actually using native XML?
Mark Logic is having a fine time using its native XML engine for custom publishing. One outfit I know of is using a native XML for something like web analytics, but is driving me crazy by never coming through on permission to divulge details. There’s a bit of native XML use out there supporting the insurance industry’s ACORD standard.
And after that I quickly run out of examples of native XML use. Read more
| Categories: Data types, IBM and DB2, MarkLogic, Microsoft and SQL*Server, Oracle, Structured documents | 3 Comments |
Is anybody actually using image, video, or sound indexing?
I have quite the excess of “flu-like symptoms,” and nothing substantive I’m writing today is coming to fruition. So instead of forcing the issue, I’m going to put a few questions out for discussion.
Question of the day #1
Is anybody indexing the actual contents of still images, video, or sound files?
Obviously, there are applications that serve huge numbers of videos, pictures, and/or songs — YouTube, Flickr, iTunes, and so on. But generally, these media are just handled as files or BLOBs, while all the database indexing is on alphanumeric metadata such as title, tags, uploader, date, download stats, comments, and so on.
The technology certainly exists to be more sophisticated. Consider, for example, Oracle’s Still Image datatype, which in typical Oracle fashion implements the relevant parts of SQL/MM and goes yet further. Read more
| Categories: Data types, Oracle | 3 Comments |
Kognitio WX2 overview
I had a call today with Kognitio execs Paul Groom and John Thompson. Hopefully I can now clear up some confusion that was created in this comment thread. (Most of what I wrote about Kognitio in October, 2006 still applies.) Here are some highlights. Read more
| Categories: Analytic technologies, Data warehouse appliances, Data warehousing, Kognitio | 12 Comments |
A high write-volume MySQL user
Spinn3r crawls and indexes blogs. It says it covers 1 million blogs and 25K posts/hour, doing thousands of write transactions per second. And it does this into federated MySQL — but with a lot of software built on top. To wit: Read more
| Categories: MySQL, Specific users | 1 Comment |
14 reasons not to use MySQL or other mid-range database management systems
I may argue for the use of open source and other mid-range database management systems, but a lot of industry sentiment remains on the other side. Vendors of high-end RDBMS naturally advocate enterprise-wide single-vendor adoption. Many CIOs and industry analysts, overwhelmed by product proliferation, think that’s a neat idea as well.
And in fairness, they’re not entirely wrong. Here are 14 reasons for using high-end relational database management systems, even on applications for which mid-range DBMS would suffice. Read more
| Categories: Microsoft and SQL*Server, Mid-range, MySQL, OLTP, Open source, Oracle, PostgreSQL | 25 Comments |
Is Teradata bringing out a low-end data warehouse appliance?
Edit: This post is superseded by our analysis of the new Teradata 2500 data warehouse appliance.
One of Teradata’s competitors believes they got an accurate leak about a new low-end Teradata appliance. Teradata is neither confirming nor denying. I believe the leak.
I’m not going to give product or pricing details, which in any case could be subject to change before a final product release. But the general idea is:
- Commodity Dell servers.
- Some of the higher-end software stripped out.
- Limit on the number of nodes, leading to a database size limit somewhere in the tens of terabytes.
It will be interesting to see whether Teradata can come out with something that’s closely competitive in price, performance, and administrative ease to what the newer data warehouse appliance vendors offer, yet upgrades cleanly to full-sophistication Teradata systems for those who choose to pursue that path.
| Categories: Data warehouse appliances, Data warehousing, Teradata | 1 Comment |
What leading DBMS vendors don’t want you to realize
For very high-end applications, the list of viable database management systems is short. Scalability can be a problem. (The rankings of most scalable alternatives differ in the OLTP and data warehouse realms.) Extreme levels of security can be had from only a few DBMS. (Oracle would have you believe there’s only one choice.) And if you truly need 99.99% uptime, there only are a few DBMS you even should consider.
But for most applications at any enterprise – and for all applications at most enterprises – super high-end DBMS aren’t required. There are relatively few applications that wouldn’t run perfectly well on PostgreSQL or EnterpriseDB today. Ingres and Progress OpenEdge aren’t far behind (they’re a little lacking in datatype support). Ditto Intersystems Cache’, although the nonrelational architecture will be off-putting to many. And to varying degrees, you can also do fine with MySQL, Pervasive PSQL, MaxDB, or a variety of other products – or for that matter with the cheap or free crippled versions of Oracle, SQL Server, DB2, and Informix.
What’s more, these mid-range database management systems can have significant advantages over their high-end brethren. Read more