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George Schussel speaks on database technologies and vendors
Source: Computing Canada Published: Aug 1991
“In a display of perverse brilliance, Carl the repairman mistakes a room humidifier for a (PC) but manages to tie it into the network anyhow.” This cartoon caption summed up the tone of George Schussel’s keynote address at the Software World Conference and Exposition, held at the Metro Convention Centre.
Schussel, a database guru and founder of Andover, Mass.-based Digital Consulting Inc., gave his audience a “quick, irreverent look” at database technologies and vendors, kicking off with a look at relational database management systems (RDBMSs). “The idea, the holy grail, that we can live with one type of database management system … wouldn’t that be great?” asked Schussel, pointing out, that this is not a realistic expectation.
Because of the limitations of SQL (structured query language) — the de facto relational language — relational databases perform poorly in applications such as scientific, OLTP (on-line transaction processing), text-oriented and multimedia. Therefore, he said, we cannot eliminate the need for the old navigational databases.
Converting to relational from a navigational database is a thankless task, according to Schussel: “If someone assigns you that job, quit or ask to be transferred. It’s just not a good way to go through life.”
