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Schussel Sees Database Architecture As Key Issue
Source: Newsbytes News Published: Apr 1998
Enterprise architectures in the coming years will be multi- tiered, based on messaging not transaction processing, and built on software components, according to George Schussel, chairman of Digital Consulting Inc. In this environment, choosing the right database architecture will be critical, Schussel said at the Database and Client/Server World conference sponsored by his Andover, Massachusetts- based company.
Many people don’t understand database architecture issues or care about them, Schussel said, but “by not paying attention to this area, you’re going to get into trouble.” The reason is that there are several different approaches to dealing with both relational and object oriented database capabilities, and which one is most suitable depends on what you are doing, he said.
Schussel broke database vendors into four groups. The first are offering true universal servers, combining object and relational capabilities around a relational core but not supporting all the features of true object orientation. The main examples are Informix and IBM, he said. Oracle Corp. is in a separate group, Schussel said, because while “Oracle’s marketing department has introduced a universal server,” what the company offers is really a relational DBMS with five complex embedded data types added to it. “What you’re dealing with is a middleware solution,” Schussel maintained, and that is inherently slower.
