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Re: what is oracle rdb?

From: Mogens Nørgaard <mln_at_miracleas.dk>
Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 16:29:25 -0800
Message-ID: <F001.005D7CCC.20031125162925@fatcity.com>


As the AWE (Award-Winning Educator) of the year, I have a huge responsibility placed on my shoulders: I have to answer questions regarding Rdb truthfully.

So here we go...

Back in the year 1994, Digital very discreetly asked their three biggest customers (including Lego) what they thought of the idea of Digital selling Rdb and other stuff to Oracle. This was before Oracle was asked, mind you. At the time, Lego had 700+ Rdb databases running.

The three big ones answered back that if Oracle was the safe bet for securing their product for the next five to ten years, then fine. Then Digital went to Oracle and sold the stuff for at cheap price. I remember the Digital CEO asking the Oracle folks kindly to please treat their old, beloved customers nicely. It was - Goddamn it! - actually a quite touching moment, if you had any ideas back then about the level of integrity and support in the Digital community.

That's how I came to deliver the first-ever course at Lego in their HQ in Denmark (in a town called Billund, but certainly not named after The Bill).

Why did I deliver an Oracle course there, when they had Rdb already (and working like a charm, mind you)? Because all of the Rdb customers concluded this: We'll run all our old systems on Rdb for many years to come, but we'll base all our new systems on Oracle.

Oracle has done the right things about Rdb again and again and again after taking over the shop from Digital. They kept the bearded, bitter, old, twisted, spec-writing folks of the New England Development team. They let them get on with what they did best: Write new features for Rdb. They borrowed good ideas from them and fed it into Oracle. They let them use good Oracle ideas in Rdb. I have never, ever, seen any take-over work so well in the IT industry. Ask the Rdb customers (Lego, Novo, etc.) and they will tell you they still trust Oracle and Rdb. Incredibly well done. Respect.

Oh, and many years later my guys in Premium Services were among the first five people to know about Lego's desire to change from SAP to Apps. Those were the days: We had so much Lego Mindstorm stuff (for the very cheap company price) available we didn't know what to do. Of course the whole thing failed, and they went back to SAP, but the guys still talk about the Lego sets... but not about the project itself.

I think that Lego today is moving as fast as possible towards SQL Server and a general Windows strategy. These days, you don't get fired from choosing Microsoft.

Jesse - was this what you wished for, or did it suck?

Mogens

Jesse, Rich wrote:

>Where's our Award-Winning Educator and former Lego DBA, Mogens? If there is
>one dream job for me, it would be an Oracle DBA at Lego.
>
>And I was upset to find that someone took my "legoman" username from my ISP
>at home. :(
>
>Rich
>
>
>Rich Jesse System/Database Administrator
>rjesse_at_qtiworld.com Quad/Tech Inc, Sussex, WI USA
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2003 7:45 AM
>To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
>
>
>Tuesday, November 25, 2003, 7:04:25 AM, Boivin, Patrice J
>(BoivinP_at_mar.dfo-mpo.gc.ca) wrote:
>BPJ> I heard that Lego is one a big user of RDB. Don't know if it's true.
>
>As in Lego blocks? Cool.
>
>Heh, I just spent the better part of my Sunday afternoon
>buying compartmentized boxes and helping my son sort all his
>legos. When I was a kid, back when the dinasaurs roamed, I
>had perhaps a dozen distinct Lego shapes to worry about. Now
>there are so many that I'm sometimes at a loss as to how to
>categorize and sort them.
>
>The worst is when my son pulls out instructions for some
>Lego toy he bought a year ago, points to his bin with a full
>Gigablock of Legos<grin>, and wants me to help him put
>together whatever it is. Hence, I've decided to help him
>sort things out a bit.
>
>He might even have a Terablock, I'm afraid to count.
>
>Best regards,
>
>Jonathan Gennick --- Brighten the corner where you are
>
>

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  INET: mln_at_miracleas.dk

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Received on Tue Nov 25 2003 - 18:29:25 CST

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