Re: Can't connect MS Access to 8i

Geoff Muldoon wrote:

> First question .. what O/S is their data server running on?  Odds are if
> they're a longer-term Oracle shop then it is more likely to be a
> *nix/linux not Windows.  If so MS-SQL Server is not an option full stop,
> won't run, not cross-platform.  Even if it is Windows, the DBA will NOT be
> your friend if you try and foist MS-SQL Server on them.
>

First of all, this is government setup. The DBA works at the state datacenter and all he does is make sure the server is up, load balance, disk allocation, backup, etc.

The agency developers (they only have a few... small agency) makes the tables, the queries, and so on. It's the agency programmers who are asked to create 'impossible' reports and applications who are sick and tired of working with a lame tookit.

The agency is the 'customer' of the datacenter and actually PAYS fees to them. So no one lives in fear of any DBA as they are bought and paid for. If the agency decides to switch to MS, the datacenter has little or no say in it. Besides the datacenter has way more MS servers then Oracle. Even more DB2 than Oracle. The datacenter has one of everything ever made and could care less what their customers want to run. They are very service oriented. The agency always has the option to not use the central datacenter but to start their own... buy a few servers, hire some staff, etc. Lots of agencies do just that.

Currently this agency's 8i runs on a Unix box but I don't know which one... probably AIX. But it is ancient and a new server will not cost much. It only has to serve the needs of some 600 users, mostly read-only, low volume. I think the largest table has about 100,000 records. Big deal!

> If you're not willing to put the time and effort getting into Oracle
> Reports,

We're talking about state government programmers. Try to remember that these folks are not paid what they can get on the outside and many of them are very young and inexperienced. They really need tools that scale well from the end-user up to the experienced expert. Microsoft does that better than anyone else, IMO.

I'm sure most folks here 'get off' on the blinding speed and technical merits of Oracle. But the agency folks just want to get their friggin' work done and they don't care if Oracle is the back-end engine, DB2, or SQL-Server.

When the agency chief tells the IS manager that she wants reports that have to go to the governor's office in 48 hours, she does not want to hear the IS guy say "Sorry, ma'am but it can't be done." That makes the agency chief look bad, and half of the advancement process in (all) government is not looking bad! This is NOT the private sector. No one can be fired, demoted, transfered, etc. The one thing you learn if you consult to the government (or work in it) is that government was NOT designed to be efficient, but to be fair.. and honest (except in Louisiana!) One thing I can say is that my state is mostly fair and honest.... and it is even getting more efficient... we can now re-register our car each year online and pay taxes via electronic submittal! Will wonders never cease? :-)

> then look at some of the other third-party offerings like Crystal
> or Cognos (at the big end) or any one of the array of lighter-weight
> cheapish tools such as QLR Manager or DBxtra.

I know Crystal... and I hear the newer(est) versions are way better than the last one I used (9)... which was not terrible.

>
> FWIW Microsoft Reporting Service (if you think it's worth consideration,
> and I don't!) can be easily set to use Oracle using Microsoft OLE DB for
> Oracle.

This is not really a good solution as an enterprise-wide model. If you are going to to with MS-RS, you may as well go all the way with MS. It will cost the state agency no more or no less modernize with Oracle or junk it for MS. I am just at the very early stages of my analysis of what the agency needs compared to what Oracle has (I know the MS ASP.net/SQL-Server platform much, much better... as that is what most of the other agencies run with.)

I may be very, very wrong about this, but at first look it does not seem that Oracle has 'kept up' with Microsoft as a development platform. I'm sure the raw database is just as good or better than MS, but these days the emphasis by the decision makers is on "How can I get my agency's friggin' work done so that the governor and legislature will be happy and not cut my budget" (or fire me.... agency heads usually are not civil service and serve at the pleasure of the administration.)

Thanks for the info. I appreciate it.

Al Received on Thu Apr 06 2006 - 23:05:03 CDT