Re: Oracle 8i vs DB2 UDB for Data Warehousing

Romel M. Tuñgol wrote in message <7i4rke$e19$1_at_tempo.news.iphil.net>...
>Hi,
>
>We are currently in the process of evaluating the data warehousing
>features of Oracle 8i and DB2 UDB. On the surface, both seem to
>have good data warehousing features. Can someone provide us a
>sound technical basis for choosing one over the other?

Oracle 8i logo looks much cooler than that silly old DB2 logo from IBM. :-)

But besides that, it's pointless asking this question IMHO as there are no major differentiators that makes DB2 or Oracle simply much better than the other.

Both can do the job. I'm sure that the sales and marketing guys from both companies will be able to provide you with a bunch of good customer references for both products doing a fine job in the warehousing environment.

And yes, I'm going to harp on this issue -again-!!! :-)

Making a decision on what product to use based on pure technical reasons is wrong for two primary reasons. In the majority of cases the business requirements and IS strategy will dictate the technology/product framework. Secondly, in the corporate market there are no real "bad" products. The bad products do not last long at all. And you are talking about premier products from the big boys like Oracle and IBM. There are some technical differences yes, but on a feature for feature basis for what you want to do, I'm sure they are very evenly match. Which then makes having a real IS strategy in place important. I have seen a few IS/IT shops in my time where technology was the cool thing. And they wind up having a potshot of uncomplimentary products and incompatible platforms that fail to address the real business needs.

Know the business requirements and strategy and have an IS strategy to -support- that. Which then make these silly "who-has-the-biggest-dick" type of technical comparisons (which in itself proves very little) useless. For example, if the business is expanding very fast and requires the database technology to match that, then salability is an important issue. But not from a cool technical perspective, but from a business perspective ito of flexibility, upgrade paths, ease of use, ease of administration, staff requirements, quality of vendor support and the ever important cost issue.

I'm not saying that the business should dictate the technology though - what I am saying is that we "technology experts" can only make an informed the decision of what technology to choose once we know business requirements. Simply choosing a product for the sake of technology does not work.

The counter side of this coin is of course that I have yet to see an IS shop with a real IS strategy and I've often seen business management trying to dictate what technology should be used, instead of simply supplying the people who are qualified to make that technical decision with the information required to make the proper choice.

Anyway, if technical comparisons and considerations were important, than how do you explain Windows'95 on over 90% of PCs in the world... :-)

As always, IMHO.

regards,
Billy Received on Mon May 24 1999 - 04:41:21 CDT