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Re: Beginner help needed in database design

From: Mark A <nobody_at_nowhere.com>
Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2005 15:46:29 -0700
Message-ID: <PPidnRr1rJnH_mDcRVn-og@comcast.com>


> Anyone that has followed by many posts over the years knows that my
> feeling about the TPC is that a TPC benchmark and $6.00 won't get
> you a shot of decent scotch. They must have some perceived value to
> the vendors because they fund this nonsense and publish it. But I
> have yet to find a single situation in the real world where I could
> or would want to duplicate their hardware or software or where the
> benchmark meant anything.
>
> What does the benchmark say about security?
> What does the benchmark say about finding employees?
> What does the benchmark say about integrating with other systems?
> What does the benchmark say about migrating from previous versions?
> What does the benchmark say about migrating from other vendors?
> What does the benchmark say about backup and recovery?
> What does the benchmark say about the availability of training?
> and on and on and on ad nauseum.
>
> It is fast. Whoopee. My Jaguar is fast too. But I find that just
> concentrating on speed causes guys with badges to concentrate on
> me. The TPC, in my opinion, is a simplistic answer for simplistic
> questions and I wish it would be recognized for what it is. A way
> for a small group of people to extract money from the software
> companies.
> --
> Daniel A. Morgan

Here is a link to the specification of the TPC-C (OLTP) benchmark: http://www.tpc.org/tpcc/spec/tpcc_current.doc

The TPC benchmarks do not address all of your issues. It is not meant to be the sole factor in a purchasing decision. It primarily concerns performance (TPC is the Transaction Processing Performance Council). However it does specify standards in the TPC benchmark specifications for some of issues you mentioned such as recovery, since if one eliminated transaction logging the benchmark scores would be better.

See specifically section "3.5 Durability Requirements" of the document above for information on recovery requirements from various failures.

Oracle is a long time member of the TPC (from the very beginning if I am not mistaken) and Oracle provides financial and personnel support to the TPC. There is a person who heads up one of the TPC technical groups who is "Principal Software Developer, Oracle Corp." (this is a cut and paste from an email he sent to me).

So maybe Daniel Morgan doesn't believe that TPC benchmarks are of any use (he obviously hasn't even read the specifications of the test). But Oracle Corporation apparently does believe it is important to participate in the TPC. The TPC does not "extract" money from Oracle or the other vendors since the TPC is a non-profit organization that is controlled by the vendors themselves, not the least of which is Oracle.

No benchmark is perfect, but they are better than pure unsubstantiated marketing claims about performance.

www.tpc.org Received on Sun Jan 30 2005 - 16:46:29 CST

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