Re: Database market share 2004

From: DA Morgan <damorgan_at_psoug.org>
Date: Thu, 02 Jun 2005 16:35:22 -0700
Message-ID: <1117755195.946134@yasure>

Paul wrote:

>>I have seen this too. But the solution is not to purchase an inadequate
>>product. The solution is to replace inadequate IT management and, if
>>necessary, inadequate IT staff.

>
> What would your solution be in the case of a company that has to
> support 4 db backends, with issues like clients who say "We've damn
> well paid for X, so if your system doesn't do X, we'll purchase from
> somebody who does"?
>
> 4 times the programming, 4 times the testing, the potential for the
> introduction of bugs is increased almost exponentially.

US or other country? It matters.

In the US we invite the CFO to the meeting. We say something like this: "The current system is not SarbOx compliant. Would you rather spend money on being compliant with a federal law or risk going to jail."

So far not a single CFO I have met was willing to risk his or her own neck. Nor would I in their position.

>>If you can use 3x5 cards don't buy a computer.
>>If you can use a flat file don't use a commercial RDBMS
>>But if data is a valuable asset it needs to be treated as one.

>
> Oh, the data is valuable alright and in use by Blue Chip companies
> across the world, many of whom would be clients of a certain large
> aerospace manufacturing company situated in Washington State that you
> can't talk about - United Airlines is an example of such client.
>
> It could well be that the UA dba's are tearing their hair out, but
> they're probably not the ones who made the purchasing decision about
> the s/ware, and rocking the boat mightn't do their careers any good.
>
> Paul...

No but on purely theoretical grounds, because I know we are NOT talking about United Airlines, they MUST be compliant with Sarbanes-Oxley. Compliance is not optional ... it is mandatory.

So refer to the simulated conversation above. Management can not and will not break federal law to save a few dollars. It just isn't going to happen. Not after Enron. Not after WorldCom. Not after ....

-- 
Daniel A. Morgan
http://www.psoug.org
damorgan_at_x.washington.edu
(replace x with u to respond)

Received on Thu Jun 02 2005 - 18:35:22 CDT