Re: Sybase vs. Oracle

Craig Harper <caharper_at_hooked.net> wrote:

>Mark Kyes <mkyes_at_access5.digex.net> wrote:
>>Why would one choose oracle vs sybase? or vice versa are there any
>>distinguishable differences that clearly make one better than the other?
>>
 

>For one the sybase system allow for dirty reads, whereas the Oracle
>server does not.
 

>2. The development cycle seems to be faster on the Oracle Platform than
>the Sybase.
We use ANSI SQL in this shop and basically just had to do a port from Informix to Oracle and Sybase. Oracle was definately faster to develop because it seemed to support the basic ANSI stuff in a more straight-forward manner. The original code was developed with DB/2 and SQL/DS and the SQL statements changed little for ORACLE. Bugs and differences just seemed to be less with Oracle.

>3. The Sybase system seems to be faster at some functions than the
>Oracle, but I have never timed them out.
One of the known weaknesses in Sybase is the optimiser. Many of our SQL statements had to be recoded to accomadate Sybase. Oracle accepted the recoded statements without a gripe and nearly the same execution times.

>4. I think that Oracle is more stable than Sybase. We have both and have
>more problems with the Sybase system than our Oracle.
I agree.

5. Sybase seems to be much easier to install and set-up than Oracle.

6. Scalability is significantly better on Oracle than on Sybase. (One of our customers on Oracle is running some very large tables that I know would produce unacceptable results on Sybase even with optimazations for Sybase.

We are not using any non-portable features of any of these databases which may provide a level playing field but at the same time may play to the weakness in one implementation. (This is said with the understanding that some portable features require non-portable set-up within the code for things like SQLCA and SQLDA.....)

There is also the question of database philosophy. Sybase is built with the intention of client/server and I think that in an "all on one box" situation may suffer because of this. Oracle on the other hand was designed with the "all on one box" philosophy and then had the client/server piece added on. This may mean that Oracle is optimised for the "all on one box" scenario but Sybase may beat it in the client/server mode. Just something to consider.

Your mileage may vary.
>Hope this helps.
Hope this helps also.

Bill Received on Thu Sep 07 1995 - 00:00:00 CEST