Re: RDBMS-based Intranet groupware products vs Notes : RDBMS vs proprietary doc. storage

In addition, you can have multiple sites hitting one Notes server. If the other site has the connectivity (T1, etc,) then it is simply a matter of running the same protocol (probably TCP/IP).

Good luck......

Danny Lawrence wrote:
>
> Jean-Philippe JAVEL <jpjavel_at_worldnet.fr> wrote:
>
> >I am currently evaluating Intranet groupware products, competitors to Lotus Notes, for a
> >2000 user project.
 

> >Such products, for example recently launched Oracle Interoffice or OpenText Livelink
> >Intranet, are usually based on a RDBMS such as Oracle7. Document files (Word etc.) are
> >stored in BLOB long rows of the relational DBMS. Such an architecture seems to require a
> >powerful (and expensive) server : for example, at least a bi-processor Sun Ultra 2, 256
> >Mo RAM for about 200 concurrent users.
> >OpenText France recommands to have the HTTPd running on one server and the RDBMS on
> >another more powerful one.
> >Implementing replication like for Notes would reduce a major benefit of Intranet
> >architectures : the capacity for a single server to serve (well) several sites.
 

> >so, RDBMS vs proprietary (such as Notes) document storage ?
 

> >Has anyone experience of RDBMS Intranet products (InterOffice, Livelink etc.) handling
> >hundreds of concurrent users efficiently on a single server ? Are RDBMS such as Oracle 7
> >Universal Server mature enough for managing thousands of Word, Excel etc. files ?
> >What hardware is required for the HTTPd and RDBMS compared to Lotus Notes 4 ?
>
> I don't have any solid answers, my guess is that it depends on what
> the specific situation is. I will make a couple of points:
>
> First I'd like to mention that RDBMS's are "proprietary" formats as
> well. you access them via a "common" command set, namely SQL (as you
> can Notes), but the On-Disk structures of an Oracle DB are different
> from those of say a Sybase DB (as both are different from the Notes DB
> structure).
>
> Then there is the issue of whether an RDBMS is the right product for
> what you describe above. I think not, Notes excells at manitaining a
> dattabase of documents, and that is what you seem to be describing,
> trying to fit "thousands of Word, Excel etc. files" into an RDBMS
> might work, but the amount of work it would take to get them into the
> DB might be more trouble that it is worth.
>
> Next is cost, Lotus has done a study on Notes vs. Intranets, I'm
> pretty sure that it is on ther web site. I wouldn't take it as gospel,
> but it is a place to start. As you can guess, their study shows that
> Notes is a cheaper solution, especially when you count the
> administration time/personnel factors, it also points out the
> advantages of using a unified solution like Notes vs. pulling together
> an assortment of products which may or may not work together.
>
> One last thing, I don't have the figures, but I'm willing to bet large
> amounts of money that "a bi-processor Sun Ultra 2, 256 Mo RAM" would
> be able to handle a LOT more than 200 Notes users.
>
> --Danny Lawrence, Tiassa Technologies
> Lotus Notes Configuration, Development and Managment
> Tiassa _at_ ix.Netcom.Com
> "Tiassa Dreams and plots are born" --Steven Brust
Received on Thu Jul 04 1996 - 00:00:00 CEST