Re: Course Project

In article <3261B389.26A7_at_iastate.edu> sjleonar_at_iastate.edu writes:
>Hello.
>
>I am student at Iowa State University doing a project on the subject of
>Oracle in a into database class. Specifically, my group is to compare
>Oracle to Access 2.0 and show why a firm would choose Oracle over
>Access.
>
>Obviously, they shouldn't even be compared, but it is a class project,
>and if anyone has any input, it would be appreciated.
>
>Here are some general questions:
>
>1. How many concurrent users can both handle?

Oracle: I personally know of sites tested to 200 concurrent users (would have been more, but ran out of PC's), and there are much larger systems out there.

Access: Ha Ha!

>
>2. How much data can they handle? (Max size of database)

Oracle: I personally know of 7-10 Gigabyte sites, and there are much larger sites out there.

Access: Ha Ha!

>
>3. What operating systems do each run under?
>

Oracle: VMS, MVS, unix, NT, MPE/ix, MS-DOS, and many more. Many people have even gotten it to run under Linux, although there are licensing issues that aren't necessarily resolved.

Access: Ha Ha!

>4. Where is line drawn between choosing Access and Oracle?
>

The line is drawn through Access. It provides no scalability, and any system written with it is bound to wind up with a lone user going "can someone help me with this?" I wrote a system to track my wedding invitations and presents in Access, so I guess it's good for one-time-shot applications, where the user is too cheap to buy Oracle with its associated (relatively high) expenses. So the choice becomes, does the firm want Oracle, or Oracle _and_ Access. Most businesses have a "mission-critical" application (for example, a retail business would have to track inventory and sales), as well as standard accounting functions. The business would have to be very small to run on Access. There are some instances where it is good to let a department "do its own thing."

>5. What kinds of support do both manufacturers provide?
>

Much less than many supportees expect. Oracle has three levels of support, depending on how much you want to pay and what kind of response time you want (actually 4 if you include Supportlink read-only access on Compuserve). On-site support is available at extra cost.

They have about 18,000 calls per week, about 1500 workers (and hiring). About 10% of their calls are handled entirely without the phone, using RTSS or internet. There are 4 "supercenters" around the world (California,Florida, UK, Melbourne), and calls are routed automatically to follow the sun - if you call at 3:00AM, you'll get someone on the day shift. They are replacing RTSS with a new worldwide system that can rapidly lookup calls based on keywords, no problems with the UK using a different numbering scheme or whatever. Bronze, Silver and Gold Support. "Silver" gets you 24 hour support and an 800 number. "Gold" gets you a designated response team. Archived calls are available quarterly on CD. Support is also available through Compuserve if you attach the Customer Service Identifier to a specific C$erve ID.

MS has some sort of wait-on-hold phone support, I think. And plenty of self-styled experts on all online services.

>6. What about web connectivity?
>

Download the demos and make your own decision.

>Thanks in advance...
>
>Scott J. Leonard

-- 
Joel Garry               joelga_at_rossinc.com               Compuserve 70661,1534
These are my opinions, not necessarily those of Ross Systems, Inc.   <> <>
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