Re: Call for an API standard for SQL statements

From: Fredrik Bertilsson <fredrik_bertilsson_at_passagen.se>
Date: 23 Oct 2004 22:36:20 -0700
Message-ID: <31f7e57d.0410232136.4d53da64_at_posting.google.com>


"Marshall Spight" <mspight_at_dnai.com> wrote:

> I don't think customers *actually* need DBMS independence
> nearly as much as they think they do.

I strongly disagree again. The request for database vendor independence have a strong motivation. Normally it takes many weeks of expensive formal training to educate a database administraitor. If a company decide to use lets say SQL Server, of course they just want to buy software that runs with SQL Server. Using multiple database vendors will make all their backup and maintainance work much more difficult. The next customer might have choosen DB2, so a software vendor have to make an application that works on all major databases.

Another reason is the new cheap databases that have entered the market the last years. Buying an application that are tied to Oracle means a lot of licencing costs. Switching to Postgres etc, can save them a lot of money. This argument does also apply to non ISV applications. Saying that database vendor independence is not important today, is a big mistake.

Fredrik Bertilsson
http://butler.sourceforge.net Received on Sun Oct 24 2004 - 07:36:20 CEST

Original text of this message