Re: Call for an API standard for SQL statements

"Fredrik Bertilsson" <fredrik_bertilsson_at_passagen.se> wrote in message news: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.

This paragraph had nothing to do with what I said. I was talking about intra-customer issues, and you're talking about vendors, or about inter-customer issues.

> 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.

In your estimation, how often to medium-to-large sized customers with significant investment in custom, in-house applications change the databases those applications work with, on average? At what rate do they actually migrate.

Monthly? Yearly?

Marshall Received on Sun Oct 24 2004 - 17:31:51 CEST