RE: How to choose a database

From: Clay Jackson <"Clay>
Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2023 22:14:31 +0000
Message-ID: <CO1PR19MB49847AA21D5FBFAFABD3C6E29B679_at_CO1PR19MB4984.namprd19.prod.outlook.com>

Mladen, Mark and others articulated what I’ve also been thinking.

Picking a database based first on specifications or “benchmarks” of the database is completely “bass-ackwards” and will at best result in “technology/vendor lock” at some point in the future, hopefully long after those making the decision makers have departed for “greener pastures”. And that’s the BEST case – ask the US Veterans Administration about their EMR rollout.

The FIRST questions to ask are:

What business “problem” are we trying to solve?

How will this piece of technology improve our business bottom line?

THEN, and ONLY THEN, can you compile a list of desired features to compare against CURRENT feature lists from the CURRENT “major vendors” taking into account things like:

As with all technology, if you can buy it, it’s obsolete.
Any “feature comparisons” you find are out of date.
The “coolest new technology” might not stand “the test of time”. How many ADA or SmallTalk programmers do you know?
“There’s No Such Thing As a Free Lunch” – This applies to the “things” from vendors as well as to most “advice” (Other than that which you have received here on Oracle-L, of course 😊).

As Maya Angelou said, “Nothing will work unless you do”

Clay Jackson
(The grumpy old guy)

From: oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org <oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org> On Behalf Of Mladen Gogala Sent: Monday, April 24, 2023 12:50 PM
To: Lok P <loknath.73_at_gmail.com>; Pap <oracle.developer35_at_gmail.com> Cc: Mark W. Farnham <mwf_at_rsiz.com>; dbakevlar_at_gmail.com; Oracle L <oracle-l_at_freelists.org> Subject: Re: How to choose a database

CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not follow guidance, click links, or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

On 4/24/23 12:27, Lok P wrote:
Hope below comparison helps to some extent in taking the decision in regards to AWS offering prospect. And ofcourse this has to be thought through along with the type of business one deals with, say for example, you said financial transaction which must consider consistency as key feature etc. I am, not sure of yugabyte db feature details but it would be great if anybody can add to that and any other databases. And any additional features can be added if missed. And ofcourse these are all not the hard liners and can change with future developments but just to provide some idea about the offerings. And not to mention, please correct me if any of the features has been wrongly put. https://gist.github.com/oraclelearner/16c9191822601936c3f4b179f4523f7a

Nope, it doesn't help. It just lists some features from several databases. People usually don't go shopping for their next RDBMS, based on feature lists on the web. People usually test. the software for their particular purpose. The most important question is: what exactly do you need and how much money are you willing to invest.

Mladen Gogala

Database Consultant

Tel: (347) 321-1217

https://dbwhisperer.wordpress.com<https://dbwhisperer.wordpress.com/>

--
http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l

Received on Tue Apr 25 2023 - 00:14:31 CEST

This message: [ Message body ]
Next message: Pap: "Re: How to choose a database"
Previous message: Mladen Gogala: "Re: How to choose a database"
In reply to: Mladen Gogala: "Re: How to choose a database"
Next in thread: Kellyn Pot'Vin-Gorman: "Re: How to choose a database"
Reply: Pap: "Re: How to choose a database"

Contemporary messages sorted: [ by date ] [ by thread ] [ by subject ] [ by author ]

Original text of this message