Mid-range
Analysis of database management systems optimized for general-purpose or transactional use, but not the most demanding high-end transactional applications. Related subjects include:
IBM’s mid-range OLTP offering gets strengthened
In the past, when I’ve asked Jeff Jones of IBM for permission to post one of his well-written notes, his response has pretty much been “Of course! Why did you bother asking?” So this time I’m just going ahead and skipping that step. The note is about IBM’s mid-range flavor of DB2, targeted directly at MySQL.
Today, IBM announced that its popular DB2 9 Express-C software is now available with an optional low-cost yearly support subscription. DB2 Express-C has been available without license charges for downloading, application development, deployment and redistribution since January 2006. It remains available without license charges for those that do not require support. Electronic general availability of the new support option is scheduled for June 1, 2007.
The new DB2 Express-C support option provides 24×7 product support, regular fixpacks and upgrade protection. In addition, this option provides support for high availability clustering, offsite disaster recovery, and data replication with remote data servers without additional charge.
Background
— Subscriptions are priced at $2,995 (U.S.) per server per year. This is identical to MySQL Enterprise Gold, but DB2 Express-C includes features not found in MySQL including pureXML support, high availability clustering (MySQL Cluster support costs extra), autonomic features, and no-charge administration and development tools. Unlike the free offerings from Microsoft and Oracle, DB2 Express-C does not place limits on the size or number of databases managed. With up to 4 GB of memory and up to 2 processors, DB2 Express-C can run on more powerful servers, can scale higher and can perform faster than its competitors. Read more
| Categories: IBM and DB2, Mid-range, MySQL, OLTP | Leave a Comment |
You can now listen to and watch the midrange OLTP DBMS webinar
The replay of last Wednesday’s webinar is now available at this link. It will probably stay up for 3-6 months. There may also be a more persistent link to the audio part only, which I will supply if and when I get it.
The main subject was what kinds of features differentiate OLTP DBMS, and for what kinds of applications you should care about them. As an introduction I spelled out some of my thoughts on what kind of overall DBMS product portfolio enterprises should and do have.
| Categories: EnterpriseDB and Postgres Plus, Mid-range, OLTP | Leave a Comment |
Progress Software progress report
For the past 20+ years – all the way back to when it was still privately held — I’ve periodically gotten up to speed on Progress Software. I’m trying again now, and to that end dropped by yesterday for a chat with Jeff Stamen. I’ll give a brief overview now – which is probably all I’m qualified to do right now anyway – and then loop back with more detailed info after I get it.
After a reorganization at the beginning of this (November) fiscal year, the vast majority of Progress’ products fall into one of five buckets, which I shall glibly refer to in decreasing order of size as “Progress Classic,” “SOA,” “drivers,” “memory-centric,” and “EasyAsk.” Here’s a quick overview of each. Read more
| Categories: Companies and products, Mid-range, Object, OLTP, Progress, Apama, and DataDirect | 3 Comments |
MySQL/IBM — will everybody please calm down?
Reuters wrote a really stupid article on the MySQL/IBM deal, and some bloggers have gotten over-excited as well. Even the not-ignorant among these seem to be overlooking one or more of the following points:
- The IBM/MySQL deal is just for the iSeries.
- The iSeries is the successor to the AS/400 and System 38, and thus is in a decades-old family of machines that have some weirdnesses in their DBMS support.
- In particular, DB2 on the iSeries isn’t the same thing as DB2 on other boxes, although multiple DB2s do at least nominally run there.
So while it’s interesting and nice, this deal isn’t that relevant to IBM’s mainstream software business at all.
Read more
| Categories: IBM and DB2, Mid-range, MySQL, OLTP, Open source | 4 Comments |
Free webinar on midrange OLTP/multipurpose DBMS, sponsored by EnterpriseDB
At noon Eastern Time on Wednesday, April 25, I’ll be doing a webinar about midrange OLTP/multipurpose DBMS, sponsored by EnterpriseDB, who not coincidentally are purveyors of same. You can sign up here.
Below is some of EnterpriseDB’s verbiage promoting the event. I particularly like the part where they refer to me as a “renowned industry guru.” 😉
The DBMS market, once thought to be an oligopoly, is experiencing some refreshing disruption – thanks to open source-based databases that are proving viable alternatives to traditional, more costly incumbents. Whether you’re trying to control database costs or support new application development, there’s never been a better time to reevaluate your database platform strategy.
But, how can you realistically compare alternatives like MySQL and EnterpriseDB against established database platforms like Oracle, DB2, and SQL Server?
Let your applications be your guide.
In this webcast, renowned industry guru Curt Monash provides an objective context in which to evaluate and select the right DBMS based on your application’s needs. He’ll discuss how all DBMS’ features are not all created equal in the way they address application-specific demands. Particular focus will be given to the unique requirements of transaction-intensive applications.
Join us for this eSeminar and learn how to:
- Go beyond the typical feature checklists of self-proclaimed “enterprise-class” offerings to provide a more in-depth barometer of a DBMS’ true capabilities
- Define the DBMS platform requirements for a variety of transaction-intensive applications
- Delineate between must-have and nice-to-have DBMS features for your application
| Categories: EnterpriseDB and Postgres Plus, Mid-range, OLTP | 2 Comments |
SolidDB and MySQL 5.0 – how industrial-strength in OLTP?
MySQL 4.0 is an OLTP joke. MySQL 5.0, however, shows a lot of progress in terms of real transactions, foreign keys, referential integrity, triggers, stored procedures and so on. In anticipation of the MySQL user conference next week, I got a quick briefing from Paola Lubet and Murat Demiroglu at Solid Information Technology, whose SolidDB is one of the two transactional storage engines for MySQL (the other is InnoDB, now owned by Oracle).
The layer provided by MySQL actually does most of what I think of as “language processing” – parsing, optimization, drivers, triggers, stored procedures, referential integrity, etc. SolidDB is a storage engine providing actual execution. Its features and virtues include:
• Online backup. (Note: Apparently, the extra-cost InnoDB online backup product isn’t showing up on price lists these days.)
• Optimistic (as well as pessimistic) concurrency control. This can be a good performance feature for applications that have a whole lot of Adds and very few Changes.
• General reliability. Unless they really botched the port, Solid benefits from a long history of very reliable operation.
• High availability. Scheduled for alpha in early summer and beta in the fall is a high-availability option. This initial-release will be master-slave synchronous replication. More sophisticated replication could come later on, as could memory-centric performance, if market conditions seem to warrant it (I’m betting they will).
| Categories: Mid-range, MySQL, OLTP, Open source, solidDB | 2 Comments |
Naming the DBMS disruptors
Edit: This post has largely been superseded by this more recent one defining mid-range relational DBMS.
I find myself defining a new product category – midrange OLTP/multipurpose DBMS. (Or just midrange DBMS for brevity.) Nothing earthshaking here; I’m simply referring to those products that: Read more
Lessons from EnterpriseDB
I had a nice conversation yesterday with Jim Mlodgenski of EnterpriseDB, covering both generalities and EnterpriseDB-specific stuff. Many of the generalities were predictable, and none were terribly shocking. Even so, I am dressed as Captain Obvious, and shall repeat a few of the ones I found interesting below:
| Categories: EnterpriseDB and Postgres Plus, Mid-range, OLTP, Open source, Structured documents, Theory and architecture | 2 Comments |
EnterpriseDB tries PostgreSQL-based Oracle plug-compatibility
Like Greenplum, EnterpriseDB is a PostgreSQL-based DBMS vendor with an interesting story, whose technical merits I don’t yet know enough to judge. In particular, CEO Andy Astor:
- Confirms that EnterpriseDB is OLTP-focused, unlike Greenplum. That said, they are also used for some reporting and so on. But they don’t run 10s-of-terabytes sized data marts.
- Claims EnterpriseDB has a high level of Oracle compatibility – SQL, datatypes, stored procedures (so that would be PL/SQL too), packages, functions, etc.
- Claims ANTs isn’t nearly as Oracle-compatible.
- Claims 50-100% better OLTP performance out of the box than vanilla PostgreSQL, due to auto-tuning.
Also, EnterpriseDB has added a bunch of tools to PostgreSQL – debugging, DBA, etc. And it provides actual-company customer support, something that seems desirable when using a DBMS. It should also be noted that the product is definitely closed-source, notwithstanding EnterpriseDB’s open-source-like business model and its close ties to the open source community.
Read more
| Categories: Actian and Ingres, ANTs Software, Data warehousing, Emulation, transparency, portability, EnterpriseDB and Postgres Plus, Mid-range, OLTP, Open source, Oracle, PostgreSQL | 2 Comments |
Opportunities for disruption in the OLTP database management market (deck-clearing post #2)
The standard Clayton Christensen “Innovator’s Dilemma” disruption narrative goes something like this:
- Market leaders have many advantages, including top technology.
- Followers come up with good technology too.
- The leaders stay ahead by making their products ever better and more complex.
- The followers sell into new or non-mainstream markets, at prices the leaders can’t match. So they dominate new markets.
- Old markets turn into low-margin commodity-fests.
- Old leaders are screwed.
And it’s really hard for market leaders to avert this sad fate, because the short- and intermediate-term margin hit would be too great.
I think the OLTP DBMS market is ripe for that kind of disruption – riper than commentators generally realize. Here are some key potential drivers:
Read more