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From: ben@calvin.sybase.com (ben ullrich)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: Databases - performance vs. price
Message-ID: <5114@sybase.sybase.com>
Date: 17 Jul 89 06:23:32 GMT
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Organization: sybase, inc., emeryville, ca
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what does performance have to do with multi-user capibility?  just because a
database handles many users at once doesn't automatically make it a performance
break above a single-user dbms.  your proposal to use ``single user
algorithms'' under a multi-user setup (i think that's what you implied) will
surely buy you no more performance than the single-user dbms that you start
with:  the mangement of all the users, concurrency issues, and multi-user
execution on the dbms (to name a few) doesn't happen at 0 cost.  where does the
performance come out of all that overhead?

multi-user databases work because they are designed to deal with multiple
access, execution, and integrity.  retrofits don't do the job.
likewise, and not necessarily related, there is performace:  database
systems perform well only when they are designed to do so.  multi-user systems
that perform well are costly, but they are well worth it.  it is no easy job to
pull off.
..ben
----
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