Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!usc!hacgate!ashtate!tomr
From: tomr@ashtate (Tom Rombouts)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Is RDBMS unproven technology?  (Flames to follow....)
Message-ID: <1073@ashton.UUCP>
Date: 1 Aug 90 01:39:23 GMT
Reply-To: tomr@ashton.UUCP (Tom Rombouts)
Organization: Ashton-Tate, Torrance, CA
Lines: 33

Are relational databases an unproven technology regarding
performance?  Just to keep this group lively, here are some 
unauthorized excerpts from an article titled "Rude Awakening"
on page 23 of the July 30, 1990 Computerworld:

"A report by a British consultancy is throwing some cold water 
in the face of the primarily U.S. relational database management
system industry.  The report, titled 'Database, an Evaluation
and Comparision,' attempts to sort out the often misleading claims
of DBMS vendors - and to make some general statements about the use-
fulness of RDBMS technology itself.  < background material deleted >
....A key tenet of the report is that RDBMS technology has been
available for 20 years but still has not been proved in large,
complex applications.  The report notes that users associate
these products with poor system performance, even though they may
be flexible and easier to implement."  The article then goes on 
to cite a firm that is reluctant to replace IMS with DB2, and
discusses other sites that use a mixture of relational and
possibly non-relational systems.

Please, let's not start a war here telling each other how
wonderful relational technology is.  Just wanted to bring this
to the attention of this group.  Maybe others out there are
more familiar with the original British report.  Maybe others
have ideas on strategies to prove that "relational" does not
have to mean "overhead."  (Or does it?   :-)  )

I now stand back....

Tom Rombouts  Torrance Techie  tomr@ashtate.A-T.com  V:(213)538-7108

DISCLAIMER:  The above posting is intended to be informational only
and should not reflect my opinions or those of any known corporation.