Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!rutgers!ames!ptsfa!hippo!eric
From: eric@hippo.UUCP (Eric Bergan)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: Which Database and Hardware
Message-ID: <115@hippo.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 26-Apr-87 15:16:17 EDT
Article-I.D.: hippo.115
Posted: Sun Apr 26 15:16:17 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 26-Apr-87 23:53:29 EDT
References: <2377@ncoast.UUCP> <169@4gl.UUCP>
Distribution: comp
Organization: HEALTHCARE 2000
Lines: 44

> in article <2377@ncoast.UUCP>, rhg@ncoast.UUCP (Rich Garrett) says:
> 
> I am looking for comments from fellow net readers to help me make a strategic
> decision for a company that will be moving their hospital information system
> software from pascal to a fourth generation language.  They currently have 
> over 70 hospitals in the under 300 bed marketplace using their HIS.
> 
> My questions are as follows:
> 
> Which of the databases that are available running under Un*x or VMS would
> you recommend and why?

	The answer on what to choose depends a lot on what type of architecture
you have, and whether you are looking for the database package to do 
transaction processing, or ad hoc queries. 

	Some of the issues:

	- How many users will there be? Some of the databases require a
	  large backend process per each user (Ingres, Oracle), others
	  do not (Sybase, Informix-Turbo?) This is not a real problem if
	  you are only supporting a handful of users, but if you are
	  looking at 50 to 100 users, the duplication of effort really
	  adds up.

	- What size hardware do you want to run on? Oracle, Ingres,
	  and Informix are available on a wide variety of machines.
	  Sybase servers are more restricted.

	- If you are transaction oriented, then features like stored
	  query plans (Sybase, Ingres) are important. Also Sybase
	  and Informix-Turbo have been designed from the start with
	  performance in mind.

	- If the major issue is the 4th generation language, I would
	  strongly recommend that you try to do a quick prototype on
	  each of the systems you are considering. None are perfect -
	  they all have to give up some power for flexibility. The
	  trick is to find one that sacrifices things you don't need.

-- 

					eric
					...!ptsfa!hippo!eric