Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!mit-eddie!husc6!hscfvax!pavlov
From: pavlov@hscfvax.harvard.edu (G.Pavlov)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: ORACLE on the cheap... questions
Message-ID: <597@hscfvax.harvard.edu>
Date: 18 Jul 88 06:29:00 GMT
References: <5165@dasys1.UUCP> <8208@ncoast.UUCP> <178@turbo.oracle.UUCP> <180@turbo.oracle.UUCP>
Organization: Health Sciences Computing Facility, Harvard University
Lines: 48

In article<180@turbo.oracle.UUCP>, rbradbur@oracle.UUCP(Robert Bradbury) writes:
> ....... The [Oracle] license agreement prohibits publication of benchmark
> results.  One reason for this is that some vendors will publish results
> comparing apples with oranges and not make it completely clear to the user.
>
   [ followed by an example and several legal maneuvers stemming from
     this issue]
> 
> Yes, YOUR RDBMS dollars are paying lawyers to play these games.  sigh.
> 
  Actually, the majority of the RDBMS dollars paid to the large vendors is
  spent on marketing, no ?  In Oracle's case (if I interpreted the last annual
  statement sent me), this was in the 70% of total revenue range ???   Sounds
  insane, so maybe not.

  Robert objects to the benchmark summary that I quoted:
> 
> This is *EXACTLY* the type of thing I was refering to in my original
> posting.  You *fail* to mention the versions which were being compared
> in this benchmark.  Oracle, Informix and Ingres have had a history of
> leapfrogging each other in performance benchmarks over the last 5 years.
> ..... You don't mention what operating system the benchmark was performed
> on, what the system configuration was, how much time was spent tuning the
> systems, etc......

  Yet, rereading Robert's summary of Oracle's benchmark claims, I could not
  find any of the above information either.  I also have not seen anything to 
  substantiate "... a history of leapfrogging each other..."
> 
>                                ........... The bottom line is that
> if you want to know how your application will perform on these systems
> YOU MUST BENCHMARK YOUR APPLICATION. ..............
>
   How true. But, from what I've seen, not done often enough.  The number
   of selections based solely on "analyses" of vendor-supplied material, 
   hearsay, and (even) quantity of advertising is astounding.
>
> ........ And even then I'll bet that
> in a good percentage of the cases I can take your best efforts
> and beat the application, RDBMS and operating system with a stick and
> make your initial results look fairly silly...........
>
  Also true but if I have done my homework, then it shouldn't matter.  I will
  be the one programming/designing my database and applications and in general,
  I will take the long view and look at what I can achieve without being too
  clever.

  greg pavlov, fstrf, amherst, ny