Conference ulysse::rdb_vms_competition

180.0. "Oracle seminar review and analysis" by CREDIT::DREYFUS () Mon Aug 22 1988 23:23

The following report looks at Oracle, their messages and products,
from the "I've just been to their seminar" point of view.

Let me know if this type of report is of value to you.

--david



DIGITAL       INTEROFFICE MEMORANDUM


TO:      DBS Competition Interest List     DATE: August 22, 1988
                                           FROM: David Dreyfus
                                           DEPT: Database Systems Group
                                           EXT:  381-2893
                                           ENET: DEBIT::DREYFUS


SUBJECT: Impressions of an ORACLE SEMINAR


The enclosed Internal-Use-Only information is based upon my attendance
at an 11-AUG-1988 Oracle Seminar and a subsequent reading of the lit-
erature gathered. As this note contains both fact and impressions, some
of the statements I have make are debatable - but such is the nature of
competitive analysis.

The first section of this report has general impressions, the second part
has some information about the ORACLE magazine (The SQL database Jour-
nal as they like to subtitle it).

                             IMPRESSIONS

This section is broken into nine subsections, each one covering part of
the Oracle marketing program.


1  Oracle's Marketing Messages

1.1  The Standard Relational DBMS

According to Oracle, they provide the Standard Relational DBMS. The DBMS
is accessible through the standard query language, SQL (which actually
stands for Structure Query Language). According to Oracle they have the
first, best, and most complete implementation of the SQL language with
many SQL extensions that the standards setting boards will be includ-
ing in future versions of the standard.

It became clear, however, that Oracle's idea of standard SQL is not ANSI
standard. Rather, their version of the standard is that which IBM's DB2
product implements. Moreover, Oracle has no special powers with the stan-
dards boards.

Oracle's version of SQL includes many statements that are actually pro-
prietary (ie, they are the only ones that have them). So, users build
applications with Oracle's extensions and are forever locked-in to the
Oracle DBMS.

 

                                                               Page 2

1.2  Standard Message Set

Oracle has added CAPABILITY to its list of standard messages. This new
term is not included in all the literature, yet.

o  Compatibility - Applications can be moved from one database to an-
   other. That is, DB2 applications can be moved to Oracle. Oracle's SQL
   is a superset of IBM's. IBM's SQL is not ANSI standard.

o  Portable - ORACLE runs on an impressive list of hardware.

o  Connectability - Distributed architecture (I am not sure it is, but
   it sounds good).

o  Capability - The Oracle tool set.


1.3  The Information Management Solution

Oracle wants to be your information management company. They provide a
full range of products and service to support you.

Digital has the same goal. We back it up with a much broader product line
that includes TP monitors, All-In-1, Actice Data Dictionaries, etc. I
could have sworn Digital has said similar things over the past few months.


1.4  Fastest Growth Company

According to Oracle, their meteoric growth is a testimonial to their sat-
isfied customers. It is only because they satisfy so many people that
they can grow as fast as they have.

Their growth is from very aggressive marketing and selling.


1.5  The Technology Leader

In addition to being the market leader, Oracle actively promotes itself
as the technology leader. Most of the elements on this list can be ac-
tively debated. It is not always clear as to what Oracle actually means
when it makes a statement.

o  First with SQL (1979)
   Most academics and sophisticated users tend to find SQL more limited
   than many other query languages. Oracle seems to have lucked-out with
   SQL becoming the de facto standard. It wasn't always that way.

o  First Portable DBMS (1983)

o  First Distributed (1986)
   According to my sources, Oracle has no two phase commit (can't up-
   date two databases in the same transaction with guaranteed consis-
   tency), no distributed query optimizer, and tends to transfer all files
   to the local site for query execution.

 

                                                               Page 3

o  First High-performance and Fault-tolerant DBMS (1987)
   Their high performance system was just announced and is not currently
   available. Nor were they the first to have a high performance DBMS.
   Fault-tolerance seems to mean that Oracle can recover a database if
   the system crashes (ie, it is a relational DBMS).


1.6  The Market Leader

Oracle has over 6,000 minicomputer installations. They supply systems
to the Fortune 1000, including computer manufacturers and application
software companies.

Rdb has more than 8,000 licenses.


1.7  All Products Use SQL

Oracle makes a great deal about the fact that all applications speak the
Oracle variant of SQL. " Oracle is an SQL database " That this is pos-
sible is only because their SQL is not standard. It has many non-standard
extensions (as do most SQL implementations). Because something like SQL
can used between all the products does not do anything for the user. Their
applications are no more portable as a result.


2  Oracle Has All The Buzzwords

Consistent with Oracles theme of being the biggest and best - provid-
ing the total information management solution - is their use of the cur-
rent marketing buzzwords. Again, it is not clear what Oracle means when
it uses them, but any potential customer has to be impressed by the claimed
potentials.


2.1  Fault tolerance

According to Oracle, in 1987 they introduced a fault-tolerant DBMS. In
reading their literature, it seems that what they mean is that they have
recovery. If a CPU or disk goes down, they can recover the database. Sounds
like something every relational database has always had. While the abil-
ity to keep going if a CPU in a VAXcluster fails may be very new to Or-
acle (I think it is), it is something that Rdb has been doing for years.

An interesting note on their recovery is that it seems that if one disk
fails, the rest of the database can still be used for all but those queries
that require the failed disk. I believe this is V6.0 functionality.

This same functionality is available with Rdb V3.0.

 

                                                               Page 4

2.2  Distributed

This seems to mean the ability to access two databases in the same trans-
action for reading. There is also some level of location transparency.
They don't seem to have a distributed query manager. Thus, most trans-
actions require whole tables to be moved from one database to another
in order to perform the query. A distributed query manager would allow
locally sufficient queries to be performed at a remote node (ie only trans-
fer the results of a join, restriction, and projection).

Using nested FOR (SQL SELECT) loops, Rdb has had the capability to ac-
cess multiple tables within the same transaction for long time. Aside
from knowing what nodes hold the desired databases, there is location
transparency.

Oracle doesn't have the functionality provided by VAX Data Distributor.


2.3  Interoperability

Oracle's interoperability program seems to allow users to view DB2 and
SQL/DS databases as Oracle database. There are probably many limitations
to this functionality. I don't have reason to believe that these prod-
ucts are close to production.

With the DEClink products (VIDA with IDMS/R and VAXlink), Digital has
a commitment to this same type of functionality. The difference is, our
products are in production and have been for quite a while.


2.4  High Performance

You would almost think that Oracle invented the concept. Check the 19-
JUL-1988 DECtp announcement for Digital's commitment to and delivery of
high performance.


3  Competition

One of the most interesting aspects of the seminar was the discussion
of the competition. As far as Oracle is concerned, IBM is the only com-
petition. No non-Oracle VAX data management products were ever mentioned.
According to Oracle, they have more market than Digital (Rdb was not men-
tioned by name).

When showing firsts as a technology leader, they compare their product
entry dates to IBM's. Furthermore, they state that IBM supports Oracle
by reselling the Oracle product on RT PC and System 38 machines.

 

                                                               Page 5

4  Information Accuracy

Oracle's drive for fairness of information appears much weaker than Dig-
ital's. Where we go out of our way to make sure that even the impres-
sions we leave with customers are accurate, Oracle seems to do the op-
posite. Their goal seems to be to imply one thing while saying another.

For example, they state that they support multisite update. We would all
assume that this means in the same transaction. This, of course, is not
correct. All it means is that one application can update multiple databases.
One is tempted to believe that what they really mean is that you can put
multiple databases on multiple machines and with different Oracle im-
ages, access them all. But, implication is everything. Any application
can update multiple databases with almost any database manager.


5  Redefinition of Terms

Another Oracle tactic seems to be the redefinition of terms - taking terms
with common meanings and subverting them. For example, Oracle states that
they support TRIGGERS.

We assume that this means that TRIGGERS can be built into the database
so that an update to one table causes subsequent queries to be performed
on other tables. TRIGGERS are application independent (ie in the database).

Oracle uses the term TRIGGER in an entirely different fashion. To them
a TRIGGER is a piece of code that gets executed when a user enters or
leaves a field on a form. This is entirely application dependent and de-
feats the commonly accepted use of the term.


6  What They Sell

Some people see Oracle as just a relational DBMS vendor, posing little
threat to Digital. The following list shows what Oracle actually sells.
This list is certain to grow in the future.

o  Hardware, Operating System, Network and DBMS independence.

   Buy Oracle and then buy HP, Wang, Sun, IBM, etc. It is in Oracle's
   best interest to bring many hardware vendors into an account.

o  End User Tools

o  Reporting Tools

o  Office Automation Products

o  Application Development Tools

o  Case Tools

o  Data Dictionary

o  Online Transaction Processing

 

                                                               Page 6

o  Many Levels of Consulting and Service

o  Training

It would appear that Oracle poses a threat to a whole range of Digital
Hardware, Software, and Service revenue. To Oracle, a VAX may just be
another piece of office furniture.


7  Technical Hot Points



7.1  NULL Values

Oracle seems to spend a lot of time on NULL value support. They also sug-
gest that they are the only ones with it. Rdb supports NULL values.



7.2  SNAPSHOTs

Oracle talked about a " unique multi-version read-consistency model. "
This allows them to run queries where readers and writers don't block
each other. This, of course, is what Rdb's SNAPSHOT files do. The Or-
acle documentation (V5) leads me to believe that Rdb's implementation
has higher performance and more flexibility.


7.3  Hierarchical Queries

Oracle has (or has added in V6) a clever bit of syntax to their SQL. With
a START WITH ... CONNECTED BY clause they allow queries that model hi-
erarchical query processing. This was only briefly demonstrated and can
probably be duplicated using multiple VAX SQL statements.

I don't have a feel for the usefulness or completeness of this feature.
Customers may be lead to believe that they can have both a relational
and hierarchical database in one system. This is clearly not correct.
What Oracle has added is some very nice "syntactic sugar."

                           ORACLE MAGAZINE

The Oracle Magazine looks very professional. Oracle publicizes it as "
The SQL Database Journal for Today's Information Management Professions.
" It contains articles from industry consultants (Richard Finkelstein
of Codd and Date Consulting has a regular column), articles on Oracle
products, articles from customers and Articles about customers. The in-
formation is, of course, very biased and, at times, incomplete.

A couple of interesting technical notes appeared in the Spring edition.

o  Oracle runs under CICS version 1.7, TSO, and batch mode.

 

                                                               Page 7

o  Oracle is writing articles on how users should buy more memory and
   give Oracle processes larger working sets.

o  Oracle writes that users need to take advantage of undocumented prod-
   uct implementations in order to maintain tables in sorted order for
   efficient Btree access.

   Rdb does this for you in Version 3.0