Conference ulysse::rdb_vms_competition

668.0. "Thought about ULTRIX/SQL, Ingress and Rdb." by COPCLU::BRUNSGAARD (ACID isn't just music and junk) Fri Jun 15 1990 11:06

    Hi everyone outthere.

    I was wondering about the messages we send out about ULTRIX/SQL and the
    influence it will have on competition with ingress.

    This is a fictive situation (meaning I haven't yet been faced with this
                                 problem but expects to in the future)

    A customer is about to buy a system including a database and a 4GL.

    We propose Rdb/RALLY:

    The customer says: I have heard a lot of good stuff about Ingress including 
                      ....

    We say: Well Ingress is inferior to Rdb in the following areas ....
            Rally is beter than Ingress Tools, and If you like Mrs. Customer
            we can offer you Ingress Tools for Rdb

    The Customer says: What about Unix can you offer something there, as our
                       company might just demand that Unix is in the offer
                       (for who knows what reasons ?)

    Yep We say: ULTRIX/SQL is a state of the art database, and explains about
                it.

    The Customer says: But isn't that exactly the same functionality that
                       Ingress provide, which was inferior to Rdb ?
                       How can it then be the "State of the art database" ?

    We say : ??????
    What do we say here, I mean she is right isn't she ???

    As far as I can see we can get ourself into great trouble in these
    situation, by first firing amunition agains Ingress and Pro-Rdb, and
    thereafter shoul have to explain the ULTRIX/SQL database.

    Anyone care to comment on this??

    Lars
    

    Well, I might say
    
    You are correct.  As for unix environments, ULTRIX/SQL (INGRES) is the
    the best optimized database for that environment.  Rdb/VMS is the best
    optimized database for the VMS environment.  And YES Mr./Mrs./Ms. Customer,
    you will have the ability to write portable code between ULTRIX/SQL and
    Rdb/VMS by following the 'Guide to Writing Portable Applications'. 
    Then all you will have to do is recompile on either machine.  That way
    you can take advantage of each db which is best optimized for that
    environment.
    
    Second, for the first release of ULTRIX/SQL, you will have the ability
    to interoperate with Rdb/VMS, and in a later release, you will be able
    to do the same with Rdb/VMS to ULTRIX/SQL.
    
    As time progresses, those differences between ULTRIX/SQL and Rdb/VMS
    will start to disappear until there will be virtually no difference
    between the two.  (comment by me:  Obviously, there will be some
    differences, since everything on VMS is not done the same as on unix
    boxes - ie, i/o's to the disk, but everything reasonable will have no
    differences).
    
    
    But, alas, this is one person's opinion.
    
    chuck

    Another reason for pushing ULTRIX/SQL over Ingres is that ULTRIX/SQL is
    FREE with ULTRIX V4.0; whereas Ingres isn't.
    
    Its amazing how money can focus people's attention!