| I think Bruce is right. EDA SQL is a component of IBM's Information
Warehouse. IBM is proposing that you consolidate and format all of
your heterogeneous data into a single DB2 database, and then make this
database available to the end-users. (This sounds remarkably like our
own Data Warehouse concept -- IBM just shouted louder than we did.)
In any case IBM doesn't sell EDA SQL. EDA SQL is more of a concept
than anything else. I believe that IBI is providing the functionality.
Of course people have been using FOCUS for years for just this purpose,
and it applies to Rdb as well as it applies to DB2.
You can compete with a DB2 based Information Warehouse very easily.
In order to support a DB2 warehouse, you need an expensive S/370 or
S/390 machine (a 9370 isn't likely to be powerful enough). Then you
have to hire a staff of systems programmers to care for the MVS system,
and you have to hire a staff of DBAs to care for the DB2 system, plus
you have to hire a few FOCUS programmers to write the applications which
extract and consolidate the data into DB2.
If you attempted to build the same warehouse on Rdb, you might need to
hire a systems administrator, but chances are your existing systems
administrator could handle another machine, and you might need to hire
a DBA and the same number of FOCUS programmers, but all in all, the
solution is much cheaper on the VAX.
But your real advantage is the NAS Open Advantage. There are so many
tools available on the desktop platforms which talk directly to Rdb,
including Lotus 1-2-3 and Borland's Paradox, not to mention DECquery.
Anne
|