Hi,
I am a Delphi developer (most people who use Interbase are Delphi or bcpp
people), so I haven't used Interbase a lot, and haven't used Firebird at
all. If I were going to start a new project using one of the two, I would
probably try to lean towards using firebird. Saying SAPDB uses "massive"
resources is a bit of an over-statement, but it is hardly the "flip the
switch" dB sap portrayed it as in their tech-ed 02 presentation I have to
say. It isn't remotely an embedded database either. Anyone experienced
in the larger full featured enterprise databases (DB2, oracle,
postgreSQL), shouldn't have too much trouble adapting to it. If you are
used to using MS-SQL with only GUI tools, or MySQL, you might have a bit
of a learning curve. If you are used to PostgreSQL, you might find the
GUI and web tools provided standard with SAPDB a pleasant surprise.
Interbase is certainly more "windows-ized", all the way down to the setup
program (for the windows version). It is smaller to download, quicker to
install and get a working database set up, and slightly less complex to
maintain. SAPDB has a lot more options and flexibility.
I think both systems like SAPDB/Oracle, and those like MySQL have their
place, but I think that SAPDB's real problem right now is integration with
other tools. When we buy a 3rd party product that supports Oracle or
MS-SQL, but not SAPDB, we virtually have to use one of the two it
supports. Using open-source software, it usually integrates with PGSQL
and MySQL out of the box, and setting it up to work with SAPDB is more of
a pain than most people will want to go through. How easy is it to
integrate SAPDB with DNS (stored in Db)? LDAP (authentication)? Delphi?
etc.
Of course SAPDB has the advantage that getting your boss to sign off on
something with the name "SAP" with impressive support resource,
professional looking web presence, and slick GUI tools is easier than
getting them to sign off on PGSQL (even if you as a developer don't care
about those things).
At this point, if I were to start a custom project large enough to warrant
a database at all, and it contained any critical data, then I would skip
Interbase, and go straight to SAPDB. It has all the features you could
want, with the best possible price, and professional support. If the data
is noncritical and the queries are trivial (as with most web-apps), then I
would use MySQL. If the budget is unlimited and I wanted some of the more
exotic features (i.e. row-level-security), then I would use Oracle.
A few years ago it was impossible to find a decent open-source database,
and now there is database overload. I like Borland, but I think they made
a big mistake with their botched "open-sourcing" of Interbase, and even
worse, their botched attempted-abortion of it that resulted in Firebird.
As an aside, though SAPDB is a bit more difficult to set up than MS-SQL,
MySQL, Interbase, etc. I have found that once it IS set up, and is up and
running, it can support reasonable loads from simultaneous users for
months at a time, without the need for monitoring, tweaking, restarting,
etc., and without slowing down. It has some problems, to be sure, but it
seems to me that SAP is serious about fixing those problems.
Thank you,
Noah Silva
IS&T - Programmer Analyst
(215) 419 - 7916
Paul Linehan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent by: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
03/10/2003 10:39 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
cc:
Subject: SAPDB versus Interbase/Firebird?
Has anyone migrated from one to the other ?
What issues did you find?
One of the things I like about IB/FB is that
it's a 3.5 MB download and gives you all the
functionality of a "proper" db (unlike MySQL),
but with very low overhead and administration!
The SAPDB download page (as with the whole project)
is very impressive, as is the amount of resources
that SAP are continuing to put into SAPDB,
but I'm just concerned that there may be a massive
overhead with using SAPDB compared with Interbase
which I am using for a project on a Windows server.
Any input, &c. appreciated!
TIA.
Paul...
___________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!? -- Une adresse @yahoo.fr gratuite et en fran�ais !
Yahoo! Mail : http://fr.mail.yahoo.com
_______________________________________________
sapdb.general mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://listserv.sap.com/mailman/listinfo/sapdb.general
_______________________________________________
sapdb.general mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://listserv.sap.com/mailman/listinfo/sapdb.general
