Stepping Up in Class
Midtier database vendors finding their customers need same heavy-lifting functionality as larger organizations
By Shari L. Gold
July 1, 2005 —
(Page 1 of 5)
A trend is emerging among midtier database vendors: Their customers want high-end functionality without the installation, maintenance and financial responsibilities it demands. The problem lies in the fact that these organizations often do not have the means to hire dedicated database administrators and developers.
Some of the leading midtier vendors see the demand to compete with the functionality offered by IBM, Microsoft and Oracle to be their greatest challenge. Where issues such as service-oriented architectures, Radio Frequency Identification, regulatory compliance and larger data storage capacity once were the sole province of large companies, the smaller midtier users now also must deal with these new demands.
These companies, noted Brendan Coveney, president and CEO of 4D, will be “hit with so much data in the near future.” 4D offers 4th Dimension, a database for Mac OS X and Windows.
That mountain of data, according to Tony Gaughan, vice president of development at Computer Associates, creates levels of complexity smaller organizations haven’t had to deal with before. “The most significant problem that application developers face today, and why the better portion of application development efforts fail, is the massive complexity associated with the number of components that are involved in even the most rudimentary systems,” he said.
The days of knowing one database and one supporting language are over. Today, developers need to be familiar with legacy, relational and object databases on the back end, and they need to have detailed knowledge of application servers, Web servers, scripting languages and even more for the middle tier. Thick- and thin-client technologies, Web services, XML, WSDL and HTML also are on the list of must-knows. Database developers need to master all of these technologies to be successful.
“The number of different types of application architectures is frightening,” said Gaughan.
OPEN ALTERNATIVES
One way midtier database vendors Computer Associates and Sleepycat Software reduce the learning curve is by offering standards-based, open-source alternatives to the “Big Three”—IBM’s DB2, Microsoft’s SQL Server and Oracle 10g. Database developers need the flexibility of writing applications for one platform that can be deployed effortlessly against any other platform, said Gaughan.
Share this link: http://sdt.bz/28704
Most Read Latest News Blog Resources
Taking enterprise architecture to the business side
Startup Corso is bringing out a cloud-based planning platform that ties into business plans
|
|
From the Editors: Node.js is unruly, but that’s where the fun is
The time to get involved with Node.js is now; Hadoop is about to break its own barriers
|
|
Top five apps to manage your workload
Web applications offer new ways to track your “to-do” lists
|
|
Zeichick’s Take: Looking for the best of the best of the best
It's time once again for readers to send in nominees for the SD Times 100
|
Taking enterprise architecture to the business side
Startup Corso is bringing out a cloud-based planning platform that ties into business plans
|
|
Top five apps to manage your workload
Web applications offer new ways to track your “to-do” lists
|
|
Not so fast when it comes to testing in the cloud
Developers face outsourcing, virtual lab management and mobile devices as obstacles
|
|
Xceed releases UX-focused suite for Microsoft’s WPF
"Blendables" helps match user experiences to developer visions
|
Agility, mom, and apple pie
If we're to evaluate the state-of-the-art in software development, we should start with the values espoused in the Agile Manifesto.
|
|
RIM woos developers with free tablet
How do you get more apps ported to the BlackBerry PlayBook? By giving every developer a free tablet, of course!
|
|
GitHire: Use Headhunters to Find Your Perfect Programmer
Are you a hiring manager tired of scouring the job boards? Check out this new service that will find 5 people interested in your jobs.
|
|
Facebook claims hacker cred
Facebook's SEC S-1 filing form includes a short essay on the Hacker Way by Mark Zuckerberg himself.
|
The Hidden Costs of Software Licensing
Moving beyond paper-based software licensing to more flexible, software-based licensing is a business decision. There is a growing trend tow...
|
|
Case Study: You May Need a Development Mechanic
As a contractor for a major financial player in Germany, SOBEGE, a German-based consultancy specializing in embedded IT and web services, wa...
|
|
Ensuring Software Quality at a Major International Bank
One of the world’s leading international banks has adopted AgitarOne technology for delivering generated unit tests for their Java software...
|
|
Load Testing Adobe Flex Applications
Adobe Flex applications may be different from applications you’ve worked with before. For classic HTML web applications, the server does all...
|