http://www.open-mag.com/01943583279.htm TEN GOOD REASONS FOR A DBMS STRATEGY RE-THINK by Mårten Mickos, CEO of MySQL AB February 14, 2003 Call 2003 the Year of the Discomfort Zone. In a go-slow economy, CIOs are under pressure to leave no old assumptions unexamined, including their choice of database systems. As ubiquitous, 24 x7 e-business and demand for instantly updated information only heighten the focus on good database planning, CEOs and CFOs are questioning if it's worth paying steep licensing fees and support costs. The very economics of Open Source is what has led SAP AG to criticize the “oligopolization” of the database market. To counter rising database license prices that were driving up SAP application costs, SAP AG issued its own Open Source database, SAP DB. So while Oracle, IBM, and Microsoft enjoy vendor dominance, Open Source database systems have been gaining credibility through growing corporate adoption and added functions and are now turning heads. That's why Open asked Mårten Mickos, CEO of MySQL AB, for 10 good reasons why CIOs need to rethink their database strategy. Open Reader Survey What types of DBMS are in use at your site? Open Source Proprietary A Mix of Both No Answer Are you considering a move to an Open Source DBMS? Yes No No Answer Working with more than 1 DBMS architecture is: Easy Difficult Very Difficult No Answer Click for Current Tally 00001. You’re asked to cut costs. Your boss has asked you. And her boss has asked her. This goes all the way up to the shareholders. They’re not after great expectations. They’re looking for dividends. 00010. You need to examine what you pay in the light of what you need. Databases are becoming a commodity. The features war is over. Sure, closed-source relational databases can do 400 percent of what you need, or more. But now’s the time to assess whether you are paying for features you’ll never use. 00011. Business practices require open platforms. With the merger and acquisition frenzy of recent years, most CIOs live with a rainbow of RDBMSs. The goal of utilizing a "one size fits all" database never was realistic. But life with more than one database architecture is feasible, as long as you know how to integrate and migrate. Look for solutions with open interfaces. 00100. The industry is changing. In its recent 10-Q filing with the SEC, Microsoft warned of "a growing challenge" to the traditional software development model from "the open source movement." 00101. The industry is changing, again. Major industry players like Sun, HP, and IBM are betting big portions of their business on open source. Shining stars such as Yahoo! and Google are building theirs on open source. Change is in the air, and it is being legitimized. 00110. The “lack of service and support” argument against open source is invalid. Know-how is available. Today, numerous viable companies offer professional services toward building an open source solution. There are tens of thousands of open source database experts out there who are ready to help. Many have even contributed to its development. 00111. The “lack of service and support” argument against open source is invalid, again. Your developers are using open source software whenever they can. They say throughput is superb, stability unmatched, standards supported. And you know that they know. ======================= 二星級新手，問基礎問題請勿見笑 ^^

01000. Economy speaks its simple, truthful language. The TCO and ROI of an open source solution are known parameters. Take time to study organizations that have gone with open source database solutions. They know exactly how they turned out and how much was saved. Typically, these organizations are happy to share their experience with others. 01001. Your users want everything available through a web browser. 01010. You do not want your title to mean Career Is Over. OK, that was neither fair nor constructive. Knowing what a responsibility you carry every day, we apologize and give you one more tangible reason. 01011. Open source databases are ready for prime time. MySQL, SAP DB, Berkeley DB, PostgreSQL, and Firebird are all ormulating a new database economy. It’s one where superior performance, unmatched stability, and ease of deployment come affordably. ======================= 二星級新手，問基礎問題請勿見笑 ^^