Re: [xsl] perhaps OT: ?s on native XML DBs and filesystem XML docs

Subject: Re: [xsl] perhaps OT: ?s on native XML DBs and filesystem XML docs
From: Robert Koberg <rob@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 2002 07:41:37 -0700
Michael Kay wrote:

I think that learning how to make effective use of any

database package, XML

or otherwise, is going to cost you a lot more than 25k (in

any currency)

before you even start paying for software or developing your

application.

Well this is definitely discouraging... What do you feel is
the required
expense? (I am not opposed to paying what is necessary...)


It depends on your starting point, and on what you are trying to achieve. But you need to learn how to write [efficient] queries, how to drive the API, how to configure the server, how to write schemas and do the physical database design (e.g. allocating space, building indexes), how to do database loading, how to set up backup and recovery, how to register users and allocate access permissions, how to build interfaces with other systems. A full set of Oracle manuals occupies several metres of shelf-space and it will cost you $25K just to pay someone to read them. There are good reasons why database software is expensive; a well-performing database serving a substantial user community and deliverying high availability is a substantial investment. Rolling-your-own using operating system filestore may be a lot cheaper, but it doesn't scale.


Exactly, but I thought the promise of a native XML database, like Tamino, would offer us the ease of operating on the DB like we were operating on the filesystem (that is what i got from the mareketing...). I guess I got that *way* wrong. I would view this as a failure of XML DB vendors (ducking...). If I am going to pay for a product i want it to just work. If I want to spend time=money on learning something I will use Open Source software... Of course there are leanring curves, but why climb them if the vendors do not provide a usable path.


I guess it is much easier/cheaper to scale up hardware then? Maybe I can get 10-20 (maybe 50 it seems, but I need to do more testing) sites per US$3000 linux machine...

Of course, this does not give you all the things that come with Tamino, like search and built in web services (whatever that means today...).

-Rob



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