Picking the Right SQL Database Part 1: Evaluating Database Offerings from Oracle, IBM and Microsoft

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Picking the Right SQL Database Part 1: Evaluating Database Offerings from Oracle, IBM and Microsoft"

Joseph Gallagher
5 years ago
Views:

E-Guide Picking the Right SQL Database Part 1: Evaluating Database Offerings from Oracle, IBM and Microsoft Many organizations today understand that there is much more to the SQL server selection

1 E-Guide Picking the Right SQL Database Part 1: Evaluating Database Offerings from Oracle, IBM and Microsoft Many organizations today understand that there is much more to the SQL server selection process than performance or system requirements. Moreover, the path to deploying a server database is often paved with various choices -- proving to be a new adventure for most IT administrators. Read this E-Book and uncover the relative strengths and weaknesses in the database offerings of the Big Three: Oracle, IBM and Microsoft. Explore the driving factors behind moving to an SQL database as well as the basic advantages and disadvantages of SQL databases. Sponsored By:

2 E-Guide Picking the right SQL database Part 1: Evaluating database offerings from Oracle, IBM and Microsoft Table of Contents How to determine your SQL database through needs analysis Diving deeper into the SQL database features Resources from IBM Sponsored By: Page 2 of 9

3 How to Determine Your SQL Database Through Needs Analysis In the world of server databases, SQL is king. To run properly, most heavy-duty client-server and Web applications require an SQL database on the back end. For most businesses, the path to deploying a server database is paved with choices and considerations that may prove to be a new adventure for most IT administrators. It is usually up to those administrators to weigh what each vendor s server database technology has to offer and how that technology fits the needs of their particular business environment. This can prove to be a complicated task when one considers all of the advanced players in the SQL database arena and the plethora of features and options available today. Determining the best SQL database vendor and selecting the correct database technology is the first step into enterprise computing and constitutes the foundation for all future applications and data services. It is a task not to be taken lightly. In some cases, this first step into the world of SQL databases is dictated by a vendor s line-of-business applications. In other words, some IT managers must use the SQL solution recommended by the vendor to deploy that new application. In such cases, it makes sense to build on that platform for future database growth and services, but many line-of-business applications today work with more than one vendor s database platform. This means IT managers are faced with choices that are defined by elements such as flexibility, scalability and performance. While there are many players in the enterprise database market, most IT managers have to choose among three primary vendors: Microsoft with SQL Server, IBM with DB2, and Oracle with 11g. According to the Gartner Group, Oracle captured 33.8% of the database market last year, up from 31.4% the previous year. Next was IBM, maintaining a steady 30% share of database sales. A distant third with a 13.9% share was Microsoft with SQL Server, mainly because SQL Server is available only on Windows-based systems, while the products of its two archrivals cater to a variety of platforms. Sponsored By: Page 3 of 9

4 Each of those vendors products offers unique advantages and certain disadvantages, all of which change depending on the environment the database is being used in. When shopping for a database, the first order of business for IT managers is to perform a needs analysis. This is critical in making the right decision about which database best fits the business model it will be working with. A needs analysis should not only determine the immediate database needs of the business, it should also incorporate future needs, including anticipated growth, future IT projects and continuity requirements. Several key issues must be identified and documented in building a needs assessment. Here are some sample needs analysis questions: - What is the driving factor behind moving to an SQL database? Is it to deploy a new application? Is it to build custom applications? Is it to increase performance? Is it to meet a continuity need? Is it to build a distributed environment? - Which Network operating systems are in use? - Which desktop operating systems are in use? - What type of network storage is used? - Which network protocols are in use? - Which connectivity technologies are in use? - How many concurrent users will be served by the database? - Which applications will use the database? - What level of availability will the database need? - Is failover or continuity needed? - What type of data backup and archiving system is in use? Once those basic questions are researched and answered, IT managers can apply those discoveries to the feature sets, capabilities and options associated with a particular database product. With that information in hand, selecting a suitable database should be a case of checking features, pricing and the platforms on which the SQL database server will run. Sponsored By: Page 4 of 9

5 Diving Deeper into the SQL Database Features There is a lot more to the SQL server selection process than performance or system requirements. IBM, Microsoft and Oracle all offer certain SQL database features that could prove to be advantageous in a particular environment. For example, Oracle 11g offers advanced compression technologies that use a unique compression algorithm specifically designed to work with relational data. The algorithm works by eliminating duplicate values within a database block, even across multiple columns. IBM also offers compression with DB2 and claims that its compression method outperforms what Oracle has to offer. DB2 uses one compression dictionary for the entire database table, whereas Oracle 11g uses a separate compression dictionary for each block in the database. A block is a unit of storage ranging in size from 4 Kbytes to 32 Kbytes. DB2 s larger compression scope helps to boost compression rates beyond what Oracle is able to do. DB2 can compress substrings that span multiple columns, whereas Oracle 11g can t compress substrings, which again helps DB2 to attain higher compression ratios. Microsoft also offers data compression in SQL Server and claims to have achieved compression rates as high as 81% with ROW and PAGE compression in production environments. Even so, if compression and storage space reduction are critical features, industry indications pretty much put DB2 at the top of the heap here. Another point of contention among the database vendors is failover capabilities. Here, all the players claim to offer failover options that protect data and maintain uptime. Oracle offers failover support via the company s Data Guard technology which provides the management, monitoring and automation software to create and maintain one or more standby databases. A Data Guard standby database is used to maintain high availability for mission-critical applications. Microsoft handles failover by including database mirroring and robust backup and restore functionality out-of-the-box. SQL Server 2008 enables the principal and mirror database servers to transparently recover data page errors by requesting a fresh copy of the suspect page from the mirroring partner. Sponsored By: Page 5 of 9

6 DB2 takes a different approach to failover when configured for Microsoft environments. DB2 UDB integrates with Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS) to provide high availability (HA) support when running under Windows operating system environments. For simplicity in implementing failover, especially on Microsoft NOS servers, SQL Server 2008 takes the lead, given that all of the capabilities are included and are not extra cost options. These capabilities also use a simpler concept of leveraging mirroring to keep a database continuously available. Perhaps one of the easiest ways to get a handle on each of the competitors is to look at the basic advantages and disadvantages of these SQL databases. Advantages offered by SQL Server: - Excellent maintenance and development tools - Extensive support options - Very stable - Complete solution with little need for options and add-ons - Offers the lowest TCO in most cases - Supported by many third-party applications - Tightly integrated into Windows operating systems Advantages offered by DB2: - Runs on multiple platforms - Good support options - Easy to scale to large environments - Very stable - Offers excellent compression capabilities Advantages offered by Oracle: - Extensive support options - Runs on multiple platforms - Scalable for large environments - Very stable - Arguably fastest for large datasets - Supported by many third-party applications Sponsored By: Page 6 of 9

7 Disadvantages of SQL Server: - Runs only on Windows platforms - Not as robust as DB2 or Oracle - Can be expensive - Requires hands on administration Disadvantages of DB2: - Can be very expensive - Complicated licensing - Limited training options - Requires hands on administration - Limited add-on tools Disadvantages of Oracle: - Requires trained and certified administrators - Can be very expensive - Complicated support options - Upgrades can be complicated There are literally dozens of other factors to consider when choosing a database -- so many, in fact, that thick volumes have been written on that very subject. The key for most system administrators is to pare down their needs to the must-haves and then compare each database s features and how they address each of those must-haves. Other critical elements to consider include TCO, support required, upgrade charges, maintenance contracts, hardware and software compatibility issues, and labor overhead to get a database up and running. While that may be a complex endeavor, it may be the only way to perform due diligence in making a critical business decision. While the task may be complex, the rules are relatively simple for picking a database: Consider your budgetary constraints Examine your scalability options Sponsored By: Page 7 of 9

8 Calculate availability needs Research training and support requirements Inventory existing software and hardware Consider future needs Calculate implementation costs Examine hands on advantages of each database Validate availability of tools and options By keeping those rules in mind, most system administrators should be able to create an intelligent argument for which database fits their business needs, now and for the future. About the Author: Frank Ohlhorst is an award winning technology journalist, professional speaker and IT business consultant with over 25 years of experience in the technology arena. Ohlhorst has written for several leading technology publications, including TechTarget, ComputerWorld, PCWorld, ExtremeTech and Tom s Hardware. Ohlhorst has also contributed to business publications, including Entrepreneur and BNET. Sponsored By: Page 8 of 9

9 Resources from IBM Ask the Oracle 8 Ball Demo Workload-Optimized Systems IBM Shows the Way, Again Value Proposition for IBM DB Cost Savings Potential Compared to Oracle Database 11g About IBM At IBM, we strive to lead in the creation, development and manufacture of the industry's most advanced information technologies, including computer systems, software, networking systems, storage devices and microelectronics. We translate these advanced technologies into value for our customers through our professional solutions and services businesses worldwide. Sponsored By: Page 9 of 9

NEC Express5800 R320f Fault Tolerant Servers & NEC ExpressCluster Software

NEC Express5800 R320f Fault Tolerant Servers & NEC ExpressCluster Software Downtime Challenges and HA/DR Solutions Undergoing Paradigm Shift with IP Causes of Downtime: Cost of Downtime: HA & DR Solutions: