DBMS Client/Server Connection

January 1997

By Clara Parkes

CHANGING TIMES

Dueling Universes
Corporate Marriages

Entering a New Decade

If you've been paying attention to the rest of this magazine, you should know by now that this is the 10th year of DBMS. If you are like me and read magazines from back to front, however, this may be the first you've heard of our wonderful achievement. In honor of our 10th year, I went into the DBMS archives to see whose words were here first, and what they said. The column was called "The Last Word," and it was written by Stephen G. Perry, then chairman of Revelation Technologies Inc. In his first column, Perry gave his five-year predictions for where the industry would be in 1993: High-end, mainframe-style applications would become a reality on the PC, and the DBMS of the future would easily bond to files from outside environments and read and write to them as if they were their own. Turns out Mr. Perry wasn't too far off target. This month's news epitomizes how far the industry has come since 1988 and what the central concerns are today.

Universal Dispute

At Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco last November, Oracle Corp. (Redwood Shores, Calif.) poured more gasoline on the already-smoldering universal server bonfire by saying that, by adding third-party code into the heart of the database, Informix DataBlades can crash the database kernel. Oracle, on the other hand, employs Data Cartridges, which "wrapper" third-party or legacy applications so that they can't crash your system. Interestingly enough, many of the same companies (Virage is one example) that developed DataBlades for Informix are now working with Oracle to build Data Cartridges. Contact Oracle Corp., 415-506-7000 or fax 415-506-7200; www.oracle.com.

Following the Oracle show, Informix Corp. (Menlo Park, Calif.) announced the Informix Universal Web Architecture, an open Web development and deployment environment to create "intelligent" Web sites. Instead of storing Web sites as files, the entire Web site is stored in the database. Included in the announcement are the Informix-Web DataBlade Module (the primary means for storing all content and application logic with the Informix database), Informix-Universal Web Connect (an open middleware solution that provides connectivity between Web servers and databases), and Informix-JWorks (a drag-and-drop Java development tool for building intelligent Web client/server applications for Informix database servers). Contact Informix Corp., 415-926-6300 or fax 415-926-6593; www.informix.com.

While Oracle and Informix battled it out, IBM Corp. (Armonk, N.Y.) announced its DB2 Universal Database. The company's biggest task seems to be that of overcoming the slightly stodgy image of DB2, especially in comparison to its flashier siblings Oracle and Informix.

The DB2 Universal Database, which went into beta in November 1996, incorporates the parallel query capabilities of DB2 Parallel Edition with the object-relational and transaction support of DB2. IBM's response to DataBlades and Data Cartridges are "extenders" (Maurice Frank discussed them briefly in his December 1996 "From the Editor" column, page 6); multimedia extenders already ship with DB2 version 2. IBM lets you decide whether or not to let third-party code into your database kernel. You can "fence" your extenders (particularly wise when in development and product testing) or remove the fencing, which will improve performance. IBM estimates that DB2 Universal Database will be generally available by the end of the first half of 1997. Contact IBM Corp., 800-426-3333 or 914-765-1900; www.ibm.com.

Now ConviNCed

Bill Gates finally gave up fighting the Network Computer (NC) concept with the announcement that Microsoft and Intel are working on an initiative to develop the NetPC reference platform. The main difference between the NC and the NetPC (besides three letters) is that the NetPC will still rely on a hard disk, Pentium processor, and 16MB of RAM, and (Microsoft hopes) the Windows or Windows NT operating system. This announcement is in line with Microsoft's Zero Administration software strategy. In a separate announcement, Microsoft released the names of new companies (in addition to the eight original licenses) that are licensing Visual Basic for Applications for use in their applications. Those companies include HAHT Software Inc., Sagent Technology Inc., and NetManage. Contact Microsoft Corp., 206-882-8080 or fax 206-936-7329; www.microsoft.com.

Buy Buy Companies

In a deal valued at approximately $1.2 billion, Computer Associates International Inc. (CA, Islandia, N.Y.) and Cheyenne Software Inc. (Roslyn Heights, N.Y.) entered into an agreement in which CA will acquire Cheyenne through a cash tender offer. Cheyenne is expected to operate as a division of CA. Contact CA, 516-342-5224 or fax 516-342-5734; www.cai.com. Meanwhile, Rational Software Corp. (Santa Clara, Calif.), which made news last month when it acquired Microsoft's Visual Test, is at it again with the acquisition of automated testing tool vendor SQA Inc. (Burlington, Mass.). Contact Rational Software Corp., 408-496-3600 or fax 408-496-3636; www.rational.com.

Ciao Philippe

Five years before that fateful first issue of DBMS in 1988, Philippe Kahn founded Borland. Over the years, Borland grew from a tiny startup to one of the largest application development tool vendors in the world. This month, Kahn finally severed all ties with Borland by resigning as a member of Borland's board of directors. Kahn will devote all of his attention to his more recent startup, Starfish Software (Scotts Valley, Calif.), which develops Java-based collaborative solutions. Contact Starfish Software, 408-461-5800 or fax 408-461-5900; www.starfishsoftware.com.

Please send questions or comments to dbms@mfi.com
Updated Friday, December 13, 1996.