Extending Relational Databases
by Martin Rennhackkamp
The heart of an object/relational, or "Universal," server is its ability to incorporate new user-defined or third-party datatypes into the database server. This article explores the mechanisms that three object/relational DBMS vendors -- IBM, Informix, and Oracle -- provide to let you store nontraditional datatypes within a relational framework.

Inside Oracle8
by Robin Schumacher
There's no denying that Oracle gave its flagship DBMS a substantial overhaul with the release of Oracle8. Has Oracle merely managed to catch up to the rest of the industry, or has it forged ahead to new, uncharted territories? This article examines Oracle's strategy and technology with Oracle8 and explains what you'll really find when you crack open the shrinkwrap.

ONLINE NOW January Cover Story: Transaction Processing Today by Ken Rudin OLTP systems support day-to-day operations, and they supply data to data warehouses. Furthermore, e-commerce requires well-designed OLTP systems that can manage large volumes of transactions. In the first installment of a year-long series by the Emergent Corp., Ken Rudin explains what it takes to build a successful OLTP system and how emerging trends will affect tomorrow's OLTP developers.

Enterprise Manager
by Judith Hurwitz and Steven Foote
Studying service level agreements.

Data Warehouse Architect
by Ralph Kimball
Minding the operational data store.

SQL for Smarties
by Joe Celko
The importance of learning to unlearn.

Application Architect
by David S. Linthicum
Shifting to object/relational.

Server Side
by Martin Rennhackkamp
DB2 version 5.0.

Component Assembler
by Tom Spitzer
Activating Active Server.