This month has been another busy one for DBMS and the industry in general, with DB/Expo in San Francisco April 15-19 and Internet World in San Jose April 29-May 3. Just to complicate things, I also decided to attend Microsoft's sold-out Tech Ed conference in Los Angeles April 15-19 and the VLDB and Data Mining Summit in Chicago April 29-May 1.
Internet Ed
Microsoft's Tech Ed had Internet written all over it. Bill Gates' keynote provided a tolerable blend of self-promotion, useful information, and humor. He painted a future in which the private network has been replaced by the Internet; he called Windows 95 "the most successful software product ever" (groan); and he explained Microsoft's attempts to persuade telephone companies to lower the cost of ISDN lines. The humor -- and a statement about where the technology revolution is leading us -- came during a tongue-in-cheek video in which a man proudly claimed, "I'll be sending mail with a $20,000 computer instead of using a 32-cent stamp!"
DB/Expo
Next came the ever-popular DB/Expo in San Francisco. I was glad to see that the trade show antics were slightly toned down from last year. There was but one sumo wrestler (I declined to get my photo taken next to him) and just one enormous booth staffed by people in prom night attire. Here's a look at a few of the highlights. Microsoft Corp. (Redmond, Wash.) announced SQL Server 6.5 with a bash at the Yerba Buena Gardens, at which the main speaker was not a Microsoft exec but Dilbert's Scott Adams. New features in 6.5 include dynamic page-level and row-level locking, heterogeneous replication, support for very large databases, OLAP query extensions, and integration with BackOffice. Microsoft was also touting recent results from TPC-C benchmarking tests that establish SQL Server 6.5 as the fastest database for Windows NT. Contact Microsoft Corp., 206-882-8080 or fax 206-936-7329; http://www.microsoft.com.
Sybase Inc. (Emeryville, Calif.) announced its Enterprise Connect middleware solution with an event at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Each attendee was given an umbrella at the door -- any link between this and our May cover story, "The Sybase Enterprise Strategy: Weathering the Storm"? Enterprise Connect is a middleware product suite of the "anywhere" computing variety, designed to give complete enterprise access and link any client to any enterprise data. It also enables information delivery across disparate and geographically dispersed locations and provides services for distributed multi-tier development, customization, and management. Contact Sybase Inc., 510-922-3500 or fax 510-922-9441; http://www.sybase.com.
The OLAP Council was at the show seeking public comments on the first version of a benchmark designed to help users evaluate OLAP servers. The Analytical Processing Benchmark-1 (APB-1) measures how well an OLAP server responds to user queries, including aggregation, ratios, forecasts, and other calculations. Once the APB-1 is finalized, the Council plans to certify experts who can audit benchmarks conducted by vendors. Vendors who publish benchmark results must also disclose the database schema and the code required to execute the benchmark. The benchmark is available on the OLAP Council's Web site at http://www.olapcouncil.org. Comments will be accepted until July 15, 1996 and can be emailed to olap@ix.netcom.com. Contact OLAP Council, 800-474-6527. (Outside the U.S. call Rogers Communications, 617-224-2200.)
Software AG of North America Inc. (Reston, Va.) announced Esperant 3.0. The new release of the query and reporting tool has been boosted with the ability to perform heterogeneous RDBMS joins, as well as reporting and integrated graphics capabilities, a batch scheduler, and the ability to iconize a query. Software AG also announced that it is bundling Esperant and Adabas D database into a new low-cost data mart package called, appropriately, Dmart. Contact Software AG of North America Inc., 703-860-5050 or fax 703-391-6731; http://www.sagus.com.
The annual RealWare Awards were presented on the 17th, judged by teams of industry editors and analysts and presented to vendors and their customers who provide the most outstanding solutions in three predefined categories. The winners were:
How Large is Very Large?
There was a good turnout for Miller Freeman's VLDB and Data Mining Summit in Chicago, despite the freezing wind and rain. Among the more interesting speakers was TRW Information Services' Helen McMillan, who discussed the process of reengineering TRW's legacy credit system into a VLDB that could support 200 million credit-active consumers and process 1,000,000 transactions and up to 60,000,000 batch update transactions per day. Other speakers included Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s Randall Mott, Yale University's Edward Tufte, and Strategic Technologies and Systems' Stephen Brobst.
Back in Sunny California...
Just about every Internet-related company in the industry was in San Jose for Internet World. Filling the convention center, part of the Civic Auditorium, and a huge white tent nearby, the show has finally burst at the seams and will be moved from Silicon Valley to Los Angeles next year. Bill Joy, Bill Gates (via satellite), Larry Ellison, and Steve Jobs were among the keynote speakers. A bit of comic relief came during Ellison's speech, when he was stuck in his demo and an audience member finally had to yell out, "Click on the blue stuff, Larry!" Ellison had the presence of mind to say, "I've humiliated myself in front of thousands of people" before ending his speech and leaving the stage.