Re: Object Oriented Databases

  • From: Nigel Thomas <nigel_cl_thomas@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: robertgfreeman@xxxxxxxxx, regdba@xxxxxxxxx, oracle-l <oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2007 03:12:57 -0700 (PDT)

-----Original Message----- 
From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
[mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Peter Barnett 


We are building a web application that will be 
accessing a database cache for its queries. 
Essentially, the system of record will be polled 
periodically and any updates will be applied to the 
cache database. One of the developers is pushing for 
an Object Oriented Database. Since we would be 
querying text data or xml I am not sure what it really 
buys us. 

His leading candidate is Intersystem Cache Database. 
...
----- Original Message ---- 
From: Robert Freeman <robertgfreeman@xxxxxxxxx> 
Roberts rule #110: 

When a developer comes recommending a "leading candidate" database... 
run...run...run... 

----------------------------
Peter 

Intersystems Caché has quite a good reputation, and I've come across it being 
used in the London Stock Exchange and a number of financial institutions 
(though I've never used it myself).

Robert's reservations about OO databases are not entirely unfounded - though a 
more cogent argument against abandoning Oracle and/or adding any other 
technology (even another RDBMS) is the cost and time taken to reskill 
developers and dbas. The question would have to be - is it worth it? Can you 
get the necessary skills in house or on the open market when you need them?

You might like to take a look as well at Oracle (formerly Tangosol) Coherence  
- see http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/coherence/index.html. It 
provides you with a wide range of distributed and hierarchical cache 
configurations/topologies (clustered, replicated, partitioned) and to configure 
appropriate data load and eviction strategies (polling sounds like a 
particularly dubious idea; think about lazy load, pre-load, time to live, 
update dependencies etc). You can also combine Coherence with Toplink or 
Hibernate if you want an O/R mapping layer included. Lots of information in the 
knowledge base.

HTH

Regards Nigel

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