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Dumbass

Postgres can get far past that.

Metrics on the web support that:
http://blog.pgaddict.com/
http://www.pythian.com/blog/be...

It is quite obvious you haven't had much experience with Oracle installs across multiple platforms. In my opinion Oracle installation via the GUI or automated is one of the best case example of using Java across platforms. Don't have X or is not allowed to have it on production boxes - use the silent install method. The time it took to automate your installs clearly shows your (or your teams) understanding of the runInstaller capabilities. For anyone interested in a quick automated install guide - see here: http://www.pythian.com/news/1035/oracle-silent-mode-part-110-installation-of-102-and-111-databases/ In my organization (Forbes T10) we do click button installs right from web gui (custom deployment app for the whole stack OS, WebLogic, Oracle etc) - A database sw install, DB creation and OEM registration takes no more than 45 minutes. Don't blame your incompetence on the product.

Don't underestimate upcoming transactional engines, specifically Jim Starkey's Falcon (which is nearing readiness), PBXT and future versions of Maria.

Plus the mature InnoDB engine is not going away any time soon.

The posted story didn't have many details. Look here for more. As you can read, nothing inside is that crazy, but its a nice configuration with massive storage and massive bandwidth. Its not just a simple 1U proliant with oracle.

Let's see if they actually do something about it that's more impressive than just making their software compatible, this time. Frankly, I hope so.

I've seen Linux as a strategic platform for years. In 1998, using the initial release of "the slash" code base, I had a blog called "ontopofit.com". Before Pythian became successful in the dba managed services space, I used to write on there.

I posted on The Pythian Group Blog earlier this year, reprising and linking to an article that I originally wrote about Oracle on Linux in, get this, 1998! My conclusion:

"I'm calling it Linux and Oracle in the enterprise.
That's where the smart money is. What can NT do to compete with the features that Oracle coupled with Linux can provide? I invite those who may disagree, or who can add to this conversation, to post here with short comments or to submit a dissenting editorial if you like. The more I think about Oracle and Linux in the enterprise, the more I'm sure. Think about it."

Hilarious today, don't you think? :-)

Paul

Let's see if they actually do something about it that's more impressive than just making their software compatible, this time. Frankly, I hope so.

I've seen Linux as a strategic platform for years. In 1998, using the initial release of "the slash" code base, I had a blog called "ontopofit.com". Before Pythian became successful in the dba managed services space, I used to write on there.

I posted on The Pythian Group Blog earlier this year, reprising and linking to an article that I originally wrote about Oracle on Linux in, get this, 1998! My conclusion:

"I'm calling it Linux and Oracle in the enterprise.
That's where the smart money is. What can NT do to compete with the features that Oracle coupled with Linux can provide? I invite those who may disagree, or who can add to this conversation, to post here with short comments or to submit a dissenting editorial if you like. The more I think about Oracle and Linux in the enterprise, the more I'm sure. Think about it."

Hilarious today, don't you think? :-)

Paul

George Lucas has such a great record of improving classic SF films, doesn't he.

Dave Edwards.

  Log Buffer

And something got to be done about it.

Raj Thukral at Pythian, in a fit of righteous indignation, has registered dbaday.com and is going to doing something about the Sysadminday DBA Snub.

Paul

Hey,

Here at Pythian Remote DBA we've had a client these past two years called Omnipod. They run a good shop and the tech guys there are absolute tops.

Their software is a turnkey hosted secure instant messaging platform. It integrates with the big three networks just fine. It has amazing archiving and audit abilities, thus its popularity in the financial sector (those dudes have to keep all written communication for a few years or they're not allowed to use it at all).

Furthermore, it has an extremely cool feature that's not in any of Y! AIM or MSN: You can create Venn-diagram like overlap groups so that line workers can't just IM the CEO, and so that you can control the communication of presence information inside and outside the group.

It's all very cool and I can recommend it without hesitating. Although it's not FOS, the fact that you don't have to administer it and that you can be up and running tomorrow totally kicks ass.

HTH

Paul

I can tell from the tone of this review that a lot of pointy-haired purchasing managers are going to be dying to use these for enterprise database applications. I can feel the tense discussions coming on strong now.

That's why I posted the following manifesto: 750G Disks are BAHD for DBS a few weeks ago when these disks were released. Find out why huge disks are the bane of DBAs everywhere. My manifesto has been signed by the Oracle DBA industry's leading lights, please, use these disks for the purpose they were designed for, whatever that may be (home movies from your Canon S2 IS? I've got one of those and the on-board video compression is TERRIBLE!), and not for databases.

This public service announcement has been brought to you by Pythian Remote DBA.

--
Paul Vallee
President, The Pythian Group, Inc.

I can tell from the tone of this review that a lot of pointy-haired purchasing managers are going to be dying to use these for enterprise database applications. I can feel the tense discussions coming on strong now.

That's why I posted the following manifesto: 750G Disks are BAHD for DBS a few weeks ago when these disks were released. Find out why huge disks are the bane of DBAs everywhere. My manifesto has been signed by the Oracle DBA industry's leading lights, please, use these disks for the purpose they were designed for, whatever that may be (home movies from your Canon S2 IS? I've got one of those and the on-board video compression is TERRIBLE!), and not for databases.

This public service announcement has been brought to you by Pythian Remote DBA.

--
Paul Vallee
President, The Pythian Group, Inc.

The thing is, this affair of Oracle considering entering the Linux support arena and even shipping its own Linux distro is not new. Not even close.

It dates from 1998, during the initial launch of Oracle 8i. Since then, and arguably for even longer, Oracle has had a consistent strategy of undermining the role of the operating system by taking on more and more of the critical duties into its own code base. Linux plays into this strategy marvelously well. Except, here's the rub. Redhat is not interested in the furtherance of this agenda. Redhat wants the operating system to remain a key part of the enterprise IT infrastructure.

I wrote an interesting article on my blog titled "Oracle & Linux, Ancient History" on this subject last week, and the article links to the web archive of my original post about Oracle and Linux and Oracle's strategy to undermine the OS from 1998. The original article's title was "Why Oracle 8i Will Remodel the OS Landscape" and ultimately what we're seeing now in the tension between Oracle and Redhat is the materialization of Oracle's vision of the operating systems' role chafing on its longstanding partner.

Cheers,
Paul
P.S. Pythian DBAs post on our group blog at http://www.pythian.com/blogs/.

The thing is, this affair of Oracle considering entering the Linux support arena and even shipping its own Linux distro is not new. Not even close.

It dates from 1998, during the initial launch of Oracle 8i. Since then, and arguably for even longer, Oracle has had a consistent strategy of undermining the role of the operating system by taking on more and more of the critical duties into its own code base. Linux plays into this strategy marvelously well. Except, here's the rub. Redhat is not interested in the furtherance of this agenda. Redhat wants the operating system to remain a key part of the enterprise IT infrastructure.

I wrote an interesting article on my blog titled "Oracle & Linux, Ancient History" on this subject last week, and the article links to the web archive of my original post about Oracle and Linux and Oracle's strategy to undermine the OS from 1998. The original article's title was "Why Oracle 8i Will Remodel the OS Landscape" and ultimately what we're seeing now in the tension between Oracle and Redhat is the materialization of Oracle's vision of the operating systems' role chafing on its longstanding partner.

Cheers,
Paul
P.S. Pythian DBAs post on our group blog at http://www.pythian.com/blogs/.

I completely disagree that a flat monthly rate model motivates a vendor to do more proactive work.

Ultimately, any engineering services company's cost structure is directly dependent on payroll for engineers. Thus, when you say "you're finally profitable again", what you really are saying is that you're spending _fewer_ hours of work per customer than before. How this adds up to customer value is beyond me. Furthermore, by charging a flat rate, you are no longer aligning your interests (meet the SLA with the minimum contribution of work) with your clients (perform the best job possible within the budget), which is sure to lead to long-term tension.

Finally, you deprive your customers of the control over how much TLC their environment deserves, which further alienates them.

This is the reason Pythian abandoned the flat monthly rate model for managed services a few years ago. Our co-founder Steve Pickard wrote an article on this exact subject to explain and it's available online here: Beyond Repair.

Cheers,
Paul

I completely disagree that a flat monthly rate model motivates a vendor to do more proactive work.

Ultimately, any engineering services company's cost structure is directly dependent on payroll for engineers. Thus, when you say "you're finally profitable again", what you really are saying is that you're spending _fewer_ hours of work per customer than before. How this adds up to customer value is beyond me. Furthermore, by charging a flat rate, you are no longer aligning your interests (meet the SLA with the minimum contribution of work) with your clients (perform the best job possible within the budget), which is sure to lead to long-term tension.

Finally, you deprive your customers of the control over how much TLC their environment deserves, which further alienates them.

This is the reason Pythian abandoned the flat monthly rate model for managed services a few years ago. Our co-founder Steve Pickard wrote an article on this exact subject to explain and it's available online here: Beyond Repair.

Cheers,
Paul

Hi,

My name is Paul Vallee and I am a co-founder here of Pythian.

As part of our DBA services, we outsource systems administration support for a variety of platforms. Our services are definitely enterprise database-centric, but there's nothing preventing us from helping out even if there's no database at play.

Cheers,
Paul

For example, you could hire Pythian. We outsource Oracle DBA and make running and managing Oracle into the long-term completely turn-key. We run some of the largest and most challenging Oracle environments in the world, including distributed architectures and shops where the cost of downtime is 5-figures per hour. We run some shops that have in excess of 50000 simultaneous users, we manage publically traded manufacturing shops, dot-coms, health care companies (including HIPAA-protected data) and we're used by other outsourcers to fill this gap. That being said, we're willing to take on any Oracle shop, from part-FTE (lots of satisfied customers) to multi-FTE (lots of satisfied customers).

This "problem" with choosing Oracle is licked, not only by Pythian but also (to a lesser degree) by Pythian's competition - we're not alone in this industry. Pythian, along with other industry leaders such as Tusc and DBADirect are working competitively to completely reinvent the production engineering challenges (and costs) associated with running Oracle. :-)

Cheers,

Paul

For example, you could hire Pythian. We outsource Oracle DBA and make running and managing Oracle into the long-term completely turn-key. We run some of the largest and most challenging Oracle environments in the world, including distributed architectures and shops where the cost of downtime is 5-figures per hour. We run some shops that have in excess of 50000 simultaneous users, we manage publically traded manufacturing shops, dot-coms, health care companies (including HIPAA-protected data) and we're used by other outsourcers to fill this gap. That being said, we're willing to take on any Oracle shop, from part-FTE (lots of satisfied customers) to multi-FTE (lots of satisfied customers).

This "problem" with choosing Oracle is licked, not only by Pythian but also (to a lesser degree) by Pythian's competition - we're not alone in this industry. Pythian, along with other industry leaders such as Tusc and DBADirect are working competitively to completely reinvent the production engineering challenges (and costs) associated with running Oracle. :-)

Cheers,

Paul

Any other links to good logos? We should have a contest.
--

With the newly announced LDAP support in the db, Oracle has really closed the loop on OS features in a database. Along with Raw Iron, this could turn out to be big in the Oracle vs. OS's (where the OS means OS for sale, like NT.) OS's like Linux should only benefit.
Some 8i-related links: my 8i editorial, featured on /. in mid-November '98, still really interesting (if I may say so myself) with some posts from the Oracle team developing it. Also, the company I work for simultaneously announced an Oracle DBA outsourcing practice, with Michael Abbey heading it up (author of Tuning Oracle among other OP books). You can find out about that at The Pythian Group's website.
Best regards, Paul
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