I see that there are some killjoys out there that doubt the role linux played in the Amazon numbers. My little 2 cents...they used Linux to host their business intelligence (multidimensional databases) and saved heaps on MS licenses there, not to mention it runs a lot faster on Linux than on NT.
Hierarchical or multidimensional databases have been around for a while. There are several pros and cons for both relational and multidim, but one can never replace the other. The performance of one is better for certain types of analysis than the other and vice versa. Check out the OLAP marketplace to see what multidim databases look like.
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I see that there are some killjoys out there that doubt the role linux played in the Amazon numbers. My little 2 cents...they used Linux to host their business intelligence (multidimensional databases) and saved heaps on MS licenses there, not to mention it runs a lot faster on Linux than on NT.
Hierarchical or multidimensional databases have been around for a while. There are several pros and cons for both relational and multidim, but one can never replace the other. The performance of one is better for certain types of analysis than the other and vice versa. Check out the OLAP marketplace to see what multidim databases look like.