Oracle is not the only database
DataDirect’s latest Connect 4.0 database drivers for Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) have been released in a new standard format that the company says will support application failover in any database, for the first time.
Developers looking to work with the JDBC 4.0 specification have been promised new productivity capabilities and support for flexible application failover. As most readers will know, JDBC itself is a Java API that specifies and defines how a client accesses a database.
In the fragmented technology stacks of today’s modern companies, standards-based data access to all major databases is an interesting proposition given that most large organisations will have bought in to more than one vendor over the years.
Those advertisements at airports telling you that, “97 of the Fortune 100 companies use Oracle,” are arguably somewhat misleading - because those 97 companies probably also have some Microsoft SQL Server, IBM DB2, Sybase or MySQL throbbing away in their engine rooms.
I spoke to Microsoft and Sybase about this story. Microsoft said they didn’t want to comment on a competitor, which is a shame as this is all about inter-operability isn’t it? Sybase said it was the Labour day holiday in the USA and the so the UK would try to comment, but they didn’t manage it. I apologise for not also speaking to Oracle, but since they decided to release all news stories in the form of bullet points I have found them difficult to engage with.
Complete JDBC 4.0 compliancy is argued to provide better application performance and reliability in the long run. Technologies embraced with this level of compliance now include database compression, transparent data encryption, server side result-set caching and XQuery update expressions.
Whether software architects and engineers will want to buy in to DataDirect’s Connect for JDBC drivers and build database-independent applications on a common architecture may not be down to any altruistic wish to strive for data homogeneity – it will most likely be down to cost and whether the ISV or IT department they work for has the funds to hand.