DB2 an Oracle killer

In the long run it will all come down to cost.

Do you honestly believe so many people are using mySQL because it's the best solution? No, it's because it costs $20,000 less than SQL Server!

As for MS Access, I've seen some pretty good systems running on this. OK, they can't scale and they can't cope with too many users but they work. For small databases MS Access is quicker than Oracle, SQL Server and DB2.

I've worked for a company that used Oracle for single table database that held 3,500 rows. They had another 40 instances that were more substantial, but it highlights how blinkered people can get.

Cheers

Ok a bit off tangents but...
Think Open Systems, OS's that'll be hybrid's.

I beleive microsoft's monopoly with all ms products will come to a cruel and painfull halt(If you will).

Today if I walk into a computer store I see several different versions of Linux mags. You'll find out alterntives which will rule overall , think GIMP,OGG(alternative for MP3)and lots lot's more. Things are changing rapidly. My neighbour(a retired gent, says hey tarry I have linux on my pc and it's cool, I was on board one of our ships for auditing and the captain had his own laptop running on linux ,challenging the capabilities of windozzz).

In my opinion it's time for lots of OPEN stuff and Oracle is moving in that direction.(Whatever the plot!)

Trust me when this low tide(economic malaise) is gone, you will be and must be ready to be overwhelmed by the new stuff and yes cost effective it'll be.

Because there are thousands of these little companies(read: prospective client$) who need to be overwhelmed with this new era.

Cheers!!!



[Edited by Tarry on 10-01-2002 at 06:19 AM]

Larry is hot on Linux, many nwe global IT initives at Oracle are being developed on Oracle where as in the past it was SUN

Larry's also hot on Mig fighters and Japanese culture. Perhaps we'll all be going to work in Mig's and speaking Japanese in a few years??

Sayonara

Quote:

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Originally posted by TimHall
Larry's also hot on Mig fighters and Japanese culture. Perhaps we'll all be going to work in Mig's and speaking Japanese in a few years??

Sayonara

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Domo arigato gozimas sta.

MH

;)

I have been lucky to have worked as DBA on DB2 on OS/390,UDB on AIX, Oracle 8 & 8i on HP and NT. Also, I have been using a replication tool DataJoiner/Propagator(IBM tool) to replicate from DB2 on OS/390 to Oracle on HP.
I did almost all certification in my related areas, presently aiming for Unix level certification(to start with HP and then will perhaps do Solaris).
After that I do not intend to go for any certification, as I feel that I have covered almost everything related to my area. I have not gone in the job market with these combination of certification yet, but as someone pointed out in this forum, it will be not a good idea to put all certification in one resume. What I feel that certification in modern times "preempts" many questions during interview also it enhances your marketability. Correlate this with some "features" of a new model of car, not all of them are going to be used by the end-users but are enough to attract you to the showroom and perhaps end up buying that too, same goes for anyone with certifications, if you have it, it does not make you 100% knowledgeable in that subject area but certainly it does "expose" you to all the areas/features and makes you at least appreciate those when someone is talking about that.Agreed? Also, in the minds of modern recruiters, certification do enhance your "credibility". On a personal note I can tell you that with new rdbms in both Oracle (8i onwards) and in DB2(since UDB was launched), old timers have real problems with new features, believe me. No offense to experienced old timers but certifications do give an opportunity to refresh your knowledge and "learn" new features. One has to appreciate that technology lifecycle has shortened to unimaginable level, now you have so many better solutions coming and getting implemented in the software that it becomes virtually impossible for any one to remain isolated, so one has to dip into this ocean and keep on exploring the new features, else become "outdated" and get sidelined in organization. One has to become more flexible and versatile in these days of IT, that is my viewpoint, sure many of you might differ.
Please ask me any specific question related to certification in the areas I have completed, I will be more than happy to help you to the best of my abilities.

Thanks for your post. How does the certification process in DB2 compare to the Oracle certification?

OCP 8i

I guess DB2 on UNIX/NT you are referring to. Well, it has got 2 papers only but second paper (the real DBA paper) is quite different from the first one(DB2 Family & Fundamentals). The second paper had some real tough questions. But comparing to OCP 9i upgrade exam I would say that DB2 certification is much more straight forward in their question pattern, multiple choices are also less tricky and passing mark is quite low. The present OCP pattern (I had only one chance of 9i upgrade) is very "risky", you have 60 questions out of which only 53/54 will be evaluated (which means that may be all the 6/7 correctly answered questions have been rejected for the final marking, sounds like "cheating"! The fact that you need to score 37 out of 53 to pass the exam is not a correct statement, rather add 7 more correct answers to be on safer side, so you need to score 44(-7=37) out of 53(+7=60) in an extreme situation! This is a real tough scenario because of multiple choices to be selected to score) and majority of them have multiple choices so that means even if you selected one wrong answer the result is "0", I guess in some ways OCP 9i upgrade exam pattern is worse than "Negative Marking for wrong questions"!
Well, contrary to this, DB2 is much more straightforward. But the word of caution is that don't be very relaxed that there are only 2 papers, the second one will make you read so many chapters right from Backup/Recovery, Performance Tuning, Administration etc. to federated database concept just for one paper, which will hardly leave any room for "pctfree" in your brain database! So, in a way it is 2-3 papers together and you have to read a lot! The 2 certification books one by IBM Press and other by Osborne ( are not sufficient and you might have to refer the Online UDB manuals at IBM's site. On the same note 9i upgrade book from Oracle Press also is not enough to pass the exam! I was lucky to get the ILT course material from a friend and that was complete material for exam.
Good Luck!

[Edited by freemind on 10-08-2002 at 02:19 PM]

Freemind, thanks for sharing your experience. I totally agree with you. I am currently working on my DB2 certification. I think having that will make me more marketable should I need to look for another job. At the same time, I don't want to just collect certs. Focusing on Oracle and DB2 with hands on experience at work is more than enough to keep me busy. I used to be an Informix DBA a few years ago. I have no intention of listing that in my resume. How will a certification in HPUX or Solaris help you in getting a DBA job? Most companies will hire someone to do DBA or Systems admin, not both. I was a junior AIX systems admin for a year writing shell/perl scripts. I am not sure the pay is as good as DBA, nor is there a lot of demand for sys administrators.

If I have questions on DB2 certification, can I email you?