Database Analyzer: DB comparison

Database cost more and making right decision for our requirements is very important. Databases continue to expand, and costs for database software, storage systems and servers to support them continue to increase. Overall growth in data and storage volumes is routinely in the range of 30 to 50 percent per year, and may be higher in individual organizations.

Organizations must deal not only with data growth, but also with increasing database complexity, more
frequent changes and updates, and the need to deliver new applications to increasingly diverse user groups.

This blog examines the option of databases in the industry and the features.

There are several database vendors in the industry and oracle, DB2 and SQL Server are the major database market share holders. We can't rule out Sybase and Teradata also in the list.  There are open source database MySQL and Ingres are famous among them.

Let's look at what's latest stable version of our five top database vendors.

============================================
Database Vendor                 Latest Stable Version

Oracle                                 Oracle 11g R2

DB2                                    DB2 9.7

SQL SERVER                    SQL SERVER 2008 (V10.0)

Sybase                                Sybase 11.0

Teradata                              TeraData V12

============================================


What are the operating systems our top 5 supports:

Oracle 11g supports --- Windows, Linux(highly installed and developed), Unix and Mac O/S X

DB2 Supports --- Windows, Linux and Unix. No MAC.

SQL SERVER --- Windows ONLY

Sybase --- Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Unix

TeraData --- Windows, Linux and Unix.



Oracle database 11g also runs on OpenVMS, HP/UX and AIX. Mac OS X is limited to 10gR2.

All our top 5 satisfies the fundamental features.

I always like to know the limitations of the product. Every product has its own limitations. Let's look at our top 5 DB's limitations.

Oracle

Max DB size Unlimited (4 GB * block size per tablespace)
Max table size 4 GB * block size (with BIGFILE tablespace)
Max row size 8kB
Max columns per row 1000
Max Blob/Clob size unlimited
Max CHAR size 4000 B
Max NUMBER size 126 bits
Min DATE value -4712 (January 1 4712 BC)
Max DATE value 9999
Max column name size 30

DB2

Max DB size 512 TB (512 TiB)
Max table size 512 TB
Max row size 32,677 B
Max columns per row 1012
Max Blob/Clob size 2 GB
Max CHAR size 32 KB (32 KiB)
Max NUMBER size 64 bits
Min DATE value 0001
Max DATE value 9999
Max column name size 128

SQL SERVER

Max DB size 524,258 TB (32,767 files * 16 TB max file size)
Max table size 524,258 TB
Max row size unlimited
Max columns per row 30000
Max Blob/Clob size 2 GB
Max CHAR size 2 GB
Max NUMBER size 126 bits
Min DATE value 0001
Max DATE value 9999
Max column name size 128

TERADATA

Max DB size unlimited
Max table size unlimited
Max row size 64 KB wo/lobs (64 GB w/lobs)
Max columns per row 2048
Max Blob/Clob size 2 GB
Max CHAR size 10,000
Max NUMBER size 64 bits
Min DATE value Not defined
Max DATE value 9999
Max column name size Not defined.

SYBASE

Max DB size 104 TB (13 files, each file up to 8 TB (32k pages))
Max table size Limited by file size
Max row size Limited by file size
Max columns per row 45000
Max Blob/Clob size 2 GB
Max CHAR size 2 GB
Max NUMBER size 64 bits
Min DATE value 0001
Max DATE value 9999
Max column name size Not defined.

Conclusion:

ORACLE 11g has rich functionality and stable for business. Oracle 11g early adapters are high because it provides wonderful tool to find out your performance and behavior head of time. Some of the cool features are database vault, Bind variable fix, OEM Adviser for partition table and partition key.

DB2 catching up with oracle functionality and IBM huge customer base is helping lot for DB2 installation. I like the IBM data compression and it's huge storage saving for company. The level of compression that may be realized is increased in DB2 9.7 with the addition of new index and temporary space compression capabilities, while a number of functions improve performance.

SQL SERVER is good if you are windows shop. Definitely you can save some money if you shop at one vendor. Its really good for small and medium businesses. SQL SERVER's some of the cool features PowerShell,Policy-Based Management,Filtered indexes,Advanced sparse, columns,Multithreaded partition access,Column-prefix,compression,Module signing using certificates and SQL Server Data Services.

SYBASE database is easy to maintain and has all the fundamental features. If you like SQL SERVER and you want to run it in Linux or Unix then your option is SYBASE.

TERADATA handles huge volume of data and wonderful full table scan facility. If you are running or growing data warehouse system with complex BI reports then you should take a look at Teredata. Now Teradata is attached with big company names.

I will cover the cool features in detail in my future blogs.