How Databases Changed The World
by Tim DiChiara, Site
Editor (SearchDatabase.com)
How did the database industry get started? How has it changed
the face of business? What were the key milestones, the big
obstacles and the lessons learned? I recently came across an
interesting panel discussion addressing these very issues,
featuring many of the database pioneers and leaders of the last 30
years:
Chris
Date
Herb Edelstein
Bob Epstein (
Sybase who shared code
with Microsoft for remarketing on SQL Server on OS/2 which
inevitably lead to the
Microsoft SQL
Server we know today)
Ken
Jacobs (
Oracle's Dr.
DBA)
Pat Selinger (
DB2 precursor called System
R)
Roger Sippl
(
Informix)
Michael
Stonebraker (
Ingres,
Postgres, and
Mariposa)
The event is available via streaming
video
and was recorded in February at the Computer History Museum in
Mountain View, California. After a chatty and lengthy (45 minutes!)
introduction only interesting to hardcore insiders, you can see
Chris Date waxing eloquent about Ted Codd (complete with quotes
from Shakespeare, no less), Herb Edelstein waxing eloquent about
Chris Date, and Michael Stonebraker at his geeky best. There's also
interesting trivia about the beginnings of SQL, the role of INGRES,
why the relational model will stand the test of time and some
friendly Oracle and IBM bashing (and Microsoft and Sybase and...).
I urge all you data management pros interested in broadening your
knowledge of the field to check it out! If you're still not
satiated, don't forget about our collection of backgrounders about
the DBMS and the data management industry.
sqlrdbmsdatabase