has used the web for
operations,
scheduling,
data analysis,
fault resolution,
and system conversion
(everything except marketing).
In many cases, web-based interfaces to
relational databases
present significant advantages
as they can offer:
- low cost of development
- low training costs
- vendor neutrality
At a cable advertising firm,
a conversion from Informix to Oracle was mandated
for corporate reasons
(it was felt the disparate corporate databases would be
in better harmony if they were all from the same vendor).
At the time, relatively few reporting tools worked against both Informix and Oracle.
After looking at ODBC and ESQL/C,
what seemed simplest was to
-
rewrite all of the existing
Informix 4GL code in Perl (a very flexible language),
-
validate the Perl code against the existing Informix 4GL code base,
-
repoint the Perl from Informix to Oracle (the one easy step in the process, actually),
-
and identify and manage the numerous subtle differences between
the Informix and Oracle flavors of SQL.
One benefit of using web-based approaches
was that the web interfaces imposed almost no training overheads:
most of the operators were already expert surfers.
|
Web-based data analysis, scheduling, and operational fault analysis
elsewhere.
In general,
has been very happy with web-based reporting.
These are easy to create and easy for people to understand.
has used web-based tools for
operations,
scheduling,
data analysis,
fault resolution,
and system conversion
(everything except marketing).
|