SUN CA : University of Delhi Agraj's Weblog

Following comparison of world's two most popular database management systems (DBMS) is based on their use as a database for making web based applications.

            

Now that MySQL is officially a part of Sun, i would any day prefer MySQL for making my web based applications than any other huge (read heavyweight) databases, which probably offers so many features that are basically not needed for creating such applications.
Read Jonathan Schwartz's Blog to find more.

As regards Comparison, i would like to highlight following points:

Firstly being Open Source, MySQL comes as a free download for developers worldwide. On the other hand, for using Oracle, you need a license (and for that matter a pretty costly license)

With Google, Facebook and Sina.com prefering MySQL for creating network services, one cannot doubt over MySQL capability of handling high volumes of data (perhaps in terabytes or even more)

MySQL is already known for its faster data retrieval, and impressive clustering and replication features and with MySQL 5.0 supporting stored procedures, views and triggers, the situation has only improved.

If you are a newbie to this world of Databases, i would recommend you to start with MySQL and then gradually shift to some other, if need be.

Its not that Oracle is not useful or because i'm a SUN CA, I will continue to praise Sun's technology and products.

The truth remains that Oracle provides a huge array of features as compared to any other existing DBMS, let alone MySQL. Oracle is considered as a giant in the world of database installations.
For these reasons, it is heavyweight and installation and uninstallation can get a bit tricky for novices.
In a nutshell, features is surely one area where MySQL loses to Oracle, but then MySQL is devoid of various disadvantages of Oracle.

Also Oracle 9i and 10g both can also be used a ORDBMS(Object Relational Database Management Systems) and supports ORSQL which only a few other databases like Informix and IBM's DB2 does, but MySQL cannot be used to implement a ORDBMS design.

To summarize, i would say that In the world of databases, there is no "one size fits all".
If you need the Oracle features, MySQL isn't going to work for you.
Conversely, if you don't need the Oracle features(which is most often the case), MySQL is a lot cheaper,
even with the license and the support contract.
And with Sun acquiring it, the situation is only going to improve.

Top Exec Speaks Up

Mr. Charles Phillips, president of Oracle, once made a statement at some conference about the comparison between Oracle and MySQL: "We're both in the transportation business," Mr Phillips said. "We have a 747, and they have a Toyota."
Mr. Marten Mickos, CEO of MySQL is more than happy with the comparison made, since there are many more Toyotas sold than 747s. "Toyota is a very profitable company," he added.
Mr Mickos maintained that the company is still more interested in new web-based application customers than it is in replacing existing database installations.
(taken from http://www.cbronline.com/article_news.asp?guid=9231B8BD-3788-4DB2-B85F-707E75857B58 )

Disclaimer:
The above comparison is based on my personal experience with both DBMS. If you find some missing/wrong information, please leave a comment.

So finally we had a Successful Sun Seminar @ Sankalan 2008.
For those, who do not know what Sankalan is, its a technical festival organized annually by
Department of Computer Science, University of Delhi.
It was well attended by 65 teams all over India with more than 350 students.

Coming to Sun's participation in the tech-fest, it was dominated by Mr. Ajay Ahuja's Talk on
the topic "Sun Microsystems: Choice, Innovation & Value".


              Ajay Ahuja Sir @ Sankalan

He talked about various Certifications and Trainings offered by Sun Microsystems to
the students and also about the discount offered to SAI registered schools.
He also talked about Solaris and its various amazing features.
All in all, it was an entertaining and informative session enjoyed by students and teachers alike.

As planned, today I conducted a techtalk-cum-demo on JDBC Connectivity, i.e. how to
connect a Java Application with a RDBMS(Relational Database Management System).
The target audience was totally new to the concept so i started off from the very scratch.
Following was the agenda:
# What is JDBC ?
# JDBC Architecture
-- 2 tier Architecture
-- 3 tier Architecture
# JDBC Drivers
# Connecting to Database
# Java Persistence API


It included the discussion of the importance of the application logic layer
and a brief comparison of Web Server and Application Server

It also emphasized the growing existence and importance of an application server like Glassfish in the industry.
At this point, i would like to mention that the students of the department have agreed to use Glassfish
in place of Tomcat as the application server.

2 Tier Applications embed the application logic in the jsp files and hence is visible to the user
3 tier apps add another layer which takes care of the business logic making it transparent to the user
and hence more preferred over corresponding 2 tier web apps.

One of the most popular way of implementing the application logic layer is to use Javabeans that can be easily
called in jsp files thus abstracting the details from the user.

I then talked in brief about the JDBC product components viz. the
JDBC API (java.sql and javax.sql) and
JNDI (Java Naming and Directory Interface)

Next, came information about different kinds of JDBC drivers. There are currently 221 drivers that
can be used to support a wide variety of databases. These drivers can be categorized into 4 major types.

The crux of the presentation was the actual code necessary to connect to the database.
As such, the process can be divided into three parts:
1. Load the driver
2. Connect to the database
3. Query the database

We use various classes and functions provided by JDBC API to achieve the above mentioned steps.



It followed with a demo with me building a small web app using Netbeans 6.0 + Glassfish
that interacts with MySQL and it worked !!
The students were happy to see that its so easy to connect and query the database
and i think this presentation will surely helped them in doing their semester projects
(i.e. to create a dynamic website using JSP)

After demonstrating to them how easy it was to use JDBC, i switched back to ppt and
introduced to them the concept of JPA (Java Persistence API)
I talked about how it is the next-generation industry standard for connectivity with DBMS/RDBMS
and is gaining popularity with each passing day.

I will strongly recommend reading Mr. Arun Gupta's blog entry:
http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/hello_jpa_world
showing how simple it is to build a Hello JPA World Application. Do read it!

The presentation ended with giving them a repertoire of web resources and talking about
Certifications and Trainings offered by Sun Microsystems.

The presentation ended with a round of applause, i hope that best describes how it went !!

The presentation for the same can be found on JUG-DU (the google group)

For any queries, please contact me on Agraj.Mangal@Sun.Com

Hi all,

This is my first blog on Sun's portal and it feels great to be a part of Sun Microsystems and
getting to learn and talk about latest trends and emerging SUN's technologies....something that
have always excited me.
I was selected as a CA for Delhi University in the late December 2007 and have done quite a few
activities since then. You can have a look at them on My Earlier Blog

Well, i hope to see you again on my blog and plan to keep you updated with all the activities
happening at my campus. :-)

Ciao.
Agraj Mangal
Sun Campus Ambassador
University of Delhi