Samuel Pelletier, Cyber Cat Inc.:

Subject: Re: Frontbase
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1999 11:12:09 -0500
x-mailer: Claris Emailer 2.0v3, January 22, 1998
From: Samuel Pelletier <sam@cybercat.qc.ca>
To: "mmalcolm crawford" <mmalc@stepwise.com>, "Geert B. Clemmensen" <gclem@frontbase.com>
cc: <benj>
Mime-Version: 1.0
X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by snaps.frontbase.com id RAA03581

....

Yes, we completed the switch 2 weeks ago. It was a big switch for us because we switched the database server AND the application server. We had 18 WebObjects applications running on NT and connected to an Oracle server on a AIX box (An Apple Network Server 700). The same apps are now running on a Mac OS X server connected to an FrontBase server on YellwDogLinux (this one run on the same box that Oracle was running on).

During the switch process, the FrontBase™ server was on the same computer as the WO apps. We converted all apps, one by one to use FrontBase and to compile and run on OS X server. After all the database where transfered, we where able to install Linux and the ANS 700, install FrontBase and switch the database server to it.

During the conversion process we encountered few problem mostly due to SQL92 VS Oracle PL/SQL differences. The support from FrontBase where very prompt and helpfull, they even call me directly a few time at times I would expect them to be home (they are at least 6 hours before us). We also had very long select statement in one app ang Geert release a new version of FrontBase to correct this one.

We looked at differents solutions to replace Oracle for our databases needs. We don't need any of the big feature of Oracle, we don't even use stored procedures. Oracle is a very big thing that require specialized people to maintain and is very expensive. The annual supports fees are more expensive than a complete FrontBase license.

The free license allowed us to play with FrontBase and get used to it. We then obtain the 30 days demo version to try the backup, import and exports features. We liked the FrontBase way, the server is very simple and the tools very simple and efficient. The server run on many differents OS and is very fast. We are now able to do live backups very fast and we know they work. We also wanted to demonstrate our apps with a portable computer running them so we need ideally the same database server running on it and on the main server. The licensing of FrontBase is also very interesting, for the portable, we simply use a free Bronze license, we have no needs for security for this configuration.

This is our story, we now needs to write an article from this!

Geert, do you have anything to add that I have missed?

Regards,
Samuel

Samuel Pelletier, ing. stag.
Vice président projets spéciaux
Cyber Cat Inc
3107, avenue des Hotels
Sainte-Foy, Qc, G1W 4W5
CANADA

Phone: 418-654-9388
FAX: 418-654-0481
email: sam@cybercat.qc.ca
web: www.cybercat.qc.ca