lient-server databases were yesterday's trend; Web databases are today's. So it's no surprise that many companies ar
e retrofitting client-server databases with middleware to allow access from Web browsers. "Virtually every company we talk to is looking to do exactly that," says John Bartlett, director of Web products marketing for Informix Software Inc. in Menlo Park, Calif.
Most suppliers of relational database-management systems-including market leaders Oracle, Informix, and Sybase-have introduced Web connectivity products. One Oracle customer, Stock Smart in Dallas, converted its Oracle7 database of investment information into a Web service (
www.stocksmart.com
) using Oracle's Web Application Server 3.0. A software "cartridge" within Web Application Server makes database queries using Oracle's PL/SQL programming language and returns the results to a browser as HTML files. The documents are created dynamically at the time of the request.
Oracle's Web Application Server also supports Java and, for access to other kinds of databases, the Object Database Connectivity interface.
Oracle also has licensed OpenConnect's mainframe connectivity software, which it includes with the Enterprise Edition of Web Application Server. "This provides immediate, no-programming access to the application," says Steven Levine, director of Internet marketing with Oracle's Application Server division.
Informix's Web Connect provides connectivity between a variety of Web servers and Informix's Universal Server or OnLine Dynamic Server databases. Bartlett says customers use it in one of two ways: "They want to provide a Web front end to an existing application, or they've got a Web application and want to extend that with database connectivity." Informix also sells Data Director for Java, a software layer between Informix databases and Java development tools, for companies that want to write Java apps that access an Informix database.
Sybase Solutions
Sybase, in Emeryville, Calif., bundles an SQL-to-HTML page server, NetImpact Dynamo, with its SQL Server Professional and SQL Anywhere
databases. Other products that fit into the mix: a Java Database Connectivity driver, called Jconnect, that lets Java applications access Sybase databases; Jaguar CTS, a transaction server that works on the Web; a Web Assistant for Sybase's Powersoft development tools; and gateways to 25 other platforms. David Knight, Sybase's director of Internet transaction processing, estimates that more than 80% of Sybase's customers provide Web access to an existing database.
St. Joseph's Health Center, a 1,500-bed hospital in Toronto, uses several Sybase products for an intranet application that takes some of the workload off its main production database. An SQL Anywhere-based data mart, connected to the production database, has cut the time to distribute monthly financial reports from three days to 15 minutes, says Dan Young, the hospital's database administrator. He adds, "We've moved to a complete Internet philosophy."
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lient-server databases were yesterday's trend; Web databases are today's. So it's no surprise that many companies ar
e retrofitting client-server databases with middleware to allow access from Web browsers. "Virtually every company we talk to is looking to do exactly that," says John Bartlett, director of Web products marketing for Informix Software Inc. in Menlo Park, Calif.
