Going Off the Beaten DB Path
You may not have heard of this open-source alternative, but Berkeley DB is worth a closer look
By Steve Renaker
This is the first in a series of stories on free-of-charge, open-source databases, describing their various attributes and offering a comparison to more conventional products.
Today: Berkeley DB
Sleepycat Software, Inc.
118 Tower Road, Lincoln, MA 01773
info@sleepycat.com
When developers think about databases, names such as Oracle, Informix, Sybase, and DB2 usually come to mind. Concepts such as SQL, PL/SQL, and T-SQL rise to the fore. So do "big," "expensive," and "unwieldy."
But before you make the first decision about how to program your database applications and on what database system to run them, the first question to answer is, do you really need a relational database at all? Often, the answer is no. Databases come in all shapes and sizes, from simple flat-file systems to complex relational schemas, and the first step in any project involving data storage and retrieval should be to figure out where in that continuum your needs lie.
Somewhere in between those two extremes is Berkeley DB, from Sleepycat Software. In this article, I'll describe what Berkeley DB is, what it's not, what it's good for, and how you can put it to work for you.
Cost a Major Factor in Making a Selection
Cost is always a major factor in deciding among database alternatives, especially for smaller companies. Conventional enterprise-size systems can easily require an investment that runs well into six figures for hardware, software, and licensing. This doesn't even take into account such add-ons as training, advanced application development, and maintenance.
Open-source databases, on the other hand, are available free of charge. Their suppliers are more accurately described as service providers than software vendors because they make money not on software sales but on system support and/or optimization, DB administration, training, and developer support. This is one advantage of choosing an open source database system. Having the worldwide open-source community as a support system is another major plus; if you have a question or need a problem solved, the answer can nearly always be had by posting to any of several online communities.
