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To: Charles Hughes who wrote (8996)	1/27/1998 3:09:00 PM
From: Marq Spencer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14631

Chaz: (Hey do you like the way I throw these numbers around? Totally accurate, I'm sure.:) But to be in the big leagues where people would pay for such numbers, you need to have six-digit accuracy:-). Now, if only you'd claimed $9.98634B in the next three years (instead of 10), you could be working for IDC, or some such, making big bucks :-):-):-):-). - Brian.

To: Charles Hughes who wrote (8996)	1/27/1998 3:51:00 PM
From: Rob Cook	Respond to of 14631

Spot on. The idea that a large scale database deployment is needed to handle the kind of transactions involved in e-commerce is goofy - I agree with you completely. Geez, Microsoft handles some 1.8 Billion dollars of commerce on their internal, NT/SQL Server based system, no problem. One of our huge partners, when asked what DB platofrm we should concentrate on, and what they themselves are selling the majority of new systems on, replied unequivocally MS SQL Server. INO, 99+% of business needs can be handled by a database with the capacity/capability/etc. of MS SQL Server. C

To: Charles Hughes who wrote (8996)	1/27/1998 5:03:00 PM
From: MJ	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14631

Chaz, Not sure what the US market is like, but there are dozens of small players pitching for the internet site business of small/medium companies over here in Oz. Add that to companies like OpenMarket, and big players like our telco Telstra (with a household name and a high-speed cable to the door) and it's a pretty competitive market with low margins. Also, for Informix to focus on this market would reduce margins and play straight into Microsoft's hands. Informix's focus is to partner with the web developers- focus on database strength. It will be interesting to see how web sites come on- if there is a major database market there now that sites are becoming more transaction based. I guess a lot of sites will simply upgrade existing in-house systems. For others, so far, a small database is adequate for the work-load. Will these systems scale when the big loads hit? There are still a hellava lot of very slow sites around. Matt.

To: Charles Hughes who wrote (8996)	1/27/1998 5:57:00 PM
From: syborg	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14631

So, wudda ya think? Uh... I hit a hot button? I liked the way you threw around numbers and found your points interesting. One more log we could throw on the fire is how many Ecommerce sites do we need selling products and services. Certainly with products the required number gets knocked down faster then with services where proximity is a plus. I mean how many sites am I going to visit to buy that new portable phone from? Perhaps a couple until I find one with a decent price and return policy. Anyway onto some focused comments.... Lately a lot of ISPs are collecting many small accounts into one ecommerce server setup that uses one fairly large DB server. This can be a real headache for the database vendors. As you know not one set of server tuning parameters fits all. What is a web farmer left to do? Rotate the web crops planting sites with highly dynamic data on one server versus fairly static data sites somewhere else. And what about load balancing? You mean I need a replication strategy? So, what kind of power do you need to do 300 million transactions a day? Depends on the transaction. I still do not have a way to deposit change into my computer to pay for a low cost item. I just hope somebody gets that standard in place other than MSFT. Then I wouldn't have to worry about someone shorting the service provider and having to answer that annoying internet phone voice stating "please deposit 50 cents." The load for serving media is going to be far greater than the load on DBs from transactions Granted since the size of the packages of bits is larger. However if I buy tuned infrastructure to handle the special needs volume the DB can remain the same auditing activity. Case in point, the phone companies. The switch handles the load and the billing system anaylzes the resulting call detail records. IMHO delivery of media can be loosly coupled to back end business systems. Lets say you have to pay $100 and hour for 100 hours per company in ecommerce (including all the little ones and erring to the low side) to set up 3 million companies in ecommerce with a DB. Definitely on the low side. If you want any sort of experienced web professional be prepared to pay from $1200/day for a developer to around $2500/day for an architect. And don't forget to feed back everything the consultants learn to the ecommerce tools developers. Hear Hear! Oh year I forgot... engineering knows better than the field. What do us consultants know since we work in the field with clients and miss all those important strategy meetings. thanks for the response syborg