Technology Positioning Statement Report

2.1.2 Personal and Workgroup Databases

Category: 2 - Data Management   Subcategory: 1 - General Purpose Data Management Tools

Vision
Retirement	Containment	Current	Tactical	Strategic
	Clipper DBase FoxPro	Access	SQL Server

Standards
Industry Usage	SC Usage

Performance Metrics Rapid access to required information, and only that information, in the desired format. Ease of programming; ease of use. Support for binary large object (BLOB) and many other formats.

Usage and Dependencies Industry Position: Past recurring problems of database integration and replication are forcing the elimination of small workgroup database services. The need to communicate with enterprise systems and to be accessible to remote-access or mobile platforms also tends to drive the movement toward data interoperability. It is strategically advantageous to merge data into a common large repository: data mart, data warehouse or other larger-system. Only rudimentary services such as mail-list creation or limited decision-support analysis will stay within the workgroup. The effect is that the strategic direction toward data merging will continue to discourage users from creating autonomous data sources. In the Microsoft arena, SQL Server 7.0 and 2000 are the core products. Access 2000 allows (nearly) automatic upgrading of databases to SQL Server. SC Baseline Description: Numerous workgroup DBMSs -- including MS Access, FoxPro, Clipper, System 2000 (S2K), and other x-base systems -- support both enterprise-wide and special-use systems at SC. Legacy SC-wide systems of this type include Lab-Base, LDRD, and Lab Appraisal. IMSC uses SQL Server 7.0, but 6.5 version is also used in some cases. SC Application Architecture Impacts: SC enterprise applications (IMSC) assumes SC-wide information-sharing capabilities based on Microsoft SQL Server.
Last Update:	Valid Until:
3/26/2001	4/26/2001

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