Object Database on the Web
Managing Content, Transactions, and Interactions using Object Database
By Jay Mellman
From a database point of view, early Web sites simply used a flat-file approach to data storage. That is, all of the information required to process requests was stored in the native file system with the Web server as the query processor. However, the availability of the CGI provided access to any program or data storage networked to the Web server. Now, the opportunity to bring powerful database technology to bear has become irresistible: Every system in an enterprise can be exposed to the Web for browser access, and every database vendor is pushing its technology as a core engine to deliver complex multimedia content and advanced transactions.
In fact, the Web of the future, whether within or across enterprises, will likely be characterized by distributed, realtime transactions across multiple organizations, complex multimedia manipulation and delivery, live auctioning, and brokering for products and services. All of this will be accompanied by metadata management of the type that Neilsen and IRI routinely provide to television advertisers and supermarket chains, respectively. Even today, organizations are beginning to ask the nascent questions driving in this direction:
- How do we effectively vend, manage, account, and bill for multimedia content?
- How should we track the user activity on our site, especially as advertisers demand information beyond simple URLs?
- How do we manage multiple versions of Web pages as sites evolve and change?
- How do we avoid using network bandwidth for nonessential activity?
- What sorts of commercial transactions can we use to reduce transaction costs and provide greater organizational flexibility?
These are very real questions, especially as organizations require investments in the Web to provide more tangible and measurable benefits.
