Complex Processing, Analytical Processing, and Transactions
By Ken North
There are times when we can ignore a headline-grabbing phenomenon. But for me, February and March 1998 was a period during which El Niżo and the "Year 2000 problem" were impossible to ignore. There were also three acronyms that kept popping up in conversations about database server technology; OLTP, OLCP, and OLAP. These acronyms will be the "phenomenon" of my column this month. (See
Table 1 for a guide to acronyms discussed in this story.)
My most recent assault by El Niżo occurred on the night before my flight to Los Angeles to attend a conference on Microsoft SQL Server 7.0. A rain squall dropped so much water so quickly that a creek near my house rose about four feet in 15 minutes. The problem was that the creek is normally three feet deep. When the flood subsided, we had a "block party" at midnight to clear the street of debris, mud, and rocks. To put a different spin on a famous Robert Frost line, I came away with the impression that "good shovels make good neighbors." The conference schedule was intense, with daily events scheduled from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Nonetheless, it was a welcome change of scenery and less stressful than watching the creek spill into the street.
Are You Y2K-Compliant?
Similar to El Niżo storm patterns, some variation of the Year 2000 (Y2K) problem seems to appear every few days.
