Oracle® DBA Guide to Data Warehousing and Star Schemas

The Great Vendor Debate

When once asked about his best play, Willie Mays said, “I don't compare 'em, I just catch 'em.” I feel the same way about hardware vendors; they just sell computers. But for many people, discussions comparing vendors can quickly get ugly. You'd think these people worked for or had huge stock holdings in their vendor of choice. More often than not, it's just an issue of comfort. If you've been a DBA for the past five years on platform X, then you'll often argue why it's the best platform out there, regardless of reality. We all do it; it's just human nature.

Nonetheless, there is a very clear hardware vendor that is, arguably, the best choice for building an Oracle data warehouse, and that's Sun. Let me explain.

First, ...