DOAG 2018 – What to learn from a battle on IT technologies?

This year’s my 6th participation with dbi services at the DOAG Conference + Exhibition Nuremberg (as a “non-techie” attendee, no need to say), but it was my very first battle on IT technologies. And it was fun!

On the DOAG 2018 Conference + Exhibition

DOAG 2018 Conference + Exhibition is taking place November 20 – 23, 2018 in Nuremberg. Participants have the opportunity to attend a three-day lecture program with more than 400 talks and international top speakers, plus a wide choice of workshops and community activities. This is a great opportunity to expand your knowledge and benefit from the know-how of the Oracle community.

On dbi services at the DOAG 2018

dbi services attends the DOAG with sessions + booth every year since 2013. Our consultants share their knowledge within the German speaking Oracle community, this year with 9 technical sessions. Customers and contacts are welcome during the sessions and at booth number 242 on the 2nd floor. Every day a prize draw takes place at the booth with a Swiss watch to win and many other things which guarantees a relaxed and funny atmosphere.

On battles at community events

Usually, techies present specific topics on one specific technology, i.e. Oracle new features, new versions, interesting findings, tools, and practices. However, it may happen that some speakers rather perform in “team”, probably because they are too shy to come alone on stage… especially on big rooms with 1 or more huge screens behind the speaker where he/she spends the 45 minutes presentation like feeling his/her “maxi-Me” in his/her back!

Anyway, Jan Karremans, Senior Sales Engineer for EnterpriseDB / EDB Postgres, and our Daniel Westermann, Senior Consultant and Technology Leader Open Infrastructure at dbi services, decided to have a battle on a funny topic: Oracle vs. PostgreSQL. And some situations were really funny indeed. The opponents went through critical topics like budget, scalability, security, performance and administration. Daniel was chosen to represent Oracle DB technologies where Jan represented PostgreSQL. No need to say on which side the balance tilted regarding budget considerations. But in general I would say that the battle turned a little in favor of Oracle.

What does the battle tells us about IT technologies?

The battle could have been even more bloody. Some of us have expected it for sure. Daniel started the show with an arrogant “something that costs nothing is useless” that brought fire on the stage and lots of laughs from the spectators. But both counterparts remained quite fair at the end. And the battle became a real opportunity to compare – more or less – two different DB technologies and approaches.

At the end, the interest was huge. More than 250 people attended the session where the room contains only 200 seats!

Conclusion

The level of attendance was huge, not for nothing. The fun of attending a battle was one the reasons for sure. But having the chance to get a clear picture on which IT solution suits best is critical. So what about getting a neutral and independent view for evaluating IT technologies and designing future projects?

See you soon for more battles and feasibility studies 😉