[CLUE-Talk] Database and web follies

[Grant Johnson]

Well, there was a group in corporate headquarters that wanted a 
web/database application.  In order to keep it cheap (as compared to 
iPlanet and Oracle) they went to NT/IIS/ASP/MS SQL.  Well, ASP lacked a 
lot of the functionality that they needed, and add-on modules were 
scarce and expensive.  So.....  They went to PHP on NT/IIS.  Well, it 
worked great.  It did everything they wanted, and was easy to maintain. 
 Then they opened it up to all of the users.  SQL Server fell down and 
went boom.  The load of updates was too much, especially with all of the 
aggregate querries going on at the same time.  The system just ground to 
a halt.  The consultants that made it came back in.  They moved it to 
PostgreSQL, and now it handles the load just fine, even at peak times 
(it was off peak that crushed MSSQL).  I have not yet found out if they 
switched OS's, or if the underlying hardware has changed, but I am 
pretty sure that at least the hardware is the same.  I will keep you 
informed.

Somebody made an oopsie, buying $35,000 of "shelfware" when $0 of open 
source out performs it.