Throwing hat in multivendor ring; Bull's DDA for distributed database rejects DRDA in favor of OpenSQL - Groupe Bull's Distributed Data Access architecture and IBM's Distributed Relational Database Architecture

Software Magazine, Nov 15, 1991 by Mike Bucken

Paris-based Groupe Bull completed a 30-month development effort this fall with the unveiling of its distributed database architecture--Distributed Data Access (DDA).

Bull is the latest of the traditionally proprietary minicomputer vendors to introduce an architecture for multivendor database access. Like the Information Network architecture of Digital Equipment Corp., Maynard Mass., DDA incorporates the Open-SQL standards established by the SQL Access Group, a vendor-sponsored standards organization.

OpenSQL is also backed by the England-based X/Open consortium of major U.S. and European computer manufacturers.

The lone holdout is IBM, which developed the Distributed Relational Database Architecture (DRDA) to link its four Systems Application Architecture (SAA) relational DBMSs with those third-party offerings that support its architecture.

However, many observers expect that DRDA will eventually incorporate the OpenSQL standards because many DRDA supporters, including DEC, Groupe Bull and the major DBMS developers, remain staunch members of the SQL Access Group and support its criterion for database access.

"We're not supporting DRDA because we believe that sooner or later there will have to be a bridge between the two [DRDA and Open-SQL]," said Richard French, director of product planning, product marketing and business management at Groupe Bull's Management Applications Services Unit in Phoenix, Ariz. "We have implemented a more flexible approach.

"We believe the data has to get to the user at the desktop," French said. "There are a lot of different DBMSs out there, so we feel that it's very important to integrate those DBMSs together. You have to access data from each of those databases. We let the user decide the type of decentralization [of data] needed."

French contends that the DDA architecture of Groupe Bull differs from IBM's DRDA because of its distributed capabilities.

"The IBM architecture is very mainframe-centered," French said. "That approach is not always cost-effective. DDA provides the flexibility of a centralized or a decentralized approach."

The DDA architecture is also positioned against DEC's Information Network data access strategy, which French contends is based on the Rdb database running on a proprietary VAX/VMS-based computer. "Ours can be based on any [of the supported] databases."

DISTINGUISHING DDA

French did acknowledge that Digital is pushing to offer a decentralized data access system incorporating features similar to DDA, but "DEC is not there yet. They may be there in a while, but [Information Network] is still based on the proprietary VMS."

French contends that DDA is already "a distributed client/server structure" that "maximizes MIS' flexibility in managing enterprise information."

Ward MacKenzie, executive vice president of North American marketing at Bull HN Information Systems, Bull's U.S. operation based in Billerica, Mass., added that DDa will allow "end users to obtain all the information they need regardless of DBMS, platform or location of the data."

French said that DDA will initially support the Bull DBMS offerings, which include the nonrelational Integrated Data Store (IDS) II, the relational Interel Data Management System and the Relational Database Computer (RDBC), which is based on the database computer manufactured by Teradata Corporation, Los Angeles.

In addition, DDA incorporates gateways to the IBM mainframe DBMSs, IMS and DB2; the VAX/VMS-based relational Rdb and non-relational RMS DBMSs; and the Unix-based Oracle and Ingres DBMS systems of Oracle Corp., Redwood City, Calif., and Ask Computer Systems Inc., Mountain View, Calif., respectively.

The mainframe Gcos-based Oracle DBMS version is also supported by the DDA architecture, French said.

The base DDA system includes a Distributed Data Manager (DDM) for location-transparency, query optimization, mapping to supported relational and nonrelational DBMSs, and database administration tools for defining logical databases accessed by users and applications.

In addition, the base system includes a Query Optimizer for finding the most efficient node for merging data, as well as end-user and application development tools, such as the character and graphical tools from Ask Computer and a link to the Excel spreadsheet from Microsoft Corp., Redmond, Wash.

The initial components of DDA are slated to begin shipping before the end of 1991, French said. DDA was developed by "a large team of engineers" from development facilities in both Paris and Phoenix.

PART OF EXPANSION EFFORT

The DDA architecture is part of the Distributed Computing Model, unveiled by Groupe Bull last spring at the Hannover Fair in germany. The DCM effort is aimed at incorporating Gcos-based systems into broader enterprises incorporating Unix-based computers and proprietary systems from IBM and DEC.

Through mid-year Bull had spent more than $250 million to fund the DCM development efforts of 6,000 engineers in 11 facilities worldwide.

Pricing of the DDA software components will depend on CPU size and system configuration, with the base list starting at $2,500, and modules for access to each DBMS also starting at $2,500 per module.