Link: http://www.etc-architect.com/?p=110
From ETC-Architect » IT Architect Global | Data Architect, Global | Infrastructure Architect, Global
Do you remember Inquire? Properly not and I definitely not. It was the Database System in the early 70s and Infonaut who produced it had nearly a monopoly on the database market, 10 years before Oracle and Sybase entered. And it was a non SQL big table implementation. So funny enough non SQL systems are older than SQL systems, just in case you are one of those that again tries to sell me on non-SQL being invented in the last ten years.
Now in this article I do not want to discuss databases but all that happened with with Infodata and the lessons we can learn. So in the very early 70s when I was just entering school most government agencies, big enterprises and other organisations that could afford IT used Inquire to search on their documents and make senses of their businesses. The problem however was that it was a search optimised platform, not very useful for statistical analysis or management reporting. However the architects at Infodata insisted that their database should nevertheless also be used for these areas as there could never be anything better. They also declared that the only operation system that was able to run databases was the mainframe, as it was superior. Since Infodata was an ebbing led business with those architects listened to almost as Gods their company went south.
So what are the things we can learn here? well first never to work on absolutes such as only trusting in superiority of an OS and allow for inferior diversity instead of standardisation to the best. The other main point is to check on options with impact analysis from various groups, not only your own experts. And finally and for most, most painful, companies always require as strong non engineering component.
