Oracle $1 Million Challenge: Is Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 100 Times Slower Than Oracle8i?
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Oracle Corp. details its data warehouse performance challenge issued at Comdex by Oracle Chairman and CEO Larry Ellison. Oracle Corp. will pay $1 million to the first person -- including anyone at Microsoft -- who can demonstrate that SQL Server 7.0 is not 100 times slower than the Oracle database when running a standard business query against a large database.

The challenge pits the Oracle8i Internet database against Microsoft's new SQL Server 7.0 database. In the recent announcement for SQL Server 7.0, Microsoft claimed that SQL Server 7.0 now has the ability to run OLAP (on-line analytical processing) queries against terabyte data warehouses. However, Microsoft did not publish any data warehouse performance results. That makes it impossible to compare SQL Server 7.0 query performance to Oracle query performance. This challenge was conceived to remedy that problem.

Specifically, the challenge is based on a single database query that answers the common business question: "How much of last year's revenue was shipped nationally vs. internationally?" To be fair, Oracle has based the challenge on query number five of the industry-standard TPC-D 1 terabyte database benchmark. If SQL Sever 7.0 comes within 100 times Oracle's best published performance for this query. Oracle will award one million dollars.

Additional details of the challenge's specifications are available via Oracle's Web site at http://www.oracle.com/challenge Currently Oracle holds every database performance record in the world including data warehousing (TPC-D), transaction processing (TPC-C), and ERP benchmarks from SAP, PeopleSoft and Baan.

About Oracle Corporation

Oracle Corporation is a supplier of software for information management, and the world's second largest independent software company. With annual revenues of more than $7.5 billion, the company offers its database, application server, tools, and application products, along with related consulting, education, and support services in more than 140 countries around the world.

Oracle's World Wide Web address is http://www.oracle.com/