Sidebar: Performance Is Where You Find It

Computerworld - Db4o from db4objects Inc. in San Mateo, Calif., is an open-source object database for Java and .Net environments. It's especially appropriate for embedded applications -- mobile devices, packaged software and real-time control systems -- for which no database administrator is available to the user. Boca Software Technologies Inc. in Garner, N.C., for example, uses it in its desktop personal task management package, TaskPilot PRO.
Db4o normally runs on disk but can also reside in memory when an application demands high performance. But to Boca, its big advantage over a traditional relational database its ease of maintenance, says Victor Boba, CEO. His users are external customers using different versions of TaskPilot, and with db4o, his developers can update all versions by changing one or more objects in the latest version of the application code rather than having to change multiple database files in each version of the product.
"For me as a programmer, there's nothing I have to do to make sure my change works with the database," Boba says. "It automatically opens up the database and converts all the objects to whatever the current version is. It runs seamlessly."
MR Control Systems International Inc., a Calgary, Alberta-based developer of industrial control systems, is embedding db4o in a new version of its software, a highly distributed, Internet-based tool for monitoring and analyzing industrial processes. These kinds of systems typically use conventional relational database management systems such as SQL Server, says President Matt Eskandar, but he chose db4o because its object orientation make it easy for him to change his code and easy for users to make configuration changes.
"When trying to make configuration changes [with relational databases], trying to maintain relationships between various tables can become a nightmare," he says.
The advantages accrue both to software developers and their customers, says Brett Maruyama, a systems architect at MR Controls. "We were really looking for an embedded database -- something that didn't require our customers to hire a database administrator."

Read more about databases in Computerworld's Databases Knowledge Center.