End User Benefits from DBMaker

As an Application End user, you have a very specific focus. You want your application to work in a consistent manner. Based on its history, COBOL provides you with very few unexplained errors, or system failures. At the same time, you are desperate to see new functions within your application. Your applications are the backbone of your business: there is always a need for more functionality, new features, etc. DBMaker provides a solution to many of your needs, as follows:

Have Applications Running 24 / 7
Traditional COBOL applications have everything running as a long batch process. At the end of the day, files are backed up, problems with locks resolved, and other maintenance activities take place. This requires you to shutdown the application. DBMaker removes this limitation. Data can be backed-up, replicated, or mirrored at any time while the application is running. As a Robust RDBMS, DBMaker eliminates the need for other maintenance activities that require your system to be off-line. The application stays up whenever you need it to be up.

Protect against System or Application Failure
Anyone who has needed to rebuild a COBOL file understands the problem. Systems fail. Perhaps the operating system has a bug, or perhaps a virus was introduced from the web. In other cases, the application may hang due to a problem in the code, or the runtime. Hardware devices are far more reliable than in years past, but they still do fail. When this happens while files are being accessed, your files can become corrupt, requiring many hours to correct. The primary reason for the development of RDBMS was to solve this problem. As an ANSI99 SQL RDBMS, DBMaker has eliminated this concern. Your files no longer break. Data integrity is assured. You can stop worrying about your data, and concentrate on making your business successful.

Access Data from other Applications
Your business probably has multiple applications in order to do all of the business processes. It is important to be able to share data between any of your application as needed (such as word processors, spreadsheets, accounting packages, web based 4GL tools, etc.). With COBOL flat files, this is very difficult to accomplish, and you have to wait for your vendor to provide updates, etc. By migrating to a database, this issue is resolved, as almost all applications are designed to access data that is stored in an SQL database like DBMaker. You can access the data wherever you need.

Protecting Data from Improper Access
Your company does not exist in a vacuum. You need to work with other companies to be successful. Vendors need to work with suppliers, distributors need to communicate with purchasing agents, and stores need to talk to customers. Communication needs to happen electronically today, through the World Wide Web, or data structures using standard interfaces like XML. At the same time, it is extremely important make sure your confidential information is protected from exposure to other companies or persons. It is even MORE critical that your data is protected from inappropriate modification. DBMaker has the security needed to protect your data from inappropriate access or updates, while supporting access through standard interfaces like SQL queries, XML, etc.

Free Data from Proprietary Technology
When applications were first developed, everything was proprietary. Purchasing an application meant you needed a specific computer, specific operating system etc. In today's market, you need to have solutions that exist on many different systems. The more often you can get things from multiple sources, the more leverage you have towards new technology. COBOL file systems are a proprietary technology. SQL is an ANSI standard. As you move to SQL, you will open your company to many sources for solutions, tools, consulting, etc.

Do not Degrade System Performance
As an End-user, you need new functions, but they must work at a speed that is comparable to what you currently experience. Too often an upgrade, such as Windows, results in the need for you to upgrade your hardware just to experience the same processing speed. DBMaker provides you with a RDBMS that is comparable to current file access. DBMaker accomplishes this through tying COBOL calls directly to the internal database engine, so that speed remains constant. You get the additional functions you need, without the hassle of upgrading processors, etc.