Can someone explain to a complete novice (in this case me) the concepts of SQL, BackOffice, Oracle, etc? (I think I can group them together). If an explanation is hard to do in this forum then a helpful link would be greatly appreciated.
SQL is a protocol (in the sense of the word in English, not the technical term). It is an agreement accepted by anyone who builds a relational database to follow certain structures in their calls. This allows most relational databases to be queried by languages written for other databases and allows (with a lot of back-end tinkering and swearing) two relational databases written by different vendors to talk to each other.
Examples of relational databases include Oracle, Sybase, and DB2. Oracle and DB2 can both be run on either microprocessors or mainframes under a wide variety of operating systems. Following the SQL guidelines means that a call written for a mainframe using DB2 would need very little modification (in theory) to be executed against an Oracle database on a Unix platform.
Oracle is a specific relational database that is in competition with Sybase in the Unix and NT worlds or against DB2 in the IBM mainframe world.
A relational database provides a way of storing data that allows a programmer (or database administrator) to define how the data will be stored, then allows future applications to be written to retrieve the data based on relationships within the data, itself.
BackOffice is a suite of software that MicroSoft is marketing to allow companies to join together a wide variety of applications. The intent is to provide a way to tell different servers (computers used for a specific task) about the location and functions of related servers, so that the decisions to route data could be taken over by the software. Without BackOffice (or a related product), techies have to babysit their software 24 hours a day, making the unpopular choices regarding how much time to allow a user or an application, and trying to decide how to instruct each computer to connect to each other computer when they need toexchange data.
Thanks, Tom.
My issue is as follows: I am working as a system administrator, and have studied NT/2000, Novell, Linux/Unix, networking technology, etc. My boss said he would like me to learn SQL, but I am certainly not a programmer. What would the advantage of knowledge of SQL be for a system administrator?
Actually, SQL is a language for querying databases. It was originally developed at IBM and SQL was an acronym for Structured Query Language. Since around 1992 SQL has not been an acronym, it’s just three letters that are used to name the language, and the official pronunciation is ess cue ell (anyone that calls it “sequel” is a plebeian).
SQL is a non-procedural language. You specify what to do, but you don’t say anything about how to do it; that’s the database engine’s problem. To extract all columns of all records from tble “authors”:
select * from authors
An example of a more complex query:
select author_name, title
from books
where isbn not in
(select isbn from order_lines)
I can’t think of any reason for learning SQL unless you want to do database queries. If you do want to learn SQL from a book I recommend SQL Clearly Explained. The only thing I don’t like about this book is that she does lots of joins in her multi-table queries, and doesn’t cover subqueries as much as I would like (joins make my head hurt, I have great difficulty getting them to work, and a join is never required although it’s sometimes convenient).
How 'bout just for the heck of it? 
It’s really not that difficult when you get used to it, but since we only use MS SQL for our web database, I don’t touch it much. (Most of my programming is in Progress, a language/database similar to Oracle.)
If your boss wants you to learn SQL, mostly likely he wants you to be able to extract information from a database in specific formats–in other words, write reports. There are some administration functions (dump and loads, creating extents, schema construction, etc.) that you might do as a sys admin, but trust me, unless you work for a big company, most of the real work involved is programming if your database is already in working order.
Solution? Ask your boss what he expects you to do if you learn SQL. As an observation, unless you’re dead set on doing pure admin, you may want to do it to broaden your resume.
What a crock of SHIT! I hate that type of snooty remark. Only arrogant asswipes really give a shit if you say “ess cue ell” or "sequel, and JonF if you truly do judge a person by how they say SQL then you have identified yourself as such.
toe-mae-toe, toe-mah-toe.
Actually I call it “Squirrel”.
My old programming manager, who was really good at IMS (DL/I)–an IBM hierarchical database, always pronounced SQL squeel. I won’t display Enright3’s passion, but I agree that sequel is an acceptable pronunciation. We hoi polloi have as much right to make up pronunciations as the aristocracy.
How would you pronounce Microsoft’s ‘SQL Server’?
prefixed with cuss words.
Seems to me to be a bit of an overreaction … perhaps I should have added a <g>. Of course I don’t judge a person on how they pronounce SQL. However, I will judge their knowledge of SQL a little by their pronunciation; the SQL/92 standard formally specifies the pronunciation. “Sequel”, “squeal”, or whatever is wrong. There’s no room for debate, since the standard is explicit. Unfortunately, the standard isn’t available on line and I don’t have ready access to it so I can’t provide a paragraph cite right now; but the opening sentences of “A Guide to the SQL Standard”, Date & Darwin, fourth edition are:
Ess cue ell server. Of course, Microsoft doesn’t feel bound by standards and I suppose they can pronounce it however they will.
JonF, First of all I apologize. Those who know me on this board, (I hope) would say that I don’t usually attack people. I may have been a little harsh.
I recently had that same conversation with a colleague. There are certainly pronuncations that make you wonder about the person saying them. It’s becoming more acceptable to say “earl” for URL. That still grates on my nerves. On the other hand, I say dub, dub, dub, dot as a shortened form of /WWW. That’s bound to hit a nerve or two as well.
Oracle = my employer
(God, I’m glad I don’t work at Xerox or Kodak these days!)
So even the “standard” admits that it is not followed on this point? I’d put “ess cue ell” vs “sequel” in the same category as refering to Compuware’s Abend-Aid as Band-Aid or calling CICS “kicks” (“cheech”, if you’re Italian), MS “Excess” for MS Access, or any number of other “familiar” (mis)pronunciations we find throughout the industry. I’d be reluctant to presume to know a person’s level of expertise on a subject based on their pronunciation, as well.
With contempt, cuss words are inappropriate in the workplace. I’ve been an Oracle DBA (database administrator) for going on six years and have rarely heard anyone refer to SQL as pronounced any other way than “sequel.”
I’m primarily an Oracle administrator but keep my fingers in some Sybase and MS SQL server. I don’t have so much pride that I won’t tolerate one Oracle database runningon an NT server, not that I’m happy about it. One of my goals for the year is to replace it with Linux to better compliment our HP-UX environment on non-Intel platforms.
Previous to my current gig with The Very Big Corporation of America analyzing hat trends I worked at Biosphere 2 as an Oracle DBA and developer, coincidentally located in the town of Oracle, Arizona. If that doesn’t tell me that my career is my destiny I don’t know what does.