Ownership of data[bases] (was: SQL Syntax)

["David Gibbs" <david@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

<jpcarr=BXdtB8kxIH5Wk0Htik3J/w@public.gmane.org> wrote in message
OF1086CF2A.ACAF5CC7-ON85256C61.006930A2@TREDEGAR.COM">news:OF1086CF2A.ACAF5CC7-ON85256C61.006930A2@TREDEGAR.COM...
> Those days are over.  It's the user's data base.  They should have
> direct access to it, and you cannot predict their ad hoc uses
> from a myriad of interfaces.  The Joins, Views should be designed
> just as much for the End User's need as it is for OUR program's
> needs.

< Ok, this isn't related to iSeries, or SQL performance ... but it is
related to the above quoted statement. >

Hmmm... that reminds me of a discussion I had with my brother a few weeks
ago... he's the ITS director for the charitable giving division of a major
Midwest hospital chain.

He was asking me for advice on some SQL statements he was trying to do on a
database.  I asked some details about the database itself, and it turns out
the DB is MS Access.

The software package his department is using does *NOT* allow user access to
the database directly.  Not even for READ access.  The software provider has
secured the database in a way that you need a userid & password to access
the data, and they will NOT give their customers the necessary user id.

All they do is let you extract data into a CSV so you can import it into
another database system (or spreadsheet).

I'm sure they are happy to do custom reports for T&M.

I think the database is Sybase.  I don't know what the software package is
called.

I was floored when I found out that he did not have direct access to his
organizations data at all.  He indicated that this seemed to be normal for
various industries ... especially non-profits.

david