The database software market is huge (worth over $50 billion a year) giving vendors the incentive to deliver many new products – as well as new features in old products – in order to claim a share of this revenue.
Relational database products have been around for decades and are associated with some heavyweight methodologies, which use up a lot of resources in planning and designing, long before any working code is delivered. Consultants commonly promote these methodologies, because detailed planning reduces their risk and earns them revenue before any testable application is delivered.
The established database vendors have added many features and supporting tools to suggest that their databases are easier to use. In at least one case, the vendor says that, as a result, the work can be done ‘without expertise’!
