Just a little post to clarify my point of view.
I mentioned that Oracle would one of the best friend MPE could have. I
sustain this assumption by the fact that even if we know that MPE is a very
good platform and Image is a very good DBMS (and reliable, etc), when it's
time to buy technology, your manager or VP (whoever signs the check) will be
aware of the openness of your suggestion.
I read a few postings concerning operating cost/effort of Oracle versus
Image or MPE. We should consider there is more than O/S and DBMS operating
in a IT system. What about development cost, code maintenance, application
evolution? Maybe the cost of operating Oracle will save you more elsewhere.
Like most of you, I heard about Oracle's horror stories. I think a lot of
people try to use Oracle (or other RDBMS) almost the same way they use Image
(or their favorite DBMS). Oracle is a relational DBMS; Image (and Image/SQL)
is not. As an exemple, planes and trains are both useful to carry people or
merchandise. However, you do not drive a plane (neither start, nor maintain)
the same way you do with a train. Most of our performance problem with
Oracle were due to programming data access as if data was stored in an Image
DB.
 Heuh, when I say Oracle could be MPE's friend, I'm speaking about the
RDBMS, not the company... We should not mess the product with the promotor.
Just like, people dislike mathematics, mostly because math's teachers are
completely boring. That doesn't mean mathematics are not interesting. Oracle
might be an arrogant company, but its RDBMS works!
I don't want people here thinking that I'm sold out to Oracle. I learned
Image 10 years ago, I was impressed about its simplicity and I still think
its a good DBMS. But I also think Oracle is a good RDBMS too. Think about
planes and trains...

Michel Gauthier