If Ingres was a car what car would it be?
March 7th, 2008
In the early days of Ingres Corp, the AR-PR team did an exercise with the executive team to understand how they viewed Ingres. One of the questions they asked was “If Ingres was a car what car would it be?” I’m not really a car person, so I answered “C Class Mercedes Benz”. Now the fact that I drive a C Class Benz with a license plate that reads “INGRES” probably had something to do with my answer, but I was able to back up my response. My car provides great value for the money, is very well equipped, incredibly reliable, and handles anything that’s thrown at it with ease. It is backed up by an amazing team, and has roots in Europe and in the US. There are obviously cars out there that can go from 0-60 faster and can achieve greater speeds, but when the state speed limit is 55 miles an hour, and most of my driving is on local roads, those things just don’t matter to me.
PostgreSQL I saw as a kit car. It is built with love, care, and attention, but difficult to get insurance for and no obvious place to take it when problems arise. Although, there are those that will fix it for a fee.
MySQL (now Sun) I saw as a silver Honda Civic. It is hugely popular, but most people who drive it do so because of the price. Now you can soup up a Civic by adding stripes, a spoiler and funky blue neon under carriage lights, but it’s still a Civic. There are some who take their Honda Civics seriously and have been known to switch out the factory engine and to even add nitrous oxide tanks to the car but by the time you’ve done all that you may as well have bought the car you really wanted.
So what do you think? What car do you envision Ingres as and why?
