Java Object Persistence: State of the Union Published

The topic of Java Object Persistence is as actual as ever…

I have therefore interviewed together with InfoQ.com’s Floyd Marinescu the following group of leading persistence solution architects on their views on the current State of the Union of object persistence with respect to Java:

Mike Keith: EJB co-spec lead, main architect of Oracle Toplink ORM

Ted Neward: Independent consultant, often blogging on ORM and persistence topics

Carl Rosenberger: lead architect of db4objects, open source embeddable object database

Craig Russell: Spec lead of Java Data Objects (JDO) JSR, architect of entity bean engine in Sun’s appservers prior to Glassfish

Here are the questions at a glance:

Question 1: Do we still have an “impedance mismatch problem”?

Question 2: In terms of what you’re seeing used in the industry, how would you position the various options available for persistence for new projects?

Question 3: What are in your opinion the pros and cons of these existing solutions?

Question 4: Do you believe that Object Relational Mappers are a suitable solution to the “object persistence” problem? If yes why? If not, why?

Question 5: Do you believe that Relational Database systems are a suitable solution to the “object persistence” problem? If yes why? If not, why?

Question 6: Do you believe that Object Database systems are a suitable solution to the “object persistence” problem? If yes why? If not, why?

Question 7: What would you wish as a new research/development in the area of Object Persistence in the next 12 months?

Question 8: If you were all powerful and could have influenced technology adoption in the last 10 years, what would today’s typical project use as a persistence mechanism and why?

Question 9: Any parting words about this topic?

The answers we got differ, but I believe all panelists agree that there is no silver bullet….

The complete panel transcript is available for free download (PDF)

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