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Curious about the many factors influencing database performance, how 4 popular relational databases - 1. Oracle 9i, 2. Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE) 12.5, 3. Microsoft SQL Server 2000, and 4. IBM DB2 Universal Database 7.2 - can cause performance problems on a network is examined. Database performance problems fall into 4 general categories. The database software can 1. monopolize a server's CPU, 2. spend excessive time performing disk or memory accesses, 3. overburden the servers network adapters, or 4. emit considerably more network traffic than expected. The network team needs to keep an eye on how the database administrator configures the database software. Examine client performance and the resulting new relationship among the server's CPU utilization, network adapter utilization and disk and memory accesses. Tuning the database application itself with programming enhancements that use the network more frugally is often the best course of action.