Thanks to the distinguished achievement of a CUNY staff member, the City University of New York was recently awarded the gift of a free site license, valued at over $100,000.

The license is for the CA-IDMS SQL option, and it was given by the software's vendor, Computer Associates International, Inc., to Alan Schwartzman, a member of the Database Administration group of Computing and Information Services.

The award was given in recognition of Schwartzman's outstanding score on a test administered by CA at a seminar it hosted last year at its headquarters in Islandia, Long Island. In the award letter, CA Vice President Alex J. Fourney wrote:

"Alan demonstrated superior knowledge and understanding of database design and SQL. His sincere interest, professional approach and attention to detail afforded him a significantly higher test score than seventy of his peers. CA congratulates Alan for his stellar efforts and achievements."

The award of the site license represented a considerable boon to the University, which had plans to purchase the software. The CA-IDMS SQL option allows us to further develop a student database system, specifically by allowing interaction with an open-system environment and developing a client-service application. It is instrumental in moving applications for processing to smaller computing platforms - the predominant trend in computing today - and reducing resources required on the mainframe. The CA-IDMS SQL site license allows CUNY to move on to the next generation of database technology, and for this we have Alan Schwartzman to thank.

Alan Schwartzman, of CUNY/CIS Database Administration Group.
Photo: Aron Eisenpress