HOW NAPOLEON WON THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO.

ON FEBRUARY 26,1815, NAPOLEON BONAPARTE set sail lor France &am his exile on t h e is - 1 an d o £ Elba. His mission was to restore constitu- tional rule t o his adopted land, a n idea that other European monarchs had vowed to fight to the death.

Aker landing at Antibes on March Ist, he set about preparin~ lor war. A war that would cul-

u INDICATE THATTHE FRENCH

HELDATREMENDous EDGE At the heart O£ the solution ww INF0RMM"- OVERTHEIR ENEMIES. THE

PERFORMANCE, CAPACITY

AND RELIABILITY OF 1 ~ n ~ i n e , the first m a i n k e replacement data-

INFORMIX-ONLINE MAIN-

FRAME REPLACEMENT

SOFTWARE. WlTH INFORMIX

DATABASE SOFTWARE

RUNNING ON VIRTUALLY

EVERY UNIXU SYSTEM.

NAPOLEON WAS ABLE TO

CHOOSETHE MOST COST-

EFFECTIVE HARDWARE

CONFIGURATION FOR

EVERY LOCATION AND

APPLICATION. NOTHING BUT

MUCH LARGER AND MUCH

MORE EXPENSIVE SYSTEMS

HAD EVER APPROACHED

THlS SOLUTION IN THE PAST.

' i rile E ~ I I LO F9rrn.t Sheet Groph s Well

II Psvchaloei

werconfid&t as & w ~ l i attend 1 1 ths Duchess of R~chrnond'nd' Ball on the Nsht of 15 June

NAPOLEON'S STAFF COM-

BINED THE WING2

HYPERSCRIPT" PROGRAM-

MING LANGUAGE WlTH

DATALINK TO CREATE A

CUSTOMIZED EXECUTIVE

INFORMATION SYSTEM THAT

COULD EASILY RETRIEVE

S Q L DATA BY CLICKING

ON-SCREEN BUTTONS.

NAPOLEON USED THlS

SYSTEM TO ANALYZE EVERY-

THING FROM WELLINGTON'S

TACTICAL PREFERENCES TO

HIS SOCIALSCHEDULE THE

NIGHT BEFORE BATTLE.

base management system. + * + +

BEFORE EVEN ONE SHOT WAS FIRED, Napoleon relied on OnLine's high capacity to direct the flow ol troops and materiel.

OnLine's distributed computing power meant he could successfully avo1 inlormation bottleneclis while thou- sands of: transactions were processed at outposts throughout France every

f minute o every day. I ~ a ~ o l e o n soon 1 earned that

I I OnLine could do something no main-

1 Lame could. It s m time d. la f eature meant h e I could store data in virtually any form. Including " I reconnaissance photos. ~ k e e dkensiona 1 maps.

L

~ u l t i - colored charts. Even clandestine soun I d recor d ings collected Ly his intehgence networ 1 2.

* * * * WEHIN BREE M O N T H S , ~ FRENCH COM- man d er h d a amasse d an army 0$120,000 men, supported Ly a 6 pieces of artillery The opposition wo uld be a far greater allied force comprised of British, Dutch, ~e lg ian and Prussian t r o o ~ s , led Lv the Duke

USING EITHERWINGZ ON

GRAPHICAL PC's. OR

SMARTWARESON D O S

MACHINES. NAPOLEON'S

STAFF COULD EASILY

ANALYZE DATA AND

PRODUCE REPORTS THAT

COMBINEDTEXT, GRAPHS

AND DATA, ALL ON

ONE PAGE.

HISTORIANS NOTE THAT

NAPOLEON HIMSELF KNEW

LITTLE OF COMPUTERS.

BUT WlTH WlNGZ DATALINK.

THE INFORMIX-ONLINE

DATABASE BECAME AS EASY

THE LOYALTY OF

NAPOLEON'S STAFF DID

NOT EXTEND TO THEIR

CHOICE OF HARDWARE.

HEADQUARTERS WAS

EQUIPPED WlTH A VARIETY

OF UNIX SERVERS.

COMMANDERS IN THE

FIELD SELECTED THEIR

OWN WORKSTATIONS.

INCLUDING THOSE FROM

SUN, IBM.APPLE, HEWLETT-

PACKARD. DATA GENERAL.

DEC AND NEXT:

FORTUNATELY. NAPOLEON'S

CHIEF INFORMATION

OFFICER FOUND THAT

INFORMIX D B M S PRODUCTS

RAN ON MORE THAN 450

DIFFERENT COMPUTERS.

WHILE WING2 SUPPORTED

ALLTHE MAJOR GRAPHICAL

USER INTERFACES. FROM

MACINTOSH. PRESENTA-

TION MANAGER AND MICRO- I r .'

SOFT WINDOWS TO MOTIF.

of wellinaton. OPEN LoOK AND NEXTSTEP - ~ u t , while ~ e l l i n g t o ~ s staff struggled

with traditional database systems that required experts and hours of korl? to den- erate reports, Napoleon's cadre had instant access to information through Wingzm DataLinL and INFORMM- OnLine.

Historians ac 1 ?nowledge that this "

Executive Inlormation System was perhaps the most fomidaLle weapon in the French

1 arsena . + * + +

ON THE EVENING OF JUNE 16th, NAPOLEON led his army across tLe SamLre Ever into ~ e l ~ i u m , estaLlished headauarters at Beaumont

1 dvl3 ' h. 1 . an egan is ana ysis. -

As ear 1 y reports came in, his strategic responses were transmitted to tLe field

AT ELEVEN O'CLOCK ON THE MORNING OF the Mth, Napoleon rose &om a Lrief nap an d

I Gave the order for his guns to blaze. What fol- lowed is now recognized as one of the most fer- ocious battles in military history

1 Less than two hoLrs into the fighting, - - than 300,000 men were engaged in

hand-to-hand combat on a battlefield that was just four miles square.

The key moment came just before dusli. Napoleon used Wingz with OnLine to run a simulation projecting Wellington's casualty rate and chose to deliver the coup de grgce.

I; b t l The order went out to let loose ve a a - lions of the elite old Guard. Charging into

7

h the fray, t ey crushed what remained of the 1 enemy s reso ve.

1 Loolzing out over the victorious ran zs, Napoleon Bonaparte raised a glass of his most

MULTI-MEDIA INFORMATION

ious cognac, turned to ~ a r s h a l l Ney, an ONLINE DATABASE.

d red the now-famous words, "What a

PRECISE MOMENT HAD I I ARRIVED ASTRIDE HIS WHIT

MARE DESIRE^, HE LED glorious day for France.

THE FINAL CHARGE.

"QUEL JOUR GLORIEUX POUR LA FRANCE!'

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