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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