Most of the vendors of these database management systems are planning to provide support for the management of large, variable-sized data elements, as needed for multimedia database management. It will depend on the effectiveness of these extensions whether established DBMSs will be used for the multimedia services of the future. Otherwise it will be necessary for the developers of multimedia systems to develop their own DBMSs. The availability of standards such as SQL and ADA, makes entry of new DBMSs that satisfy these standards feasible. Even if they are less mature, having multimedia capability can be a decisive factor in the market.
Intermediary solutions do exist.
Conventional DBMSs can reference images in distinct files for images and the large objects, and these can be accessed indirectly. However, such solutions are more complex to manage and are likely to be intermediate solutions. Furthermore, if pattern matching or associative access to image and voice data becomes a reality, then the indirect approach will no longer be feasible. It is becoming understood that eventually access to multimedia databases will be required. Associative access means finding an image that 'looks like this image' or that contains features 'like these'.