How big a database can I have in Access

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Guest

Hi there!

I am preparing an access database and want to know if it can meet the medium
term needs of our medium sized office with sizeable data processing needs.

Could you tell me if access will measure up.

Thank you

Mugambi
 
Hi Mugambi,

I've known "medium-sized" offices with 10 people and with 200 people, so
that's not very helpful.

Also, strictly speaking there's no such thing as an Access database. By
default, Access uses the Jet database engine that is automatically
installed with it, but it can also use industrial-strength server-based
databases such as SQL Server. And the limits in terms of numbers of
users, volumes of data, and so on are mainly set by the database engine,
not by Access itself.

If you have sizeable data processing needs (e.g. gigabytes of data,
tables with many millions of records) Jet is not suitable, but Access
properly set up with a suitable SQL Server back end can handle it - for
any number of users from one or two into the tens of thousands.

If the volume of data is not going to exceed a few hundred megabytes,
and only a few users will be actively updating or querying the database,
and they are all connected via a good wired LAN, Access+Jet is just
fine.

If that description is correct now but may change later, use Access with
the MSDE database engine that is also supplied with it. This is a "lite"
version of SQL server, so makes it easy to scale up to full SQL server
later on.
 
It is really difficult to answer your question.

The answer "depends"

I mean, if you are talking bout 10 users, and a small data file of 50,000
records, then that is absolute nothing for ms-access.

Depending on the type of applications, and the volumes of data that each
user needs, then ms-access might not be enough for ONE user!

Further,are you talking a lan, or a wan (wide area network?). There is a
LOT of questions..and no simple answer...
 
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