Once again, Access vs SQLServer

[Guest]

I have seen many topics on the subject of Access vs. SQLServer. I have also seen people battle over one being better (with not much more than mentioning the name of the products to determine which is best). However, in this message, I am looking for information to my specific situation. Here goes…

I am very familiar with using Access as an Internet database. Most of the sites I have used them on were VERY small (less than 200 records) and didn’t have much traffic. I have used SQLServer on a few sites (even these were fairly small databases), but that has been a number of years ago. I have a new project that will hold around 4,000 – 5,000 records in the main table and a few tables having relationships back to it. The database will be used mostly for displaying data. There will be very little writing to the database. The site is projected to get a fair amount of traffic, but not seeing hundreds of thousands of hits per day like some sites.

Since I don’t have the resources to set up both options and see which is more efficient, I am turning to those that have worked in this type of situation. I know the basic difference between the two options. What I don’t know is if my project warrants the need for an SQL database. I cannot find even a “roundabout†cutoff for when to switch to SQLServer.

I hope I have given enough information to get a general idea if Access will be ok for this project. If there are any other specifics needed, just let me know.

 

[Vadim Rapp]

R> I have a
R> new project that will hold around 4,000 - 5,000 records in the
R> main table and a few tables having relationships back to it.
R> The database will be used mostly for displaying data. There
R> will be very little writing to the database. The site is
R> projected to get a fair amount of traffic, but not seeing
R> hundreds of thousands of hits per day like some sites.
R> Since I don't have the resources to set up both options and
R> see which is more efficient, I am turning to those that have
R> worked in this type of situation. I know the basic
R> difference between the two options. What I don't know is if
R> my project warrants the need for an SQL database. I cannot
R> find even a "roundabout" cutoff for when to switch to
R> SQLServer.

Access will be OK. In this range, the only reason for moving to sql server
might be concurrent work of many clients with the same data.

Vadim

 

[Wayne Wengert]

With that number of records and moderate traffic I think Access will work
fine. I'm sure there is some esoteric formula somewhere but I think there
are so many variables that no firm answer is usually available. In my
experience, I've had Access based data with up to 20 concurrent users where
about 50% was add/update activity and things worked fine. I have a couple of
cases where I am running SQL Server but those sites have peak periods of
100,000+ hits and some moderately complex SPs and many concurrent users. I
found some SQL Server services where I could get a virtual SQL Server for
$25/mo or less and felt that made SQL practical for the small non-profit I
was helping.

HTH

Wayne

I have seen many topics on the subject of Access vs. SQLServer. I have

also seen people battle over one being better (with not much more than
mentioning the name of the products to determine which is best). However,
in this message, I am looking for information to my specific situation.
Here goes.

I am very familiar with using Access as an Internet database. Most of the

sites I have used them on were VERY small (less than 200 records) and didn't
have much traffic. I have used SQLServer on a few sites (even these were
fairly small databases), but that has been a number of years ago. I have a
new project that will hold around 4,000 - 5,000 records in the main table
and a few tables having relationships back to it. The database will be used
mostly for displaying data. There will be very little writing to the
database. The site is projected to get a fair amount of traffic, but not
seeing hundreds of thousands of hits per day like some sites.

Since I don't have the resources to set up both options and see which is

more efficient, I am turning to those that have worked in this type of
situation. I know the basic difference between the two options. What I
don't know is if my project warrants the need for an SQL database. I cannot
find even a "roundabout" cutoff for when to switch to SQLServer.

I hope I have given enough information to get a general idea if Access

will be ok for this project. If there are any other specifics needed, just
let me know.

 

[Guest]

Thank you both for the input. I greatly appreciate an unbiased opinion on this subject.