SQL Server Applications
Article by Ben
http://www.karmatechnologies.co.uk/accesssql.htm”>SQL server applications are generally used as the backend when designing a software application. They are widely used in n-tier application models, as they improve execution and increase scalability. A SQL server application is nothing but a database system that will contain records within tables and upon which various computational operations can be performed. Some examples of SQL server applications include Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, Sybase, and so on.
With so many SQL server applications available in market today, selecting a desired application that satisfies all requirements could be a judicious decision. Among other factors like performance, stability, installation, and maintenance, cost is also a very significant factor, as it directly affects the licensing issues. At an enterprise level it becomes very important to analyse SQL server applications based on the above parameters. Of all the SQL server applications, Oracle is considered to be most widely used, as it is easy to maintain and is more powerful than other applications. Similar is the case with SQL Sever. MySQL is available free, however, its capabilities are not as extensible as Oracle and SQL Server. MySQL, hence is only used for small to medium sized enterprise applications. SQL Server from Microsoft is also among the widely used SQL server applications, however, Oracle outperforms it. Between SQL Server and MySQL for small to medium sized applications, MySQL lags behind, as SQL Server comes with a native support for.NET which makes implementation simpler.
While it may be difficult to rank SQL server applications based on their performance benchmark, Oracle undoubtedly takes the first place followed by SQL Server 2000. In the price/performance ratio factor, SQL Server 2000 overtakes Oracle, as the licensing for SQL Server 2000 comes at 25% of that of Oracle. However, SQL Server is not cross platform compatible like Oracle and MySQL. Though SQL server applications should support relational database management, MySQL does not fully offer relational database management, as it does not support foreign key control. Oracle and SQL Server, on the other hand are fully relational databases that affect storage and retrieval of data, and its integrity. In terms of the language that these SQL server applications use, Transact SQL is considered to have ease of use and understanding. PL/SQL is among the most powerful query language, however, it is a little difficult to use that T-SQL. The language that MySQL uses is considered to be the most difficult and is not as powerful as other query languages.
Other important criteria for SQL server applications could be backup and restore operations, number of simultaneous connections it can handle, security issues, and so on.