Awgar Stone - Which Database? Firebird or SQL Server, Access or MySQL?

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Which Database? Firebird or SQL Server, Access or MySQL?

What is a database?

A company-wide IT system contains two components:

The software the staff see and use on their PCs.
A central database, the heart of an IT system, where the information is stored. This resides on a central computer and is connected to by the software.

A database is the standard professional way to store information which needs to be accessed across a company.

Why is a database needed?

Specific information can be found easily and quickly via searching. Try searching 1000 documents, this can take ages and many wrong results may come back.
The information is logically structured to prevent repetition. So when that customer address is updated once, it is changed company-wide instantly within the system. No so with information in e.g. spreadsheets.
Multi-user - use by more than one person is possible and safe (not so with a document or Excel spreadsheets for example).

Accessing a specific piece of information in 1000 documents or spreadsheets is slow and difficult, the information may occur multiple times and only one person can have the document open for editing at once. Contrast this with a database / IT system where accessing and updating information is fast, easy and secure, each piece of information only occurs once and several people can safely use it at the same time.

So which database?

These days top quality databases are available free (Open Source *, see below). Firebird, PostgreSQL, MySQL for example. If you have the option of choosing your database, go for one of these. They are widely used by businesses of all sizes.

Some IT systems may only work with certain databases or come with a certain database. In this case find out the licencing, support and any other costs for the database both at current use levels and years down the line and factor this in to allow comparison. Commercial databases such as Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle can end up being very expensive.

Microsoft Access is not really a proper database, this is why Microsoft also has SQL Server, it's big brother. It was designed for one person to use only on their PC.

DIY?

Databases are significantly complex to set up and design correctly. This should only be done by a database professional. Excel is probably the limit for most staff, venturing into advanced data management system design such as databases will leads to time wastage and a poor result which will more than likely be unusable and get thrown away.

Summary

Use a good free database and get a professional in, don't try and do it yourself.

Notes about this article

For the purpose of this article (practical and non-technical) various simplifications have been made to avoid unnecessary complication. Amongst them are:

There can be more than 2 components to an IT system, so-called 3-tiered systems etc.
Strictly a database is also software and the "user software" should really be referred to as the "client" or "presentation layer".

The opinions expressed within this article are just that, opinions, but they are based on experience, and reflect the views of many other IT professionals. They are given with the aim of providing small to medium sized businesses especially, with best value high quality IT infrastructure to support their business activities most effectively.

* What is Open Source? This is software which is free to use and is created and developed by many (usually) IT professionals (usually) around the world. It is used widely in many organisations of all sizes.

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17 April 2010
Paul Rigby works for Awgar Stone Ltd and has been working in the field of software development and database design for over 10 years.