Alternatives to MS SQL Server for Dynamic Content Website?

Cindy asks: "My current employer has a handful of websites, which are massive and messy entanglement of ASP on IIS with MS SQL storing the dynamic content. As the company scaled down to only 1 full-time temp (me) in IS and a sales manager overseeing servers + managing web sites, the company would like to trim down behind the back. More specifically, they would like to let go of the use of SQL server altogether. I've used Zope before, but I'm not sure how well it works on Windows. Then there's ColdFusion, but I don't know anything about it. What other choices do I have?"

"The replacement has the following requirements:

• Must run on Windows (they're a Microsoft reseller after all)
• Stable, mature, secure for corporate strength (over 10 product categories, each with 8-10 products)
• Easy to learn, easy to use, and easy to maintain for someone who is comfortable with server maintenance and website design, but not too knowledgeable. I'll leave the company by January
• Not too much programming involved. HTML and ASP/PHP-ish are OK."

Comments

Scenario

[biglig2]

PHB: "Maybe there's something to this open-source thing - but what about support?"

LinuxFan: "Well, you get support from the community. Take a look at this 'ask slahsdot' for example, where a reseller asks a question about SQL."

PHB: "People are telling her to fuck off because she's evil!"

LinuxFan: "Er... well... maybe, but Microsoft would tell you to fuck off and charge you $100..."