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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."
but if you don't need SQL Server, then I expect you don't need stored procedures, sub selects, transaction support and all of the rest of the high end database features. In a *nix environment, the LAMP (Linux, Apache, mySQL, Perl/PHP) combination of products work very well, are easy to use and maintain, and cost very little. mySQL and Perl/PHP all run on windows, but ASP can connect to mySQL via ODBC. mySQL really is a snap if it meets your needs, and it runs beautifully.
MS SQL licence cost us $6000 for SQL Server Standard Edition 1 processor.
i think if you search on my name, you'll find that i offer a great deal of help. in fact just this week a person sent me mail thanking me for an answer i found and posted regarding laptops nearly three years ago.
the fact is that microsoft is actively trying to destroy linux and free software. they don't believe in competition, they believe in monopoly. they believe in putting free software developers and admins out of work. and they use a slew of tactics to do that.
i do think people should have choice. i have nothing against other closed source software publishers like oracle, sun, compaq or apple. but then that's because they are not actively targeting my hobby, my livelihood and the hobbies/livelihoods of my friends. they do compete, but not in an agressive and frequently unethical manner.
so, yes, i'm annoyed by people that support such an organisation. and i'm utterly disgusted by people that support such organisations and have the utter gall to then come to communities which have a large number of free software users with a question about how to spooge off our work.
so rant all you want, that's my perception and i'm sticking to it. i'm more then willing to help people who are not blatently unethical.
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If you don't want to help, shut up. Seriously, nobody asked you what your opinion is of Microsoft or companies (of which there are literally thousands) that sell Microsoft software, or what you think of people that work for those companies. I really, really mean this from the bottom of my heart: shut up.
I reiterate my original two points. One: you are an arrogant, judgmental prick who does more harm to the reputation of the community through this attitude than a whole truckloads of Microsofts could ever do. And two: you really, really need to learn how to use the shift key.
I write in my journal
Great comment except for the EXCELLENT SQL Server part :)
I'm no Microsoft-lover, but SQL Server is THE BEST product they produce. Have you actually used it?
We never have stability problems with it. It's security record is not too bad. It's list of features is amazing. It's speed is amazing. It's really great software. I have heard of things lacking in Postgresql/MySQL which are implemented quite nicely in SQL Server. On the other hand, I haven't heard of anything in Postgresql/MySQL that is NOT in SQL Server, other than their price.
"And like that
Adaptive Server Anywhere, by Sybase, fits all of your requirements. It:
1) Is fast and very inexpensive compared to the other professional alternatives.
2) Is mature (been around 15+ years)
3) Is scalable from a DB size of 80k (seriously, it runs on RIM pagers) up to many gigabytes. It's used by places like McDonald's (their cash registers run it), the city of Edmonton (their hydro personnel run it on their PDAs when out in the field), etc.
4) Is available on oodles of platforms (Microsoft, Linux, *nix, etc.)
5) Requires *very* little maintenance or DB administration. If you're used to SQL Server, you will probably be amazed to see how easy it is to run/administer ASA.
6) Is self-tuning -- it has dynamic cache resizing, like MS SQL Server, as well as a great query optimizer with histogram-based selectivity and a fast join enumeration engine. It supports full ANSI SQL92 and a big chunk of ANSI SQL99, as well as T-SQL (like SQL Server).
7) Is supported by a well-built-up community of users, developers, and Sybase staff who regularly answer questions on the newsgroups, helping new users, helping others tweak their SQL, etc.
8) Has ODBC, TDS (like MS SQL Server), and ANSI/ISO ESQL/C interfaces.
But, don't take my word for it. Check out news://forums.sybase.com (the "sqlanywhere" newsgroups), and ask around. Check out www.sybase.com and download a free evaluation copy and see if it suits your needs.
Personally, at about $400 Canadian, I think that ASA is about the fastest, easiest, most capable DB server around for small to medium-sized DBs.
I think you are looking for 2 separate products, an RDBMS and some sort of web scripting language.
RDBMS - SQL server, like many have commented, is an excellent and mature product, more than enuf horsepower to run ANYTHING you need (especially for a 1 person shop). If you can't afford it, use a free db (mysql, msql, postgres, flat files... search for something on freshmeat), since it looks like the requirements are not too heavy, and anything heavier requires more resources than you have to run.
Scripting Language - choose some language you know. certainly ASP is plenty powerful. Free alternatives like php are good, or jsps on tomcat. Zope is python based so you'll have to learn a whole new language if you don't already know it, and really for simple websites php is best.
If you only have one person to support it, and not a programmer at that, forget about any heavy duty database, or any multi-tiered architectures or proprietary app servers or anything fancy. Apache/php/mysql is a very popular free setup and more than powerful enough, and you'll find plenty of resources online. Definitely don't go with ColdFusion.