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Alternatives to MS SQL Server for Dynamic Content Website?

Posted by Cliff on from the trimming-the-fat dept.

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."

2 of 105 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Either I am confused, or you are. by tswinzig · · Score: 5, Informative

    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 ... he's gone."
  2. Sybase Adaptive Server Anywhere by vorwerk · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.