Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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."

4 of 105 comments (clear)

  1. Eh? by the+eric+conspiracy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Ten product categories, each with 8-10 products?

    What you don't say is whether you are supporting online sales of the products, or if this is just a brochure site.

    If it's just the latter, all you need is some static html and a little templating. Certainly no database. I also don't understand why you want to change from asp. It's certainly more than adaquate for this job.

  2. Interbase/Firebird by SAN1701 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I use open-sourced interbase both for intranet and for a news app that I've developed for a TV station. It requires virtually zero administration, has all the stuff a RDBMS should have (triggers, stored procedures, user-defined functions, etc.).

    It has versions for Linux, Windows, some Unices, etc., so it's easier if you entually decide trash out M$ in the server side.

  3. Re:Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I am curently suggesting to our it department we should switch from

    MS SQL to MySQL

    and from

    WebLogic to JBoss

    Reason? I wan't to GPL our entire code-base so we can spread our code.

    Reason? We are a non-profit organization which would benefit if similar organizations would use our code base too. And, while we can afford paying the license many of the these cannot. Therefore, GPL makes sense for us.

  4. don't do anything by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    If you are an MS shop, then just use SQL server. In spite of what the zealots around here will tell you, SQL server is actually a very nice database, and yes, vbscript is in-elegant, but so is every other scripting language I have used server side (including javascript, jscript, perlscript, php etc.) and its probably the easiest of the lot to learn. You have something that works. Use it and stop asking stupid questions that you know will get put on the front page of slashdot just because you want to diss Microsoft.

    You know, I used to bash MS just as much as the next geek, and for a lot of stuff I still will, but I've seen huge sites running on SQL server using ASP (If you say tht you've seen them to, and they are slow, I will tell you that you may have seen them, but you've seen the poorly developed ones) Most of their technology is not "best of breed" but in most cases their solutions work, and when all the pieces are put together, they actually work fairly well....

    Yes, I can get a more scalable DB server than SQL server (there is Oracle) but SQL Server is much easier to admin. I can get Verity as a search engine, but I can also install index server for free. Its not as felxible, but it works. I can get a better performing static web server (apache exists for windows) I can use my choice of scripting languages. I can use any number of tools for source control and I can even use notepad to develop in, but editting in Visual studio using Sourcesafe to develop in vbscript for IIS and Sql Server...... its a no brainer.... 95+% of the functionality of the best of breed performers, but it all works together seemelsssly and with almost no screwing with configurations.

    Jump off the MS bashing bandwagon, evaluate the situation for what it is, and use tools appropriate for the job. MS reseller = use MS products, forget the linux zealots and bigotry and hoestly evaluate and you will find that they are pretty nice.

    Begin the flames. I don't care. If you want to tell me I'm lying or crazy, you have either
    a.) not touched windows solutions since NT4.0/IIS 4.0 and SQL server 6.5 or
    b.) just not used it enough to know what you are talking about.

    Go ahead and complain about that, like there is no learning curve on linux. Yeah, its only a conf file, but by the time the newbie learns to use vi, I have already reconfigured the windows server. (and before you assholes complain, I have no problem configuring any of the same tools under linux. My favorite editor is vi, and I use it fluently, and I STILL say the MS stuff, rated objectively, ain't bad.