Microsoft SQL Server 2005
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 has been around a while now, and if you haven't heard of it, and use databases, it's about time you did.
Microsoft don't always get things right, indeed, I've often been highly critical of some of the products they've produced, but when they come up with a winner, I'm happy to give them praise.
Free Express Edition
SQL Server used to be a rather exclusive database for larger businesses that could afford to invest heavily in server software and hardware. Not any more. With SQL Server 2005 Microsoft have released several versions of SQL Server with different capabilities which scale to meet the database requirements of a business. Guess what? The entry level version is free.
Microsoft is giving you a free industrial strength database, and then as your business grows, you can purchase one of the more expensive versions when you need it, (and should be able to afford it.)
Apart from having a free version, what is so great about SQL Server?
Better Network Performance
If you're used to using Microsoft Access, you may know a bit about databases. Access is a powerful program, but it doesn't perform all that well over a network with multiple users. The trouble with Access is that it needs to drag a lot of data accross the network to process it. With SQL Server, data gets processed on a server, and only the results you want get sent over the network. This is far more efficient, and it means you can keep a database running at full speed even with a lot of network users.
If you're familiar with Access, you don't need to dump it entirely. Access can create a special type of file called an Access project, where you build forms and reports as usual, but the data is retrieved from an SQL Server database. To get the best integration, you'll need the version of Access in Office 2007, although earlier versions of Access can connect to SQL Server 2005 as well. If you use Access a lot, this is probably a really good reason to upgrade to Office 2007.
Easily Publish Data to the Web
As well as integrating well with Access, SQL Server 2005 is tightly integrated with Microsoft's development suite, Visual Studio. If you're not a programmer, you might think "so what?" I've got news for you. Just as Microsoft have produced a free version of SQL Server 2005, they've also produced a free version of Visual Web Developer - a subset of Visual Studio aimed specifically at web development, and guess what? There is extremely good integration with SQL Server. If you need to publish data from a database to the web or an intranet, Visual Web Developer makes the task very quick and easy, and you can achieve many tasks without ever needing to learn any programming.
Do you like the sound of all this but don't know where to start? Create IT can provided advice, and help you convert existing Access databases to work with SQL Server 2005.
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