The Database Express Editions Battle

Tuesday, 18 April 2006 15:04 by admin
A mid-scale database solution is one of the booming businesses nowadays. Many mid-sized companies are now moving to the IT trend. One of the obstacles that a company might encounter is the cost of database systems. I mean it’s not quite feasible for a mid-sized company to purchase a SqlServer Enterprise which costs $24,999 plus 25 users CAL which amounts to $13,969 or an Oracle 10g enterprise which amounts up to $40,000. Because of these obstacles that companies are reverting to open source database solutions which is free. That’s when MySql gained its popularity. Although MySql lacks some enterprise capabilities, (well, some that are not being used or needed by the company) its free. This means a lower cost on the company’s side. Over the past few years this area of business is being dominated by MySql, Firebird, MS Access and Postgress. Not until now. Microsoft has just released last November 2005 its’ upgrade to the age-old MSDE (Microsoft Desktop Engine) the free database engine of Sql2000. It’s called SqlServer Express Edition. What about Oracle? You remember Oracle don’t you? Well, Oracle is currently the leading Database choice for enterprise applications just like SAP. With Oracle’s power come certain drawbacks just like the difficulty installing it. I personally experienced this when I was installing Oracle 9i on a development machine. It took me nearly 30 minutes to figure out on what I was doing. I think this is the real edge of SqlServer over Oracle, simplicity. I guess this edge is becoming thinner now. Oracle has just released its new product that is very similar (or should I say a copycat) to SqlServer Express. And guess what it’s called? Oracle 10g XE (Express Edition). Quite similar indeed! Well, Oracle XE is supposed to get rid of the complexity of usage of an Oracle database. For instance, the installer engine of Oracle which is the Universal Installer has been dropped off. Was I glad to hear that. Oracle XE is also a free database engine that caters mid-size solutions. For the simplicity of this blog I’m going to discuss Oracle XE and hopefully compare it to SqlServer Express. I’m going to drop-off MySql and other database engines for I am not using it. And in my opinion only these two are on the same level. The Oracle XE could be also termed as a lightweight Oracle Database. It’s easier to install manage and configure. You might be wishful thinking if you think that it has no limitations. Well, the limitations as I view it are not that of a big deal. Here are the lists of limitations: 1. Could only store for up to 4 GB of Data. 2. Could only use one processor (Although it can be installed on PC’s with multiple processors but it would only use just one processor) 3. Could only use 1 GB of memory. See, no big deal at all. SqlServer Express also has the same limitations with Oracle XE. So here comes the question, what to use? In my opinion many mid-sized database users are now using SqlServer Express, so why bother upgrade? I haven’t seen any mid-sized database requirement that Oracle could provide but SqlServer cannot. So sticking with your current technology isn’t such a bad thing. But if your starting to learn Database systems, or have plans being an Oracle DBA someday, then I suggest using Oracle XE. In my case, I’ve been using SqlServer since its 2000 version. So I guess upgrading would really hurt me. But currently I’m still downloading the Oracle XE package. I’m pretty quite interested about this product for I am really impressed with the performance of Oracle. The SqlServer IDE is very superb that I doubt I’m gonna to shift to Oracle XE anytime soon. But for you .Net aficionados, you’ll have a treat with this. Coz Oracle XE can now be configured using Visual Studio. There is a tool for .Net that enables this. The downside problem that I can see here is that the tool is currently on its Beta. And another issue was it couldn’t be installed on any Express editions IDE. Well I’ll still be trying it and maybe at long last I would be convinced on using Oracle.

Be the first to rate this post

  • Currently 0/5 Stars.
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Categories:  
Actions:   E-mail | Permalink | Comments (0) | Comment RSSRSS comment feed

Add comment


(Will show your Gravatar icon)  

biuquote
  • Comment
  • Preview
Loading