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SQL

SQL is the acronym for Structured Query Language, and it is the syntax and method by which we talk to databases. It allows us to put data into a database, read it, update it, and delete it.

There are 2 basic types of databases we work with on our servers.

Microsoft Access 2000 database. The Microsoft Access database is a desktop database program, suitable for small numbers of simultaneous connections occurring at the same time. Depending on the content in the database, and the transactions that are being processed against the database, you can have good performance between 12 to 25 people accessing the database at the same time. If your traffic goes beyond that capacity, your pages slow down because the database can't keep up. In the worst case, your pages become unavailable, or your website locks up. In that case, you should consider moving up to the higher performance database.

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 database. The Microsoft SQL Server database is an actual server dedicated to database processing tasks. This gives you much greater performance and huge increases in scalablity for the number of simultaneous connections it can handle. Depending on the transaction types and the content, the SQL Server can handle thousands of people accessing the database at the same time. If you anticipate large traffic to your website, you'll want to consider using the high performance features of Microsoft SQL Server 2000.

Upgrading. Many sites that are just starting out and either don't have an accurate estimate of how much traffic they will have, or don't have the available funding for the higher performance database option. So they start out with the simpler and less expensive Access database. The good news is you can upgrade relatively seemlessly between the 2 databases, to gain higher performance as your site grows. Then you can also afford the additional investment that Microsoft SQL Server 2000 requires.

Discuss this topic in our discussion forum Database Design