industrial strength replacement for Access 2003 2

[BitZero]

I’ve done a number of projects using Access 2003. My impression of Access is that it’s easy to develop small to mid-sized applications, with a small number of users and relatively small tables. The nice thing about Access is that it has a very powerful development environment. You can create tables, forms, queries, reports and code all in one integrated environment.

But if you want something really “industrial strength” (big tables, lots of users, good security) you need to move up to something else. Does anyone have any recommendations for the “something else”? Here are a few options:

Access 2007 (does it qualify for “industrial strength”?)

Use Oracle database with Access front-end

Use SQL Server with Access front-end

Use Oracle database with Oracle front end (Oracle forms and reports; Java)

Use SQL Server with .NET front end

Others?

Any thoughts you have on the pros and cons of these various approaches would be appreciated.

Another way of asking the question is: if you’re the CIO of a brand new company, and you want to standardize on a development platform, what would you use and why?

 

[lameid]

I would go .Net if starting a new company. It is true object oriented programming and lends itself to code reuse. That is the application side.

I would also likely go with SQL server. However, even SQL server will likely choke at some point. I don't know where that is, ask the SQL forum. If your at that point I would weigh options like ORACLE and GNU solutions like MySQL (as a for instance, I don't believe it holds a candle to MS SQL).

The reason TCO. SQL server requires the least administration to perform well. .Net may not be as fast to develop in in Access but the code reuse is very high.

If you are migrating though, I would consider migrating just data to SQL server and using a NOT adp front end. The Access migration will be easier than a whole rewrite for a programming language. Then you can have phase 2 and move to .Net. On the flip side you might have design flaws in your existing system that suggest a schema change. If this is the case you might be best strarting from scratch across the board. It all depends on the performance requirements.

 

[MasterRacker]

If you're using a Windows network and especially if you're using Exchange, I would move toward .NET and SQL. Exchange is moving toward tight coupling with WSS/SharePoint which means you would already have SQL Server in the mix. As lameid covered, you would also have a more natural scale up path.

If you're starting a new company and your first hires are some Java gurus with Oracle experience, that changes the equation of course.

Jeff
[small][purple]It's never too early to begin preparing for [/purple]International Talk Like a Pirate Day
"The software I buy sucks, The software I write sucks. It's time to give up and have a beer..." - Me[/small]

 

[JoeAtWork]

I would also vote .NET + SQL Server, but that is my prejudice since I don't know Java, etc.

Access should not be in the mix at all if you want "industrial strength".