Preformance of non-normalized db on SQL Server

[bbwrede]

Hi, I just took over support for a non-normalized database in Access. There are about 4 tables with many columns. ASP/VB .net is being used to access data and it is then sent to Crystal Reports to generate reports. The whole process is really slow.

My question is: How much of a preformance increase will I get if I move the database to SQL Server without redesigning and normalizing it?

Thanks,
Barb

 

[ClaireHCM]

conceptually speaking, if the database is used for reporting.Non-normalized design is better than normalized design.Denormalization is used specially for reporting which eliminate the redundant join operation.

 

[bbwrede]

In that case are you saying that a move to SQL Server will help a lot with preformance?

I think that I have to normalize the database to some degree to accommodate the constant addition of new fields to the database. How can you measure how much it will slow down the database?

 

[ClaireHCM]

SQL stored the database as relational database.Which allow u to define the relationship between table and table.You could make use of constraint and join to get the report.

I cant measure how much it will improve the performance.But good query in sql server can run in a sec that's for sure.

 

[SQLSister]

it weill also depend on how you are calling the data. If you continue to use Access as the front end and do not convert the Access queries, performance could actually slow down as it has to transalate throughthe jet engine and then the SQl server. If you want performance to improve you will need to rewrite your queries as SQL stored procedures and call those instead. YOu will alos need to pay attention to the use of indexes and other performance tuning techniques which are available in SQL Server but not in Access.