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We all know databases store data but as always
there is more to it in this world and a little background
knowledge can save many tears later on. Databases come in
two basic flavours - Desktop and Client/Server. So what are
the differences and which is right for you?
Desktop
If you are familiar with the likes of Microsoft
Access or Corel Paradox you are talking about a desktop database.
These are relatively easy to use (by database standards) and
offer a cost effective means of creating your own applications.
Both can be networked within reason, say up to ten users.
They start to suffer when the volume of data grows and/or
the number of users increases. They will then crawl and eventually
come to a stop at which point data corruption usually follows.
250,000 records is perhaps a practical limit but as always
it depends on the database. They crawl because all the records
are being continually sent across the network regardless of
the users requirements, hence network traffic can be high,
particularly when running complex queries as all processing
takes place on the users machine ("the client").
The network server does nothing except store the files. Having
said that though, for a simple two or three user system with
a few thousand records on a simple network this approach is
adequate. Not recommended for web based databases.
Client/Server
The more professional approach that can handle
millions of records and is ideally suited to mission-critical
operations. Typical examples are Firebird, Interbase, Oracle
and Microsoft SQL Server. The huge difference is that, as
the name suggests, much of the processing takes place on the
server and only the records the user wants to see are sent
across the network. This allows hundreds of users and represents
a huge increase in performance and consequential reduction
in network load. Historically these databases have had associated
license costs of so much per user thus increasing costs. This
is still true of most except Firebird
which is "open source" hence is free of licensing
costs. This opens the door to all sorts of possibilities and
as far as we at RavenTek are concerned it means that Firebird
will become the default database of choice on anything more
than a two user system.
Databases we use:
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