Database discussion

Access & SQL Server at US TechEd

There is a video recording available of an interesting panel discussion, chaired by Mary Chipman at the US TechEd in June.

It is about considerations for moving a database from  JET/ACE to SQL Server.

This is a topic where one can often find considerable confusion.  You will see people wanting to choose between Microsoft Access and SQL Server.

To me, it's simple.  SQL Server is not an alternative to Access. They're quite different categories of software, and you can't compare them.  Access's primary purpose is application development.  As far as I am aware, SQL Server can not be regarded as an application development platform. It's database management system software, and as such needs a frontend user interface built using "something else".

In many cases, that "something else" is Access.

Therefore it was excellent to see the panel bringing some good perspective, balance, and clarity to this question.

One of the panelists, Access MVP Armen Stein described Access as a "development environment".  A development environment that comes with a free database engine (JET/ACE), which you can use by default, but under certain scenarios you may prefer to use another database engine - SQL Server for example. This is a good way to put it.

Technorati tags: Microsoft+Access, SQL+Server, database+development