Oracle Vs. SQL Server on NT

I am in the early stages of designing a retail order processing system that will accept and process order requests from the internet, an in-house customer service department, and in batch mode from files received from a third party telemarketing company. The system will have to process credit card transactions. It will have to track inventory and integrate with accounting software that I have not yet selected.

Within a year, the database could grow to be 5 gigabytes, and should be able to process 30,0000 transactions/day. I have a budget of about $500,000
to build this system over the next year - that should pay for new servers, network components, purchase of about 40 additional workstations, a T1 line to the ISP, software, licenses, consulting fees, programmers, etc. (i.e.,pretty much everything).
Our ISP is a business partner, so fortunately my budget does not have to pay
for web development. The majority of people accessing the database server and
working withing the company are will be fairly uneducated users in the customer
service and accounting departments. For this reason I want to go to a thin client
environment, except for the developers' workstations. I want to put most of the
power into the servers. In all the literature I read from Microsoft, the examples they use all seem to describe my company's business model. This leads me to think I should go Microsoft all the way, especially since SQL Server is so much cheaper than Oracle. But I then I hear horror stories about SQL Server 6.5, and I hear SQL Server 7.0 won't be out until Q3 or Q4. But given my budget, I am worried about spending all my money on hardware, tools, and licenses, and having nothing left for development. My company is growing rapidly, and all evidence suggests that it will continue to grow over the next 5 years. Any comments?
Please email me at
livia_at_flashemail.com
instead of here.
THanks. Received on Sat Mar 21 1998 - 00:00:00 CST