HELP: Need benchmarks XBase vs. client/server

[Replies to this message will be posted only in comp.databases to reduce bandwidth].

I need your input to help me with a presentation I'm making. I work for a telecommunications company's MIS department. We currently are running on a Novell network using Microsoft FoxPro as our database platform. However, we are rapidly outgrowing the capabilities of FoxPro, both in terms of file size and network capabilities. We are planning (as an MIS department) on moving to a client/server based application instead of client-based, but we need some help convincing upper management that a database server is worth the $20,000-$60,000.

What we really need is your input to get some information on approximately how much of a performance increase we'll see in a client/server vs client-based scenario. I know that these comparisons are pretty useless, but it's going to be a hot topic for conversation in our presentations.

What would be really helpful is if you could give me a couple of samples of your own experience with an XBase vs SQL query (how long each took). (We are planning on using a Novell NLM-based database engine).

Most of our queries select a few fields, total a few others, and group by yet another (total volumes and charges of calls for a specific phone or group of phones, for example). Others pull out a group of records by specific criteria (a phone number, or an account, etc). We typically run these by day, week, or month, with each day's file being approximately 40,000 records each 300 bytes long. We typically join these queries with a client database of about 300 records to get the client name, address, etc.

If you could give me any information on tests you've done with XBase compared to any SQL server, or just these types of queries on an SQL server, I'd really appreciate it. I'd need to know what the query was (was there any grouping or ordering), how big the database was in terms of records and record size, and if any joins, etc were done.

I'd also like your opinions on how much your performance increased when you moved from an Xbase platform to client/server.

Also, any pointers to information that will help me to get information like this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your help!
Pete Kruckenberg Received on Thu Dec 16 1993 - 00:09:57 CET