Re: SQL Server v Oracle

Fergal,

 I seriously doubt anything is unbiased. What do you mean by "large"?  

> Could anyone give me or point me in the direction of and unbiased comparison
> of SQL Server 7 and Oracle 8 in a very large databases NT based environment.

Q. Why is SQL Server better/worse than Oracle? (v1.1 1999.03.11)

1. This is as much a "religious" debate as a technical one. Both products are good (as are others such as DB/2, Informix, Sybase...). My advice would be to stick with whatever you have the technical skills/experience with, and don't change for the sake of it. SQL Server, Oracle and DB/2 will all be around for a long time - some of the others have had financial problems recently but should survive.

But for those who have to have a pro and con list, here is one to get you started (though no doubt some of the points would be contested). It assumes SQL 7 and Oracle 8.

Pro's of SQL Server

On the same NT hardware as Oracle, SQL Server has the best tpcc numbers. (www.tpc.org)

Mobile/client version of product is exactly the same as the server one (with Oracle it isn't)

SQL 7 has better dynamic space and memory management

SQL 7 is easier to install, use and manage

SQL Server is cheaper to buy than Oracle (though this is such a small part of lifetime support costs it really shouldn't be a consideration)

Extra facilities "in the box" - e.g. OLAP, English Query, DTS

Pro's of Oracle

Scales higher than SQL 7 - whether your system needs to scale that high is doubtful. SQL 7 should be fine for 1 Terabyte of data and 2500 users. (These are conservative figures and are more to do with NT's scalability than SQL's).

Clusters better than SQL

More powerful 3GL language than SQL - PLSQL vs TSQL

Runs on non-NT platforms - e.g. Unix, MVS.

Been around longer.  

 Neil Pike MVP/MCSE. Protech Computing Ltd  (Please post ALL replies to the newsgroup only unless indicated otherwise)  For SQL FAQ entries see
 http://go.compuserve.com/sqlserver (library 1) - latest stuff is always here  www.ntfaq.com/sql.html
 http://www.swynk.com/faq/sql/sqlserverfaq.asp Received on Sun Apr 18 1999 - 06:35:46 CDT