February 26, 2011

Presenting a Viable Database Solution for Small Businesses

Microsoft Access database is beyond doubt one of the most widely used desktop database systems globally. And since it is a product of Microsoft, it is certainly going to stay and survive the intense competition in the market. It comes as a part of the Microsoft Office Professional suite of products which comes installed when you purchase a new system. As such the requirement for additional database software is not felt until and unless you require complex and larger database solutions. MS Access is suited for meeting the requirements for both individual as well as a fairly sized group of people as solutions created in MS Access can be placed on web portals so they can be accessed by remote users.


MS Access databases also support simultaneous users and hence the remote users can access the data base over a network simultaneously. With MS Access, you can create database solutions with up to 2 GB storage support. And solutions with less than 2GB data storage can comfortably support up to 50 simultaneous users. This number is also influence by factors such as size of data stored, the intensity of the task being performed, the design of the application, and also to the design of the application. Solutions that are designed to performed simple tasks such as data entry and data viewing can support more users while solutions designed to facilitate the running of complex queries support lesser users. Nonetheless, MS Access solutions are well suited for organizations with less than hundred staffs or for use in a department within a larger organization.

A Microsoft Access software solution can also be designed to support more users and data storage by linking it to more than one Access database. Another option which is available is to port the Access database to SQL server which is used as a back-end database. This can be achieved, although with some difficultly. The migration to a larger database management system is required only at the enterprise level though. MS Access is also very popular among the end users since they can create their own forms, reports, and queries.
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