William (Bill) Vaughn's Musings

A recent question on the newsgroups asked about the life-expectancy of DAO and if it makes sense to transition to ADO to access their database.

The problem here is not DAO or even ADO classic (COM-based ADO). The problem here is the JET engine.
When you write an application using JET whether you you Access or VB6 or VB.NET or any other language, you are limited by the capacity and architecture of the shared-file architecture of JET. Your security is limited by JET's inability to be encrypted and since by its very nature it's designed to be passed around as a file and accessed by whomever receives it, it should not contain private data. Sure, there are lots of situations where a DBMS as simple as JET is okay--as in the home or for some non-secure office applications. But IMHO, JET is really not suitable for businesses that need to pass manage secure data. We've talked about and debated the merits and foibles of JET for many years here on this newsgroup and in other forums.

Continue reading "Question of the Day: DAO to ADO to ADO.NET" »

Posted by William Vaughn at 08:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Unfortunately, I think Microsoft has stepped off on the wrong foot as far as the marketing of the SQL Server Everywhere edition. For obvious reasons, I expect they wanted to leverage the popularity and reputation of its deadly serious SQL Server DBMS. This makes sense, but technically, SQL Server Everywhere (SQL Ev) is not SQL Server (like SQL Server Express or the other paid editions). I’m of the opinion that if you name a product, it should bear some resemblance to that product. Each product name carries with it the baggage (negative attributes) and benefits (positive attributes) of its namesake. Calling something SQL Server when it’s not is deceptive and can be confusing when one assumes that it’s a clone of the predecessor or parent product. This also means when the customer gets the product and opens the box, they’re often disappointed when it does not look, taste or smell like what they expected. It’s like selling plastic “chocolate-like” bunnies to kids at Easter. As soon as they take their first bite on the left ear, they’ll know the difference—and you’ll regret it. No, I don’t mean to imply that SQL Ev is not edible, er, suitable because it is. It’s a perfectly good DBMS engine that can take on quite a few important responsibilities when it comes to storing, managing, fetching and replicating local data stores. It’s just not SQL Server and should not be expected to have the same feature set.

Continue reading "SQL Server Everywhere. It's all in the name (or is it?)" »

Posted by William Vaughn at 05:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is one of the most hotly debated topics around so expect quite a few opinions. My TechEd talk (which might be posted online on the Microsoft site sometime in the near future) discusses where SQL Server Express Edition fits in relation to JET/Access and the newest DBMS system SQL Server Everywhere (SQL Ev). Yes, there are a lot of choices and each has its place.

A number of factors should be considered when you're trying to decide which approach to take. These include (but are not limited to): 

Continue reading "Deciding between SQL Express, JET and SQL Everywhere" »

Posted by William Vaughn at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

As I have talked about many times here, in newsgroups and in my sessions, books and articles, IMHO JET/Access is not suitable in a business application. I've detailed the problems that include its physical IO over the network (which makes it prone to data loss), its inability to be backed up while any application is still connected, its need to be periodically compressed, it's lack of scalability (which means you have to start over when the customer outgrows it), it's (very) limited capacity and the number of users it can support. It should never be used as a web host unless you don't mind terrible performance--that's because it's a "client" engine--not a service designed to support parallel operations. One of the most serious problems is its inability to encrypt data in place and its fragile security system. This makes it "officially" unsuitable to manage HIPA-compliant data. The fact that you access JET over a very problematic MDAC stack is and always has been another problem. Each time the stack is changed, your application might or might not work. Jet is also accessed over a COM-based OLE DB interface--in unmanaged code.

Continue reading "JET? Are developers still considering it?" »

Posted by William Vaughn at 09:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I’ll be speaking at TechEd 2006 (US) this year in Boston. Sure, I’ll be doing a session—it’s on SQL Server Express Edition that’ll make it clear where it fits and what it replaces. And of course, I’ll be helping those addicted to JET find ways to kick the habit and move to better alternatives—without a 12-step program. I’ll also be talking (briefly) about the newly rebranded SQL Server Everywhere edition. You once knew this edition as SQL Server Mobile and SQL Server CE before that.

Continue reading "TechEd 2006 -- I'll Be There" »

Posted by William Vaughn at 05:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)