Next step after Access?

I've been an Access user for years designing and running desktop database
app's. My work, however, has taken the size of my Access databases to half a
million records and 1.5GB. Access completely crawls at this level.
Furthermore, I need to perform more statistical analysis that Access seems to
be designed for. I feel like I'm needing to take the next step in database
usage. Unfortunately, there don't seem to be any other "desktop" database
app's that are significantly more capable than Access. Thus, I'm guessing I
need to bite the bullet and begrudgingly buy and learn the server /
enterprise database software. What would be the best one to ease into for a
MS Access user like me? Would it be MS SQL Server Personal, for instance?
What's the learning curve like for an Access user? And finally, will it run
on a desktop computer running Windows XP?Bill_S wrote:
> I've been an Access user for years designing and running desktop
> database app's. My work, however, has taken the size of my Access
> databases to half a million records and 1.5GB. Access completely
> crawls at this level. Furthermore, I need to perform more statistical
> analysis that Access seems to be designed for. I feel like I'm
> needing to take the next step in database usage. Unfortunately,
> there don't seem to be any other "desktop" database app's that are
> significantly more capable than Access. Thus, I'm guessing I need to
> bite the bullet and begrudgingly buy and learn the server /
> enterprise database software. What would be the best one to ease
> into for a MS Access user like me? Would it be MS SQL Server
> Personal, for instance? What's the learning curve like for an Access
> user? And finally, will it run on a desktop computer running Windows
> XP?
Personal Edition only exists as an add-on for Standard/EE/and Developer.
You can download the MS Data Engine (MSDE) - which is essentially a
stripped down version of SQL Server 2000 without any client tools and a
2GB limit on database size. It may not take you very far, given you're
already at 1.5GB, but at least it's free. You can download the MS Web
Data Administrator to help manage the database.
If this is a development project, you can purchase Developer Edition
from MS for about $50. It's obviously not licensed for use in
production.
You'll need to read about SQL Server to get started. There are number of
good web sites (sqlserverperformance.com, SQLServerCentral.com, etc).
Get a book as well - I prefer Kalen Delaney's Inside SQL Server 2000 -
MS Press.
David Gugick
Imceda Software
www.imceda.com