The Access Man - Microsoft Access Specialists - Upgrading Access databases to SQL Server

Upgrade to Microsoft SQL Server

Get the benefits of enhanced performance, resilience and scalability by combining your existing Microsoft Access database with Microsoft SQL Server

Maximise your return on investment by reusing most of your current Access code and avoiding the need to redevelop your application from scatch.

Eliminate re-training and ensure happy users by keeping the Access front-end they are familiar with.

Enable your business to grow to the next stage.

Take advantage of our experience and ensure a painless upgrade to SQL Server.

Microsoft Access is the most popular database system in use today and is the ideal solution for many businesses, teams, departments and other organisations.

Some users will outgrow a pure Microsoft Access solution and in this scenario a combination of Microsoft Access and the flagship Microsoft SQL Server database is often the best solution.

Benefits of SQL Server

Microsoft SQL Server offers significant benefits in the following areas

Scalability
Performance
Security
Web access
Logs, rollbacks and audit trails
Data Integrity
Backups

Benefits of a combined Access and SQL Server Solution

Microsoft Access and Microsoft SQL Server work very well together
The upgrade path is established and proven with appropriate tools and hooks in both products to make the process easier.
Significant cost savings are made by re-using your existing Access application with minimal changes as opposed to re-developing the whole application using something like .NET.
Keep the front-end look and feel with which your users are familier

Common reasons to migrate to a combined Access and SQL Server Solution

Increasing numbers of end users
Slow performance
Growing/large data volumes
Integrations with other systems which involve moving large amounts of data around
Necessity to maintain more detailed audit trails
Requirement for Internet access or remote users
Demands for highly resilient systems
Need for enhanced security
Growth in complexity of application particularly in terms of reporting requirements and process management

Ways to Migrate

There are number of ways to migrate to a combined Access and SQL Server solution.

The method chosen will depend on the size and complexity of your database, your business requirements and the extent to which you want to take advantage of the power and flexibility that SQL Server offers.

Options to consider include:

Simply move your data to SQL Server and re-link your Access tables to point to it
Use the Access ADP file format to communicate natively with SQL Server for better performance.
Using the built in upgrade wizard or utilise more advanced software and techniques to ensure the best data migration
Use the FREE SQL Server Express or opt for one of the other versions
Deploy in the cloud using SQL Azure

Our Experience

A number of our clients have grown to the size where an Access only solution no longer meets their requirements and we have worked with them to implement highly effective combined Access and SQL Server solutions which deliver the power of an SQL Server back-end with the user friendly Access front-end with which their users are familiar.

We have experience in migrating databases from the very small, which literally take a few hours to migrate, through to those which are more complex and take significantly more time to migrate. We understand the issues involved and the options available.

A number of our clients operate mission critical call centre environments with Access front-ends which are highly tuned to their business requirements and the needs of their users coupled with SQL Server back-ends which provide the resilience, scalability and performance that they need.

While we usually undertake the full migration process for our clients we also have a number of more technical clients who prefer to undertake some development work themselves. In this situation we help with the migration of data to SQL Server and then provide SQL Server mentoring and support services to help increase your SQL Server skills and provide the back-up that you need to support your business.

Cost of Migration

Migrating from a pure Access solution to a combined Microsoft Access solution is a very cost effective way of delivering the resilience, scalability and power of an enterprise class database solution to your organisation.

It general it is much cheaper to utilise your existing investment in Access and implement a combined Access/SQL Server solution than it is to re-build a system in .NET or something similar.

Costs vary from a few hundred pounds for a very simple and straightward database through to larger sums for more complex and demanding databases.

If you would like to know what is involved in migrating your Access application to SQL Server contact us and we will arrange to look at your database. We will then review this and tell you what is required to migrate it to SQL Server, the options available and the likely cost.

If you have already tried to migrate your database and run into problems then please call us for advice and assistance.

For specialist help in migrating your database to SQL Server please call us on 0800 756 6612.

How we work?

Free initial consultation.
Fixed price quote or estimate depending on the nature of the work and the preciseness of the requirements.
We develop via prototypes which we review with you and refine in order to meet your needs as closely as possible.
Lifetime bug fix warranty

Common Questions

Q: What is the maximum number of concurrent users you can have on Access before having to migrate to SQL Server?

A: There no definitive answer to this as it very much depends on how well your Access database is designed and written, the nature of your system and the volume of data/transactions and the performance of your network. A well written database on a good network should be able to approach 25 users without too much difficulty. As you approach this figure you should be considering a move to a combined Access/SQL solution and if you have over this you will probably have already run into problems and be actively looking at an upgrade.

Q: What is the maximum amount of data that Access can deal with and when should it be moved to SQL Server?

Again the answer very much depends on how well your database is written and the performance of your network. The maximum size of an Access database is 2GB in theory but in practice you will need to migrate way before you hit this if your system is in day-to-day use as opposed to be a static system just used for data-manipulation or reporting. We have clients running complex multi-user Access databases very nicely with sizes between 0.5GB and 1GB but would not recommend going over this.