Call Now : 0870 162 4884
Microsoft Access provides excellent solutions for small to medium sized teams and workgroups. It offers rapid, powerful and highly cost effective solutions to be built according to your precise requirements.
However, there are situations where Access may struggle; for example when the number of concurrent users or the size of the database increases significantly.
If you have reached this point or are concerned about the scalability of Access then you should consider a combined Microsoft Access and Microsoft SQL Server solution.
Microsoft SQL Server is essentially the "big brother" of Microsoft Access and is Microsoft's Enterprise database platform.
SQL Server will scale to handle very large numbers of users, large databases and transaction volumes as well as deal better with users accessing the database over a slower network link such as a VPN.
If you have developed a business application in Microsoft Access then you can migrate to Microsoft SQL Server and protect your investment in Access by keeping your existing Access front-end (screens, reports and code etc) and moving the data (tables) into Microsoft SQL Sever.
In essence there are 2 steps:
1) Migrate the data tables to SQL Server
2) Modify the front-end forms and reports etc to work with the SQL Server database back-end.
However, there are different ways to accomplish these steps and the methods chosen will have a significant impact of the performance, power and maintainability of the ultimate solution.
For example it is possible to use the Access Upsizing Wizard to move the tables to SQL and then link the MDB file to the new server database. This is quick and easy but has disadvantages:
a) It only works for very simple databases - the wizard cannot deal with the more complex queries found in more sophisticated databases
b) It fails to take advantage of the full performance available from SQL Server as it leave in place a layer of the Access Jet Database Engine which is simply just inefficient with communicating with SQL Server
Generally we recommend creating an Access Data Project (.adp) file and using this to talk natively with SQL Server so that the Access front-end can take full advantage of the power and sophistication of SQL Sever. This is a longer and therefore more expensive process but the benefits are huge.
--> Free Conversion Analysis <--
We have experience in migrating databases from the very small, which literally take a few hours to migrate, through those which are more complex and take significantly more time to migrate. We understand the issues involved and the options available.
If you would like to know what is involved in migrating your Access application to SQL Server please call 0870 162 4884 and we will arrange for you to send us a copy of your database. We will then review this and tell you what is required to migrate it to SQL Server, the options available the the likely cost.
If you have already tried to migrate your database and run into problems then please call us for advice and assistance.
We also work in tandem with you if you are responsible for the development of your firms database but have difficulty finding the time to devote to it. We can act as your on-call developer and expert, pointing you in the right direction for the information that you need and helping you with sample code, general advice or actual development.
If you are not getting the performance from your database that you expect or you are experiencing a slow down, user lockups or other performance issues then please call us to see how we can help.
