We are developing an information system to capture client information. Which database should we use?

Question

It should be secure. It should be scalable. It will be located on our in-house server. Each of 10 employees computers are connected to the server. An intranet will host a web site that will connect the employees to the database. This internal web site will be how information is stored on, processed and retrieved from the database. Our external web site will be hosted on the same server. The external web site will be used by clients and will pull certain information from the database. We also need mail-merge functionality. Information from the database needs to populate word document templates. We currently use an ACT! database to fullfill this need and an access database for all other information. Our server and all computers run on Windows. I've been leaning towards mySQL however I'm not sure how mail-merge and mySQL relate. I am the least knowledgable about mail-merge. However, the ability to have stored information populate certain documents is imperative.

Answer 1

MySQL should fit your needs fine.



You can populate a mail merge with Microsoft Word, using ODBC drivers for MySQL, which are freely distributed with MySQL. You can also export MySQL to ACT via ODBC.

Answer 2

Well, "My girl friend should be a b*tch, i want my wife virgin" .



If you're hosting your server in-house, you'll probably can't afford Oracle or MS SQL. In fact, you shouldn't. MySQL is no more less scalable, affordable, reliable and secure than "the others".



If you stuck between PostgreSQL and MySQL, choose MySQL for it's speed (though PostgreSQL is also speeding up), and PostgreSQL for it's native RDBMS features like triggers, procedures. MySQL requires 3rd party InnoDB storage engine, and it's acquired by someone else :)



No need to panic, MySQL immediately replaced it by Falcon on it's 5.2 releases.



I am currently using MySQL for a corporate sales project, and it's still working soooo fast after 2.5 million records. All good.

Answer 3

Yes, I would use MySQL. It's the most widely-used and flexible database.