At a Cross-Roads: Choice Between MySQL vs MSSQL -> Importance: Reporting

Question

I am currently working on an application for the health care industry for my firm. This application is geared towards the smaller end of the spectrum (as in 50 or less users). The application will offer both a windows forms (wpf) app and a Silver Light app. This application will be used in the insurance side of the health care equation (socials and other info vs medical records per se). I would like my application to be a power house of reporting capabilities.

I would like to offer a basic package and a pro package for their customers. My debate concerns the pros and cons between MySQL and MSSQL. Both are powerful, one is free, one costs money; both are solid, one has excellent reporting features, I haven't seen the same from the other, etc.

My question for the Pro package for sure, and possibly for the basic: I would like to add reporting capabilities. I have scoured Google with only a tad bit of luck (finding ugly reporting features via 3rd party for MySQL). My employer current uses MSSQL 2005 and loves the BI/MS Reporting capabilities they have gotten use to. However, if I can provide the same via MySQL, it will save our customers a substantial amount of money.

• Is there a complete MySQL option that will not break the bank?
• Should I run a hybrid between MSSQL and MySQL?
• Should I just stick with MSSQL period?

The basis for this inquiry totally revolves around functionality vs licensing costs. This post should not be used as a forum for debate concerning whose 'My SQL Server is Better Than Yours!'

I would appreciate cold hard facts with data to back them up from developers who have weighed these options and deployed them with success or failure in their own business or enterprise.

Thank you in advance for your opinion on the direction I should go.

Answer 1

Both are powerful, one is free, one costs money;

Worth noting that MS SQL 2008 Express is free and has a fairly substantial capacity (a DB size of 10Gb) and supports reporting services.

So, the question is not necessarily whether you need to use MySQL to avoid licensing costs but whether the DB sizes you're using are liable to incur licensing costs (given that you have good reason to go down the MS SQL route with existing knowledge and experience of reporting services).

Answer 2

Excellent recommendation on SQL Express.

Anyone from the MySQL side of the equation want to weigh in?

Answer 3

MS SQL Server comes bindled with a lot of tools - if you took these away, then choosing between the systems would be a no-brainer. In your case it appears that these tools have provied useful - so the key question is whether these facilities are available elsewhere - and whether the cost of adding these tools would be greater than buying MSSQL.

The community version od mysql is still free - and there's the likes of MariaDB and Drizzle (free forks of MySQL) not to mention Infobrights columnar database engine for MySQL (commercial product offering very high performance with the illusion of a standard relational db). These are all about the DBMS side though.

But with ODBC, there's still great choice in the tools you use at the front-end. In addition to MSAccess and MSExcel, there's Crystal Reports and Business Objects (both now owned by SAP), lots of form painters (e.g. infomaker) and lots of freeware.

The problem with Microsoft's programming languages is that they're bound to produce one which is "better" than what came before every 3-4 years. So not only do you have single-vendor tie in to contend with but planned redundancy for your skill-base!

The best bit is that MySQL is not as closely tied to a Microsoft platform as MySQL. While it is possible to connect a Linux webserver running Perl, PHP, Python and Java up to a MSSQL backend - it's a lot easier with MySQL.

Note that Postgress is worth considering too - while this has more in common with Oracle DBMS than the Sybase system at the heart of MSSQL, like MySQL it is not strongly tied into a vertical integration platform.

Note that once you separate the database from the tools used to interact with it then you have an open system. And one where you can integrate different back end systems.