Hi Burhan, > Does someone have any suggestions for other database > backends that I can research? The coding language has not > been decided yet, but it will be a tossup between .NET (C#) and Java. Depending on what development tools you own, you might be licensed to use MSDE. It's SQL Server in pretty much all but name. And it's free. See this page for more details of MSDE licensing. http://www.microsoft.com/sql/msde/howtobuy/msdeuse.asp Jason