[thelist] MySQL vs MS SQL

[Hershel Robinson]

[ NOTE: I am reposting this because my first post was sent for
administrative review due to a suspicious Subject line--it has not yet been
approved. I have changed the Subject line now. Didn't know 'DB servers'
could be so suspicious. :) ]

I have a client with a completely Perl-based, somewhat compute-intensive
website. It was built initially to use the MS Access Jet DB Server and today
still runs on that server.

The client now says that the system "has grown tremendously and ideally the
new server set-up should be built to support up to 1,000 simultaneous
users."

The new server will be physically just that--a new dedicated Windows Server
2003 machine. The client was recommended to use MySQL or MS SQL Server and
one party even recommended using two machines, one for the web server and
one for the DB server.

The Perl uses DBI and so potentially a switch to MySQL could be done fairly
painlessly and without a large investment (which is always an issue with
this particular client) in man-hours nor software. I understand, however,
that with sprocs, which are compiled in a MS SQL DB, that the computational
load on the CPU should be reduced significantly and thus speed up the
system. I am also told that there are other advantages to MS SQL.

Anyone have any thoughts on these issues?

Thanks,
Hershel

PS: I sincerely doubt the client would be interested in a Linux solution. He
is one of these corporate-type Windoze fans. I myself hate Windows. :)