Alternatives for SQL Anywhere

[Jeff Gibson 0]

I'm reaching out to get some opinions on "On Prem" database environments.

 

I've got over 30 years experience working in the Sybase SQL Anywhere database environment. SQL Anywhere was an extremely powerful database to use in small on prem applications. SAP takes over and, well, you know the rest. They forgot they bought a tools company.

 

I'm looking for a solid/scalable database that can scale from a single machine to cloud. And frankly, I'm thinking more for smaller subsets. I know that I can go MySQL. PostgreSQL. But I'm wanting to know what this community thinks. SQLA used a T-SQL dialect, so I'm wanting to steer that way.

 

Thoughts? Would love to be able to run this on mobile devices as well.

 

Thanks in advance for any thoughts and opinions. There are no wrong answers.  :) 

 

Jeff Gibson

Nashville, TN

[Pat Heuvel 1]

I'm advocating for PostgreSQL. Yes, you'll need to learn a new language to replace T-SQL (although you do have choices), but it's a very solid database with great features (including documentation) and a wealth of skills online to take any questions or concerns.

[MichaelT 7]

Allow me to redefine your question and give the answer. There is noch such thing as a multi user enabled Personal Oracle 8, the one with the traffic lights shipped in the 1990s. From a technical perspective the most close candidate would be the Mimer DB or SQL Server as well as Firebird or Interbase. No idea if Apollo, NexusDB or Elevate DB and such things remein as an applicable choices for you, but I doubt in  a first place. MaxDB/SAP DB from SAP would have been a pretty similar choice, just for the records and to a certain extent DB2 for the records as well.

 

I'm assuming that you are using Delphi as the development tool of choice, otherwise you wouldn't ask here.

 

I'd go for PostgreSQL, because PostgreSQL does away with many glitches of the Oracle PL/SQL Language and handling it's own history concerning programming. There exist already too many flavors of 8i style programming, 9i, 10i, 11i style and so on.  I think such a makeshift/provisional solution can last long. There is no need to mimic the stored procedure language while debugging.

 

I have chosen for Firebird or Maria DB but I personally don't put business logic into the DB anymore, even if I think it's not a bad practice at all and a pretty flexible approach still. In the end it's about having the information model constraints and extended business logic in one place and a consistent backup.

[Dorian C 0]

 

Using MS Sql Server 2012 free with dbGo (migrated from Ms Access), for more than 8 years with great success for small companies (for accounting and medical software). Not a single file corrupted!

Scale perfect from LocalDB - monousers (with automatic installer), to Express edition for remote, but no experience with cloud now. Simple to install and maintain.

Worked with success in the past also with Firebird, but they don't have automatic management of versions installed and instances for server like MS Sql Server.

In case of migration to .net, the support is exceptional with linq, entity framework, dapper.

Edited 21 hours ago by Dorian C

[Die Holländer 79]

1 hour ago, Dorian C said:

but no experience with cloud now. Simple to install and maintain.

I use Azure cloud with MSSQL (free edition), FireDac and works great. I pay about 5 Euro per month.

Very nice is it's Database Management Studio.

Edited 20 hours ago by Die Holländer

[Lars Fosdal 1827]

9 minutes ago, Die Holländer said:

I use Azure cloud with MSSQL (free edition), FireDac and works great. I pay about 5 Euro per month.

Is there a limit on usage at that price? Can a DB there be accessed from multiple concurrent instances of your app?

[Die Holländer 79]

44 minutes ago, Lars Fosdal said:

Is there a limit on usage at that price? Can a DB there be accessed from multiple concurrent instances of your app?

Deploy Azure SQL Database for free

We access the database with a limit number of users (3-5) and I don't know if this is limited.

[Die Holländer 79]

and now you want to Create Delphi Azure functions with Azure SQL database (Delphi webbroker app)

 

Getting Started with Azure Cloud Development with Delphi

 

But I didn't find the proper solution (configuration..)

[Lars Fosdal 1827]

TBH, I prefer C# for Azure functions.

[chkaufmann 18]

PostgreSQL and UniDac.

 

Christian

[Roger Cigol 125]

I use PostgreSQL and all seems good to me.

[VLDG 1]

I use MySQL with MyDAC and Firebird with FireDAC.

 

I prefer Firebird.

 

 

[Jeff Gibson 0]

I absolutely appreciate ALL of the responses. Let me add some clarification.

 

Deploying SQL Anywhere was SIMPLE!

 

You literally deployed the standalone server engine along with the DLL's required to use with it, or the server deployment, with its set of DLL's. This was in the neighborhood of roughly 12 DLL's. Some registry tweaks from the installer to set paths, and you were off to the races.

 

Bundling Microsoft's SQL Server is a non starter. I've only seen one application that did that, and that was Evernote. They used SQL Server for persisting notes on a local machine. The footprint was HEAVY for that deployment.

 

I'm looking for that next database that I can bundle with a suite of products that I'm working on.

 

From my initial look into PostgreSQL, it feels heavy. That may be wrong, so, that's why I'm wanting to run this up the flag pole with the Delphi community.

 

A little of my background. I actually started my career developing in the Omnis Software platform. From there I moved to PowerBuilder.

 

I've been working in PowerBuilder since 1995, but in 2010, when SAP took over the environment, they came very close to just sun setting the product. At that point in 2015, I purchased a professional license and have kept it renewed since then. Because I didn't think I was going to have a choice. Thankfully SAP released PowerBuilder to another company and there has continued to be support for it. But, they didn't release their database products. And that unfortunately has been the painful part.

 

That's what brings my question to the group. Because the PowerBuilder environment tends to lean towards enterprise development, I'm not seeing the ISV's in that environment like I used to see.

 

That's why I'm looking at what other database environments I can start to work with.

 

Hope this info helps.

 

Jeff Gibson

Nashville, TN

[chkaufmann 18]

Yes PostgreSQL is powerfull, so from that point of view, it looks heavy. But there is a Windows installer, quite simple. I think it may even configured for "silent install".

 

Firebird comes in two version, one is with an embedded server. This you can install by just copying some files. And another advantage is, that you have single file databases. The only disadvantage is, that the database file have to be on a local drive with the embedded server.

We used Firebird in many projects, however, when a database becomes bigger (several million records), it became a bit tricky with performance when you do many updates / deletes. That's when I started to use PostgreSQL which is more tolerant here. And PostgreSQL supports native JSON and Gis features.

 

Christian