Excel Limitiations When to change to database

  • Thread starter Thread starter pauluk
  • Start date Start date
P

pauluk

Hi All,

This is just a general question. Do you think that when you excel wor
book is becomming more like an basic\intermidiate database, you shoul
change to access or something similar?

If you have a favorite Database programme which you use please list, a
i am currently doing a review of the systems i use. And if it would b
more cost effect to miorgrate to a database.

Regards
Pau
 
Hi Paul
as you asked in general the general answer would be 'it depends' :-)
Some things you should evaluate for your specific problem:
- data volume (could you run into problems with Excel's row/column
limitation)
- What are you doing with your data:
-> calculations
-> aggregation / grouping / queries
-> reporting
-> charting
- Security/Reliability
- Performance requirements
- Give IT infrastructure (Operating systems, etc.)
- do you have a database license already -> probably use this database

Each database has its strengths. Below my personal 2 cents:
- MS Access: easy to use for beginners, quite capable for
basic/intermediate tasks, cheap (if you already have an Office
Professional license) -> I know many companies which heavily rely on MS
Access as one of their core systems (though I definetly wouldn't
recommend that)
- MS SQL Server: Might be a good choice if you have a MS infrastructure
(.NET, etc.)
- Oracle: My personal favourite - the reason could be that I know this
database best :-) -> Professional database
- and many others like DB2, Sybase, etc
 
Back
Top