Microsoft SQL Server vs Oracle Database: Which is a better fit?

Lew N.: Hi, my name is Lew, I am the Director of Information Technology for Young's Plant Farm. We're an annual and perennial grower supplier for big box retail stores, and I give Microsoft SQL Server a five out of five review. Okay. We chose SQL Server as we shifted away from some of the more mid-range systems that had built-in databases and we also looked at IBM DB2 and we just were very happy with the interface and how well Microsoft SQL Server ported across all of our different servers and applications. The primary reason the value-added reseller that provides the vertical system for growers uses a SQL Server database as its primary database, so we were familiar with SQL for that. As we were shifting into the data warehousing mode and developing our own internal data warehouse, we chose to use the same platform because we were familiar with it and we liked the way it worked, and we knew it was powerful. As with Microsoft products, the installs and the look and fill of the product are pretty much the same across all of their suite of products. SQL Server was very simple to install, didn't really have any licensing issues or anything like that, so we got it up and running. As far as the installation for our data warehouse, we just started creating tables and setting it up the way we needed and morphed and adjusted and enhanced from there. Just getting started was very simple, and from there, we have launched it into the powerful tool that has become for us. If you're looking at a database platform to do your own in-house data warehouse and your own application development, linking with other Microsoft Power, BI power apps, products like that, SQL Server is definitely the product to go with. It is easy to set up, very secure, and very portable to other platforms, very interfaceable to other platforms.

Sarvesh: Hi, I'm Sarvesh. I'm working as a technology architect with an IT company. I will rate four out of five to the Oracle database. We are working for a client where we are looking for an option where less human intervention is required for maintaining Oracle database. So we came to know about Oracle Cloud, where you can migrate your data to Oracle Cloud from on premises. So there are options like you can use database cloud service, or you can use their autonomous database. So that autonomous database comes in two flavor. One is for data warehouse. Another one is like using for OLTP system. So they kind of have a flavor for no sequel and just plain OLTP system. So it's a kind of intelligent database, less human intervention required. It's kind of self-repairing. It can detect if there's any problem and it can repair itself. It's kind of creates self partitioning. It's kind of create a self indexing. So less human intervention is required. There's no need to monitor your Oracle autonomous database. So we were kind of trying to solve that problem where sometimes it's hard to manage that database because sometime maybe Oracle table spaces is full, you go and check it manually. Or you create a job to trace that Oracle table space and find out, "Okay, this database table space is full." So this autonomous database is helping a lot. It's good for from mid-size to large size. Even if you want to have your data warehouse environment, you can use that autonomous data warehouse as well. So I think that's the good about Oracle database that can solve our problem. I really like Oracle database. It's been more than, I think 15 years I have been working on Oracle database and it's like if you compare with other databases, the performance of Oracle database is really great. It can load millions of records in a few minutes. It has many features, like you can use bulk collect, bulk binding. So like this Oracle [inaudible 00:02:20] sequel language is really powerful. You can load millions of records from one source to another source. You have like partitioning where you can load data in terms of partitioning, like exchange partitioning is the option you can use when you want to load data from one large table to another table. So Oracle provides many great options. Like, as I said, bulk binding, bulk collect, exchange partitioning, table spaces, one of the great feature it has. So I think it's really great. It has good performance, good scalability. Now they have come up with the option of, like in Oracle cloud, autonomous database, which has really great features. Like, it can create self indexing, it can create partitioning. So there is no need to define any, partition or any indexing is Oracle database going to take care of it. So these are great features, I would say about Oracle database. About Oracle database. I mean, really it has great advantages, but it has few things I really don't like and I think these are the improvement areas for Oracle. Like, it's not really very user-friendly like if I compare with other databases. So they have sometimes you just right click kind of user-friendly and it's not, you need some kind of expertise. So for example, if you want to take a backup off of the Oracle database, it's not very straightforward. You need to run that export data pump, export that file. And then you go to other database and then import, and sometimes, there is problems when you want to migrate. For example, if you want to migrate from 10G to 11G or 12C. So there are some compatibility problem also which you need to figure out. So you need to use that export utility of that version, where you want to migrate, but that's not the case in sometimes with other database, where you just right click and you get the export and import, but here is a kind of not the kind of user interface where you right click and you get that data. So few things I think that can be improved in terms of user friendliness. So Oracle can work towards that and make it more user friendly.