ACCESS
Pros:
- Microsoft Office Professional
- Fast for small databases
- Simple settings
- Stores data from both SQL and Oracle
- VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) language and SQL
- Import/export tools (Windows)
Cons:
- File size can grow very fast
- Not ideal for storing large volumes (100 MB per database)
- Slowness in intense traffic networks
SQL
Pros:
- Support to Windows platform
- Free software
- Compatibility (drivers for Delphi, Java, C/C++)
- Excellent performance and stability
- Demands few hardware resources
- Supports several types of tables
- Open code
- Multi-task and multi-user (client/server)
- Supports large databases (up to 1TB)
Cons:
- Standardization inhibits creativity
- Clashes with host languages
- Does not back up consistently when the database is down or updating
- No resources against database turnoff failures when updating data
- All pages are always 64K-long
- Does not partition tables and indexes
ORACLE
Pros:
- Fast, large databases
- Supports several platforms (HP 9000 Series HP-UX, Linux Intel)
- Robust, safe, reliable database, with rationalized organization and system scalability
- Multi-task and multi-user system (via internet)
- Compatibility (drivers for Delphi, Java, C/C++)
- Can create programs that load information automatically and check for consistency, in addition to other internal functions.
Cons:
- Requires technical specialization for managing the database (tasks such as backup/recovery, performance tunning, user/security management, etc.)
- High license and hardware costs for running the software: an Oracle Standard Server license, plus Spatial module (optional), an ESRI ArcSDE license, and a Windows 2000 Server or Unix license (server only)
ORACLE x SQL
Oracle:
- Supports several platforms
- More expensive
- More speed for large databases
- Database requires specialized development
SQL:
- Supports Windows platform
- Cheaper
- Higher number of columns per database
- Database is easily developed
