A Comparison of SQL Server 2000 With Sybase ASE 12.5 - Page 3

April 23, 2003

Performance comparison

It is very difficult to make the performance comparison between SQL Server 2000 and Sybase ASE 12.5. The performance of your databases depends rather on the experience of the database developers and database administrator, than on the database's provider. You can use both of these RDBMS to build stable and efficient systems. It is possible to define the typical transactions, such as those used in inventory control systems, airline reservation systems, and banking systems. After defining these typical transactions, it is possible to run them under different database management systems working on the different hardware and software platforms.

TPC tests

The Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC.Org) is an independent organization that specifies the typical transactions (transactions used in inventory control systems, airline reservation systems and banking systems) and some general rules these transactions should satisfy.

The TPC produces benchmarks that measure transaction processing and database performance in terms of how many transactions a given system and database can perform per unit of time, e.g., transactions per second or transactions per minute.

The TPC organization made the specification for many tests. There are TPC-C, TPC-H, TPC-R, TPC-W and some old tests, such as TPC-A, TPC-B and TPC-D. The most popular test is the TPC-C test (OLTP test).

At the moment this article was written, SQL Server 2000 held the top TPC-C by performance results with Distributed Partitioned Views-based cluster systems. See Top Ten TPC-C by Performance Version 5 Results

At the moment this article was written, SQL Server 2000 held the top TPC-C by price/performance results. See Top Ten TPC-C by Price/Performance Version 5 Results

Note. Because most organizations really do not run very large databases, the key points on which SQL Server 2000 won the TPC-C benchmarks do not really matter to the vast majority of companies.

Price comparison

One of the main Microsoft SQL Server 2000 advantages in comparison with Sybase ASE 12.5 is that SQL Server is cheaper. SQL Server 2000 is currently available under two licensing options:

• Processor license.
• Server/per-seat client access license (CAL).

The processor license requires a single license for each CPU in the computer running SQL Server 2000 and includes unlimited client access. You can buy this license when you do not know the number of the clients (for example, if your users will connect to SQL Server 2000 through the internet). This license usually is cheaper than Server/Per-Seat CAL when there are many users connected to SQL Server databases.

The Server/per-seat client access license (CAL) requires a license for the server and licenses for each client device. You can use this licensing option when the customers do not need access beyond the firewall and the number of clients is low (for example, 10-20 users for SQL Server 2000 Standard Edition or 30-40 users for SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition).

Sybase ASE 12.5 is currently available as two main products:

• ASE Workplace
• ASE Enterprise

ASE Workplace includes machines running Windows NT, Netware, or SCO Unix with four or fewer CPUs. ASE Enterprise includes machines running Windows NT, Netware, or SCO Unix with more than four CPUs. For other platforms, the classification into ASE Workplace or ASE Enterprise is dependent on Total Processing Factor (TPF), which is based on the maximum number of CPUs that a box can support multiplied by the processing power (in megahertz) of each CPU. Machines that have a TPF of 2000 or less are considered ASE Workplace while those above 2000 are considered ASE Enterprise.

Sybase ASE 12.5 is currently available under two main licensing options:

• Processor license.
• Server/Networked Seat.

The processor license is available under the ASE Enterprise 12.5 for LINUX only. For other platforms, only the Server/Networked Seat licenses are available.

Note. This is not a full price comparison between SQL Server 2000 and Sybase ASE 12.5. It is only a brief comparison. Discounts may apply and the prices can be increased or decreased in the future. See Microsoft and Sybase to get more information about the price of their products.