The Era of Open Source: Migrate your Data from MS SQL to MySQL

by Allen

One of the very common
questions appearing on various developer forums is that of comparing the pros
and cons of MySQL and MS SQL. While comparisons have been made by many, mostly on technical issues, I personally find that they are difficult
to compare, especially regarding their performance.

It is not true that MS
SQL is better than MySQL or vice versa. Both products can be used to build
stable and efficient systems. The stability and effectiveness of your databases
vitally depends on your experience rather than the database itself. Both of
database have their own advantages over the another. When deciding which server to
use, it truly depends on your needs.

Despite the fact that MS
SQL and MySQL both have their own strengths, a significant number of businesses
have shifted their databases to MySQL because they keep finding good reasons to
take advantage of MySQL’s openness.

The era of Open Source

While proprietary
software still has a larger portion of the market share, Open Source Software
is waiting to conquer the market and has the potential to do so. Netcraft reported that although Apache is one
of the more recent web servers, it has more market share than other web servers,
put together do. Linux is also increasing in numbers; it is estimated as the
fastest growing operating system. While exact numbers are indeed difficult to
ascertain, most researchers estimate around 8 to 10 million Linux installations. Among the millions of
installations, the number of exact users may even exceed this figure, as Linux
is a multi-user system. This number is growing at around 40% per year. With
such rising figures, we should admit that Open Source Software does have its
advantages over closed software.

A Typical Example – NASA

In 2000, NASA’s Marshall
Space Flight Center finished the
transition
of the NASA Acquisition Internet Service to MySQL.
Representatives from NASA admitted that it may be unconventional for federal
agencies to use open-source software, however, due to the limited budget on its
massive data repository, MySQL is definitely the most robust product available.

You may wonder
why this open source revolution has been occurring in recent years. The most
visible influential reason is the Internet. The Internet makes numerous
processes possible, which are essential for the growth of the open source
movement. Among the major advantages, the Internet makes for a wonderful
accelerant of code and idea dissemination. This includes spreading the idea
that open source is good.

Why shifting to use Open Source Software?

Now, Open Source Software
becomes a compelling alternative to commercial software due to the following
advantages:

Cost Effective:
Open Source Software is often distributed free or under the General Public
License. Reasonable and inexpensive prices are charged for commercial organizations.
The cost saved can be spent on other development and support.

Transparency:
Because you can access the source code, you can always find out how the code is
working. It enables unlimited tuning and improvement of a software product.
In addition, it makes it possible to port the code to new hardware and to adapt it
to changing conditions such that it integrates perfectly with your existing
systems.

Reliability:
Open Source Software generally offers good reliability and stability. This is
due to a worldwide group of contributors who help to debug the software. Any
bugs found will tend to affect the product on a more superficial level and
require less recoding.

Take Action Now

If you
are ready to experience the rewards of Open Source Software, why not migrate
your MS SQL to MySQL? Conversion of MS SQL to MySQL can be complicated with
lengthy commands. If you do not feel comfortable with the black-and-white
command prompt, you can try out some MySQL database administration GUIs
available on the market.

Navicat

Navicat is a powerful MySQL database
administration and development tool. It provides a powerful set of tools, which
help you to administer MySQL databases locally or remotely. It also contains
import features, which allow the user to import files into MySQL databases from
ten different formats, including MS Access, MS Excel, MS Word (RTF), HTML, XML,
TXT, CSV, DBF, etc.

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