Difference Between MySQL and MS SQL Server

MySQL vs MS SQL Server

MySQL

MySQL is an open source database management system. It is highly popular because of its high reliability, ease of use and high performance. MySQL is used for many latest applications that are built on Apache, Linux, Perl/PHP etc. Many popular organizations such as Google, Alcatel Lucent, Facebook, Zappos and Adobe rely on this database management system.

MySQL can run on more than twenty platforms that include MAC OS, Windows, Linux, IBM AIX, HP-UX and provides much flexibility. A wide variety of database tools, services, training and support is provided by MySQL database system. MySQL comes in different editions:

Enterprise Edition

This edition provides OLTP (Scalable Online Transaction Processing) database applications and also delivers high quality performance. Its capabilities include rollback, row level locking, full commit and crash recovery. To manage as well as improve performance of large database systems, database partitioning is also allowed by this edition.

The Enterprise Edition includes MySQL Enterprise Backup, Enterprise Monitor, Query Analyzer and MySQL WorkBench.

Standard Edition

This edition also provides OLTP applications as well as high performance. The standard edition also includes InnoDB that makes it ACID compliant and a transaction-safe database. To deliver scalable applications and high performance, replication is also allowed by this database system.

Classic Edition

It is the ideal database system for OEMs, VARs and ISVs that use MyISAM storage engine to develop read intensive applications. The classic edition is easy to use and requires low administration. However, this edition is only for VARs, ISVs and OEMs. One can easily upgrade to more advanced editions from the classic edition.

SQL Server

SQL Server is a RDBMS (Relational Database Management System) developed by Microsoft. This system works on Transact-SQL which is a set of programming extensions from Microsoft and Sybase. T-SQL adds other features that include error and exception handling, transaction control, declared variables and row processing. However, Sybase developed the original SQL Server back in 1980s. The final version was called SQL Server 4.2 that was developed in collaboration with Ashton-Tate, Sybase and Microsoft for OS/2.

SQL Server 2005 was launched in the month of November 2005. This version provided enhanced reliability, flexibility, security and scalability to database applications.

The features provided by SQL Server are:

Database Mirroring – Using SQL Server, one can set up automatic failure recovery in case of a standby server.

Online Indexing Operations – SQL Server also allows concurrent modifications such as inserts, deletes and updates.

Management Studio – Management studio is a set of tools that allows users to deploy, troubleshoot and develop SQL server databases.

Data Partitioning – Efficient management of indexes and large tables is provided with data partitioning which is enhanced with index portioning and native tables.

For Businesses, SQL server also provides Integration Services, Reporting Services, Data mining, key performance indicators, clustering support, proactive caching and repot building. It also provides integration with Microsoft Office.

To sum up, – MySQL is an open source database management system whereas SQL Server is developed by Microsoft – MySQL can run on more than twenty platforms whereas SQL Server does not support wide variety of platforms