ORACLE or SQL

[woo]

HI GUYS -

we are getting new version of the SAS 9.3 and i am wondering which would give me more flexibility in case of database conenctivity... we have discussion getting ORACLE and SQL databse getting on board...i am thinking using SQL would be have more flexibility...please advise...

Thanks!

[jakarman]

All depends on the system you are running on (Windows Unix) and the most common dbms you are needing to access

Your question looks to be one of chosing one additional access module.
What do you have?

[Reeza]

Are you installing SAS on the server or connecting SAS to the server?

If installing SAS on the server that's a different question.

If connecting, to be honest it doesn't seem to matter. Oracle and MS SQL have slightly different implementations and functions but not significant enought that it would matter.

If the server will be used for other things then I *think* that MS SQL could win some pluses if it has Reporting Services and Analytical Services because those are some fun tools. Oracle probably has its own version of those tools as well.

[woo]

we are upgrading from sas 9.1.3 to sas 9.3 and database will be ORACLE or SQL...SAS 9.1.3 is on windows but we are getting sas 9.3 on UNIX...and we are thinking about ORACLE or SQL...

[TomKari]

There are enormous numbers of factors in deciding which DBMS to select. I strongly suggest you look outside of SAS-oriented areas for this information, as SAS users don't really need to be experts on the underlying databases.

That being said, here are a couple of my thoughts:

1. If the DBMS is being run on a Unix-flavoured server (not clear from your post), your decision is made. SQL Server only runs on the Windows platform. Note also that it can be challenging to connect to SQL Server from SAS on Unix.

2. If your only use of the DBMS is to access it from SAS, think of other non-OLTP data products that are better suited to analytics than SQL Server or Oracle.

3. If an OLTP-oriented DBMS is required, I suggest you add DB2 and Sybase ASE to your list of "major" products. All four products interact very well with SAS. Which one you should acquire should be decided on non-SAS factors.

Tom

[woo]

thanks guys...