This post originated from an RSS feed registered with .NET Buzz by Sam Gentile. Original Post: SQL Server 2005 Express, MSDE, Access and the Desktop Database Scenario Feed Title: Sam Gentile's Blog Feed URL: http://samgentile.com/blog/Rss.aspx Feed Description: .NET and Software Development from an experienced perspective - .NET/CLR, Rotor, Interop, MC+/C++, COM+, ES, Mac OS X, Extreme Programming and More! Latest .NET Buzz Posts Latest .NET Buzz Posts by Sam Gentile Latest Posts From Sam Gentile's Blog

Arguably, the most important thing to come out of today, especially for us Architect types, is SQL Server 2005 Express and what will happen on the desktop database scene. Scott W has already declared the “death of MSDE.” With a powerful set of features, it's inevitable:

• Support for XCopy style deployment
• No workload governor
• Support for databases up to 4Gb in size
• Support for up to 50 instances
• Only supports 1 processor
• Only supports 512 Mb of RAM

Thats probably a good thing as licensing and redistributable issues with both MSDE and SQL CE (on desktop) have been extremely problematic. If SQL Server 2005 Express doesn't have the those issues, then it will be the desktop database of choice. Access? Well, let's say I come from the school of thought that believes in full relational databases and leave it at that. That being said, many large IT shops lock down all the machines and do not ever allow the installation of MSDE or IIS and the like. Access helps out here as it is viewed as part of Microsoft Office which they have standardized on and do allow, so it's there. Going forward, this is going to be an interesting area for Architects, Product Planners, and Developers to figure out when there are dependencies on local data stores.