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MS Access is not a true relational database management
system. While it is a relational database because it
stores data in relational tables, it is not a
management system. MS Access has no (or very, very
little) concept of multi-user transactions, multi-user
security, and other things that define database
system. MS Access has been designed from the beginning
as a single user database.
MS SQL Server and Oracle RDMBS are both relational
database management systems. They are multi-user,
multi-transaction systems. In that respect, they are
the same thing. But they come from two different
vendors. And each vendor likes to implement things a
little differently. Sometimes, one vendor does things
"better" and sometimes, they do worse. For a
comparison of the two, go to searchDatabase and do
a search on the following keywords, "oracle sql server
comparison". Many links of very useful information
will be presented to you.
Oracle 8, 8i, and 9i are different versions of
Oracle's RDBMS software. It's like asking "what's the
difference between Windows 3.1, 95, 98, 2000, and XP?"
Each successive version improves on the previous
versions. Each successive version of Oracle introduces
many new features to make the database more robust,
more powerful and easier to use. The list of
differences between each version is quite lengthy. So
much so, that the Getting to Know Oracle XX (where XX
is the version number) manual highlights the numerous
"improvements".
Oracle 11i is not a database system. It is Oracle
Corporation's business application package. This
package is designed to run the books (i.e. payroll,
accounts payable/receivable) of a business among other
things.
Lots of factors come into play when deciding on a back end. First, you have to
decide on the application usage on the front end to
help you decide if the back end can handle it. How many
users are initially expected? How many concurrent
transactions are initially expected? What platform
and/or methodology will the application use? After
these questions are answered, you then need to look at
where you expect the application to grow in the
future. Do you expect an increase in usage? If so,
then you'll want a database that scales well. Other
things to consider are your existing staff skill sets.
If all of your DBAs are Oracle-trained, then you might
not want to deploy DB2. If all of your System
Administrators are Unix Admins, then throwing Windows
platforms at them might cause a minor revolt. This
would eliminate SQL Server from consideration.
In the end, there are no easy metrics to decide which
back end to use. This type of engineering is best left
to people who have had lots of experience in this
arena. My suggestion is to hire a consultant if you do
not have the in-house staff capable of making a good
decision.
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