If your website uses a database, whether it's Microsoft SQL or MySQL, that database should live on a server dedicated to, and optimized for, database hosting. Database hosting at Winhost is all done on specialized, dedicated database servers. Your databases never share hardware with a web server or any other kind of server (Microsoft Access is the exception to that rule, as an Access database is stored on your web server).
- Microsoft SQL databases are relational databases (Microsoft SQL Server is an RDBMS: Relational Database Management System). Microsoft SQL databases are used for workloads ranging from small applications to large Internet applications with many concurrent users. Microsoft SQL databases have been around for a long time, starting with SQL Server 1.0, which was developed for the OS/2 operating system in 1989.
- MySQL databases are relational databases like Microsoft SQL, but MySQL is open source, meaning there are no licensing fees to pay when setting up a MySQL server. The first version of MySQL appeared in 1995.
- The "SQL" in MySQL and Microsoft SQL stands for Structured Query Language. SQL is the most popular language for content management in a database (it differs from "NoSQL" databases because it is structured, where NoSQL does not use table relations like relational databases such as Microsoft SQL and MySQL). SQL is widely used due to its quick processing, reliability and ease and flexibility of use.
- Microsoft Access is another database from Microsoft that combines the relational Microsoft Jet Database Engine with a GUI interface and software development tools. Microsoft Access was first released in 1992, and remains a popular database for desktop use.