Paul Goepfert
Paul Goepfert is the Marketing Manager for ERP vendor Pronto Software. @PaulGoepfert
Website URL: http://www.pronto.com.au
Licensing Linux as Open Source (GPL) in 1992 proved to be a major milestone to the success of the Operating System (OS) created by Linux Torvalds. Twenty years on, Linux is one of the more successful OS and a de-facto standard for website hosting servers.
The current buzz in retail is all about multi-channel, online and virtual stores. You may think that technology is changing retail, but going back to basics, faster processors and smarter devices are not the main causes of the shift, it’s all about traffic!
I just came across promotional advertising from an ERP vendor offering a few licenses for a very low price. While this sounded like a very good offer, a closer inspection of what was included presented a few questions worth asking.
Digging into the "terms & conditions", I discovered that this offer excluded many of the required components to run their system. I thought to myself, how can this vendor maintain their investment in R&D and offer the long-term commitment needed to support their customers?
Getting started
For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the first point to consider when choosing a database is how easy it is to deploy. I recently started developing websites for several not-for-profit associations and decided on a database based of the ease of installation. To create a content management system for these websites, I simply installed the open source XAMPP web server stack and everything I needed, including MySQL, was there ready to go. Of course, the fact that open source software is free is an added bonus for a voluntary organisation.
As small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) incorporate complex IT systems into their infrastructure, they need to invest in a scalable database to act as a robust repository for their business-critical data. Many businesses still use spreadsheets to run some company processes, but as the enterprise grows, outdated methods no longer cut the mustard.
There are a number of reasons you might need a new database. Many software vendors require a database back-end for their business, for example. Or you may want to update or expand on a database you already use to support your website or accounting processes.
