Monthly Archives: May 2011

May 31

New Microsoft Access Query Help Center

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Microsoft AccessMicrosoft Access QueriesMicrosoft Access Queries are among the most powerful features of MS Access. We have created a new resource center to make it easy to review all our papers related to Microsoft Access Queries. These original works offer tips and techniques aren’t found anywhere else. They will help you maximize your use of Microsoft Access queries to better analyze and understand your data.

In the Microsoft Access Query Help Center you will find papers covering:

Retrieving Records

Modifying Data

Let us know what additional related topics you’d like us to add in the future.

May 31

Microsoft Access Database Scalability: How many users can it support?

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What’s the Maximum Number of Microsoft Access Users?

Microsoft Access 2013There is a persistent myth that Microsoft Access Jet databases can only support 20 or so users. Here’s my response to a recent inquiry:

I flatly refute any suggestions that Microsoft Access users are limited to around 30. We’ve run many tests and have never seen that kind of degradation in performance. It is a myth from Access 2.0 days that was eliminated with Access 97 almost two decades ago.

A poorly designed Access database won’t support two users, but a well designed Access solution can support hundreds of users. Of course, what matters is the number of simultaneous users, and what they’re doing.

At Least 200 Simultaneous Microsoft Access Users on an Access/Jet Database

If everyone is just viewing data or entering data into a table, that takes very little work and a large number of people (well over 200) can be supported. People cannot type faster than what Access can handle. If users are all running massive reports and queries with data updates, that can still be done but performance would be an issue which applies to any technology, so testing and optimization would be necessary.

Migrate Back-End Access Database to Microsoft SQL Server for More Users

Microsoft SQL ServerIf the back-end database is in SQL Server rather than an Access/Jet database, the number of users can be practically unlimited if each user has their own front-end copy of the Access application. Performance issues still apply based on what they are doing. In some cases SQL Server is slower than Access, so it is important to understand the situation before thinking SQL Server is the answer.

All that said, any Access application that is distributed to others with shared data should be a split database design. Here are a few resources we’ve written:

Total Access StartupSimplify Support for All the Users of Your Access Databases

Total Access Startup helps with the distribution of databases to each user’s desktop, and launching it with the right version of Microsoft Access.

This allows you to centrally support a large number of Access users across your network and ensure everyone is using the latest version of your application. It also simplifies the migration from one version of Access to another.

Additional Discussions

This topic was also discussed on the Microsoft Developer Network, Microsoft Access Database Scalability: How many users can it support?

Microsoft

May 16

Sentinel Visualizer Helping to Expose Human Rights Violations

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Our link analysis program, Sentinel Visualizer, continues to help organizations better manage and understand their data for some amazing missions.

Read our joint press release with London based Videre Est Credere (Seeing is Believing) on how Sentinel Visualizer is a cornerstone of their methodology for organizing their data and activities. They train and equip citizens in Africa to record human rights atrocities and expose it to the global press. We’re proud to play a role in their efforts to make a more safe and just world, and thank those who are willing to do so at great personal risk.

May 16

Luke Chung and Members of ITPAC Tour Fairfax County Public Safety and Transporation Operations Center

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Luke Chung and the other members of the Fairfax County Information Technology Policy Advisor Committee (ITPAC) toured the county’s Public Safety and Transporation Operations Center. Combining state-of-the-art emergency response technology, this secure facility is ready to respond to human and man-made disasters. The blast resistant building houses the county’s 911 response center with police and fire dispatchers, the traffic monitoring and management team, an emergency command center to coordinate really large responses, and the police forensics laboratories. Thanks for keeping us safe and a great tour of your operations!