by noah | Mar 20, 2023 | MS Access
Data is at the heart of everything we do. Whether you’re in charge of a nonprofit, small business or large corporation, you can’t do what you do without reliable data. But having data isn’t enough on its own – you need to know how to capture it and collect it in a timely manner, as well as understand and use it appropriately. Fortunately, there are tools out there that will help you do this more effectively.
Microsoft Dataverse is a simple, end-to-end, secure and scalable SaaS data service. It’s available to businesses and organizations that want to gather real-time, useful business intelligence. Dataverse is part of the Power Platform, which means your business won’t have to write much code, if at all.
If you are thinking about migrating your data to Dataverse, here are the benefits you can look forward to.
Simplify data for your business or organization.
Things can get complicated when you have data coming in from multiple systems and applications, and you’re trying to create a common data storage solution. To make matters more confusing, you’ll have to create custom integrations for data that can’t be easily shared. Luckily, Dataverse simplifies this by giving users a shared data store and language.
Create data infrastructure with no coding.
Little to no coding experience is required to work with Dataverse. One issue we see with clients is that they pay to have an expensive solution set up by a third party, and then they have to keep paying the organization to keep the database running. But this isn’t the case with Dataverse. Once set up, it’s easy to continue using Dataverse, and you pay an affordable price through Power Apps.
Assign roles and secure your data.
By default, Dataverse secures your data and only allows access to users that are given the appropriate permissions. Your business or organization can determine the roles you want to give employees, as well as their individual privileges. This ensures that only authorized users can access your data. Furthermore, Dataverse includes two security models: the manager hierarchy and position hierarchy. You can learn more about these models here.
Get interactive analytics and reporting.
Dataverse can be used to gain insights and drive business action using analytics and reporting. In fact, there are a variety of ways that you can deliver data and insight to make key decisions for your business, such as by creating lightweight charts and paginated reports. The data can also be with Power BI to create and publish reports that are interactive and engaging.
Ensure a scalable solution with 99% uptime.
Dataverse is built to meet enterprise-level scalability needs, and it has a 99.9 percent uptime. To ensure that users get the best experience possible, Dataverse uses licenses and service protection limits. Licenses govern the number of requests users can make each day, and service protection limits protect against malicious behavior that could otherwise disrupt service for users.
If you’re ready to migrate Microsoft Access data to Dataverse, contact Arkware today. We can help you migrate data, set up backups, assign roles and more. As a result, you’ll have a consistent solution for your data, apps and business processes.
by noah | Mar 10, 2023 | Database, MS Access
Looking to open up a world of new opportunities with cloud and mobile scenarios for Microsoft Access? The combination of Access and Microsoft Dataverse with Power Platform will do this for you! This combination unlocks hybrid solution scenarios that keep the value and ease of Access together with cloud-based storage in a number of ways.
Microsoft created more hybrid solutions for one reason: customers have been asking for them! They’ve requested new front end app scenarios on mobile devices or with Microsoft Teams, the ability to have real-time sharing and editing of Access data and new security and compliance capacities.
Fortunately, Microsoft has delivered on all of these, and the new features are available for users just like you! You can now share Access data with Dataverse, a cloud database that lets you build Power Platform apps, automate workflows, virtual agents and more for the phone, web or tablet.
What is Microsoft Dataverse?
Dataverse is the backbone of the Power Platform and it can store data that has been shared across multiple applications. Data within Dataverse is stored within a set of tables. A table is a set of rows and columns. Each column is designed to store a certain type of data, such as name, age or income.
You are able to create your own custom tables in Dataverse, or you are free to use the standard tables that cover typical scenarios. Some reasons to use Dataverse include:
- Easy to manage. When using Dataverse, both the metadata and data are stored in the cloud. You don’t have to worry about how your data is being stored!
- Easy to secure. Additionally, data is stored securely so that people can only see it if you grant them access to do so. We recommend assigning roles so that you can control who sees what.
- Access Dynamics 365 data. Data from your Dynamics 365 applications is also stored in Dataverse, allowing you to build apps with this data and extend your apps with Power Apps.
- Works with all types of data. Dataverse is even designed to work with all types of data, including relational, non-relational, file, image, search and data lake. This makes it easy to quickly define relationships, tables, workflows and more.
Migrating Data to Dataverse
If you decide to migrate data to Dataverse, we recommend backing up your database first. There are a number of steps you’ll need to follow, which you can find here. They include the following:
- Creating and specifying a Dataverse environment.
- Exporting data from Access to Dataverse.
- Selecting tables and related tables.
- Creating linked tables in Access to the migrated tables in Dataverse.
- Managing primary keys, names and relationships.
- Validating the data export.
- Previewing results in Access and Dataverse.
If you are ready to migrate Access data to Dataverse, contact the database experts at Arkware. We can show you how to manage your data safely and securely so that you can get the most use out of Access, Dataverse and Power Platform.
by noah | Feb 21, 2023 | Database
SQL Server Express is Microsoft’s free database edition, and it can be used in the Azure Cloud. It’s a great solution for small server-driven applications. It provides many of the same features of the paid, full versions of Microsoft SQL Server database management systems, though it does have technical restrictions that make it unsuitable for some larger applications.
Since there are so many database products from Microsoft, it’s easy to get confused! This post will explain SQL Server Express in more detail, what you can expect from it and who we recommend it for. Remember, this is just general advice. For personalized recommendations, schedule a consultation with Arkware.
What is SQL Server Express, Exactly?
Microsoft SQL Server Express is a version of Microsoft’s SQL Server relational database management system. It is free to download, use and distribute, and it specifically targets small-scale applications. Since the product is free to use, there are some limitations to be aware of.
For example, SQL Server Express has limited capacity:
- 10GB maximum database size
- 1GB maximum memory used by the database engine
- 1 MB maximum buffer cache
Fortunately, there are plenty of benefits to using SQL Server Express. They include:
- Fully supported by Microsoft, including patches and updates
- Automated backups
- Scalable and 100% compatible with paid editions
- Impressive features such as business intelligence, reporting and advanced analytics
While SQL Server Express does have its limitations in terms of size, CPU and memory, it’s far from an inferior product. It can be a great solution for lightweight or standalone applications, and it can be upgraded to any paid edition when the need arises.
Who Might Benefit from SQL Server Express?
Due to its limitations, SQL Server Express is useful for a niche audience, such as independent software vendors, developers and hobbyists building client applications. Again, if you need more advanced features, you can update to another version of SQL Server.
There is also SQL Server Express LocalDB, which is a lightweight version of Express. It has the same programmability features, runs in user mode and has a fast, zero-configuration installation. LocalDB can serve as an embedded database for a small application, whereas SQL Server Express is a more robust, full-featured database solution.
Still have questions about whether SQL Server Express is right for you? Schedule a consultation with the database programming experts from Arkware.
by noah | Feb 11, 2023 | Database
When you need something that’s faster and more powerful than Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server and Azure SQL are possible alternatives. Both are relational database management systems, but there are key differences between the two. The main difference is that SQL Server is on-premise software, whereas Azure SQL is a cloud-based service.
Let’s learn more about these two relational databases and which one is right for your business or organization.
SQL Server
SQL Server is built upon SQL, a standard programming language for interacting with relational databases. It functions similarly to other databases with tables relating to one another, though the core component is the SQL Server Database Engine that controls processing, data storage and security.
SQL Server also includes a relational engine that processes commands and queries, as well as a storage engine that manages database files, tables, pages and more. Other notable features include data encryption and fine-grained auditing. Most of these features are also supported by Azure.
We recommend SQL Server for medium and large businesses that need a better solution than Microsoft Access. Microsoft SQL Server can handle large quantities of database queries, as well as offers better performance, security and capacity. There is a learning curve, however, as SQL Server has more features and is more difficult to set up and manage.
Azure SQL
Azure SQL is based on SQL Server, so they both share many similarities. You can migrate applications with ease and continue to use the tools, languages and resources you are familiar with. Plus, Azure SQL applies automated updates and patches and monitors your data for threats.
Even though Azure SQL and SQL Server share a lot of similarities, they are also very different. In SQL Server, databases are the only entity on the database server. In Azure SQL, a single database can host databases from different customers. This means that it shares its physical resources with all the clients who use that service.
We recommend Azure SQL for businesses and organizations that want a cloud-based service and a managed service, which means that Microsoft will manage the infrastructure and security. This allows businesses to reduce costs and streamline operations. And like other cloud services, you only pay for what you use with Azure SQL.
Hopefully this basic breakdown has provided you with some insight on the differences between Azure SQL and SQL Server. It’s important to choose the right database solution so that you can run your business efficiently while streamlining operations and reducing costs. To discuss your options for a new or upgraded database, contact Arkware today.
by noah | Jan 22, 2023 | Database
One of the most important parts of using a database like Microsoft Access is to understand the different types of relationships. Database relationships are associations between tables. They are created using join statements to retrieve data.
There are three main types of relationships to familiarize yourself with: one-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-many. In this post, we’re going to go into more detail regarding these relations so that you know how they work and what their purpose is.
One-to-One Relationship
In a one-to-one relationship, one record in a table is associated with one and only one record in another table. For example, in a school database, each student has a student ID, and the ID is assigned to only one student.
One-to-one relationships are the least common but easiest to visualize. Other examples of a one-to-one relationship are:
- A customer has a single customer ID
- A driver has only one license
- Addresses are related to a single zip code
One-to-Many Relationship
In a one-to-many relationship, one record in a table can be associated with one or more records in another table. An example of this would be a customer sales database that tracks orders. One customer can have many sales orders.
One-to-many relationships are most common and include the following examples:
- A city can have many zip codes
- A state can have many cities
- A student can be registered to many classes
Many-to-Many Relationship
A many-to-many relationship happens when multiple records in a table are associated with multiple records in another table. For instance, customers can purchase various products, and various products can be purchased by many customers.
It’s important to note that most relational databases do not support many-to-many relationships. To avoid this problem, you can use a third table to break up the many-to-many relationship into two one-to-many relationships.
Many-to-many relationships are flexible. Examples of these relationships are:
- The members in a family can own multiple pets
- A doctor has many patients, and the patients see multiple doctors
- Each class has multiple students, and the students take multiple classes
Relationships are the Cornerstone of Relational Databases
Understanding how database relationships work is an important part of using relational databases. Using relations, you can query the database and get results by combining data from different tables into a single table. But in order for the data to be useful, you must know how the information is related.
To learn more about database relationships, contact the database experts from Arkware. We’ll be happy to give you the tools and resources you need to maximize the use of your database. It’s also important that your database is set up correctly so that your queries, forms and reports are accurate.
