A Brief Comparison of Two Enterprise-Class RDBMSs

TL;DR

This paper compares Microsoft SQL Server and PostgreSQL by implementing schemas, analyzing activities, and assessing support, providing insights into their similarities, differences, and enterprise suitability.

Contribution

It offers a practical comparison of two enterprise RDBMSs through implementation and activity analysis, highlighting support levels and standards adherence.

Findings

Identified 26 common activities in schema implementation

Compared support levels for activities between systems

Provided a ranking of system implementations

Abstract

This paper is an extended version of a report from a student-developed study to compare Microsoft SQL Server and PostgreSQL, two widely-used enterprise-class relational database management systems (RDBMSs). The study followed an introductory undergraduate course in relational systems and was designed to help gain practical understanding of specific DBMSs. During this study, we implemented three non-trivial schemas in each system, identified 26 common database design, development, and administration activities while implementing the schemas, and compared the support each system offers to carry out the identified activities. Where relevant, we also compared each system against the SQL standard. In this report, we present a summary of the similarities and differences we found between the two systems, and we provide a quantitative measure ranking both systems' implementations of the 26 activities. We also briefly discuss the "technical suitability" of PostgreSQL to enterprise applications. Although this report is not comprehensive and is too general to comment on the suitability of either system to a specific enterprise application, it can nevertheless provide an initial set of considerations and criteria to choose a system for most enterprise applications.