Download Database Environment - Buffalo State College

CIS 411w
Database Environment
Joseph Fedyna
Date due: 4/30/2015
Contents
Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 1
Hardware .............................................................................................................................................. 1
Software ............................................................................................................................................... 1
Summary ............................................................................................................................................... 2
Graphics ................................................................................................................................................ 2
Introduction
I work for a medium-large size organization. My primary job duties involve creation,
management, and distribution of database systems. Most of my work is done through Microsoft Access.
At this point in time, I have built many databases ranging greatly in terms of complexity and features.
Hardware
The hardware at my workplace is pretty straightforward. I work from a desktop computer at my
office which is separate from the main building. At my office, we have a small file server which everyone
who works at the office is connected to. Smaller databases, which only the office uses, are stored on this
server. At the main building a few miles away, the core hardware (servers, core switches, firewall) is
housed. I also have connections to other file systems from these servers where databases I work in are
stored. In addition, I have connections to the SQL servers. The current servers used are 2014 HP brand
blade servers and utilize RAID for redundancy. We chose to go with equipment leasing options that
allow us constant support and upgrades to our hardware. The hardware itself is stored in a climate
controlled room with physical keycard and biometric security devices in place. Server backups are stored
off-site in a similar type of physically controlled environment. As far as networking is concerned, fiber
optic cabling connects all remote site servers to the core ones.
Software
As previously stated, most of my work is done inside of Microsoft Access 2010. We are planning
a mass upgrade to Microsoft Office 2013 products in the near future, though. Inside Access I will work
with just about every object type, but I predominantly build tables, forms, and queries. I rarely will use
macros as I much prefer VBA. VBA offers a lot of flexibility in design and allows implementation of more
complex tasks or logic.
For larger projects, I will use Microsoft SQL Server 2012 for the backend database. The SQL
Server Management Studio offers a nice way to modify or create database structure. For the front end,
we will mostly still use Access forms and design. Although it may not be the best solution, we have been
using Access for a long time and will continue to do so because of licensing and general acceptance. We
do not have any dedicated in-house development and migrating all databases to SQL servers would be
1
too costly for our needs. However, I have built front end interfaces in Microsoft Visual Studio before
using C# and Visual Basic.
Other tools that were once used, or are rarely used, are Microsoft Excel and Microsoft
SharePoint. Excel can be very useful for having to import and export table data. Sometimes there are
departments who request data in the CSV format for use in other external applications. At one period in
time we were trying to make a push to Microsoft SharePoint for a better way to share the database
information across different departments. While a nice application, we did not have someone directly
managing it, so it is not used as often as had been planned.
Summary
In conclusion, my database environment is pretty streamlined. On the software end, we rely
heavily on Microsoft products. As for hardware, we keep up to date on equipment upgrades to keep our
daily operations running smoothly. Our environment is very conducive for database operations.
Graphics

Basic desktop specs
2

Basic form and query in Access

Very simple VBA example
3

Creating a new database in SQL Server Management Studio

Creating a dataset from database objects to be used in Visual Studio
4

Modifying the dataset in Visual Studio
5