Two of the most popular database systems used by web developers today are Oracle and Microsoft's MS SQL server. Both are similar in regards to being storage and retrieval systems. The two systems support primary keys, along with key indices which allow you to speed up queries and constrain input. Furthermore, both systems offer some form of support for XML.

Oracle and MS SQL integrates seamlessly with a number of programming languages and other web-based technologies. Oracle is committed to offering choice, flexibility, and a lower cost of computing for end users. By investing significant resources in developing, testing, optimizing, and supporting open source technologies such as Linux, PHP, .net, Apache, Eclipse, Berkeley DB, Oracle is clearly embracing and offering open source solutions as a viable choice for development and deployment. We cannot stress the importance of using open standards enough, whether in the context of open source or non-open source software.

MS SQL/C#.net Available as an option with a UNIX website hosting account, a MS SQL database backend used with .net scripting, is a tried and tested web designer's favorite for building database driven web site development, dynamic websites & database driven web application. The MS SQL/ C#.net combination is ideally suited to solving those problems posed by website designs that are not scalable, maintainable, or technically feasible using conventional HTML authoring techniques. MS SQL provides a fast, reliable and easy-to-use database solution that is ideal for retrieving product information and storing customer information.

An Oracle and MS SQL data source allows you to use SQL queries to connect to an uploaded database file. SQL statements can be embedded into your Active Server Pages, with the query being executed when the page is requested. The output of the query can then be used to create the Web page.

If you want your website to deliver excellent customer service and enable your customers to be able to search intuitively for your products, a database will become a vital component of your online strategy.
A database allows you to publish your products online and make searching and selecting easy for your customers. The speed and simplicity a database provides, will improve customer satisfaction and retention of online customers.