Hi to all

I have to choose a DBMS and a database architecture for an Ebay like website about to be launched.

The company wants to use a web hosting service and not host the database on dedicated servers at the office.

The database will contain web-only information and lots of back end information that is not really needed to be stored on the web host.

I'm wondering how to design that part, should I store all information on the web host only ? miror that DB every evening on some local DB server to be able to use the data without eating up lots of bandwith ? separate the database in 2 parts ? how to sync and assure integrity then ? having a local DB will also mean the company will have to pay a licence for the DBMS ...

What DBMS should I pick considering that the database will have to hold at least 1 million products to sale (eBay like) and all the information that goes with it. I thought any DBMS weaker than SQL Server or Sybase or Oracle will not be enough. What do you think ?

Thanks a lot, hope I have made myself clear enough

If you haven't chosen the architecture yet, it's jumping the gun a bit to say, "it's about to be launched."

Wait a second, if you're talking about a million products it sounds like you ought to be getting a co-located server.

No it won't. You'll wind up with customer and employee information on there, and you'd better plan ahead to be able to synchronize with their office databases. I'd suggest studying their existing business functions and writing up some functional requirements. There's no way to know how it should be laid out until you've walked through where the data comes from, what's happening to it, and where it eventually goes.

Also, have a look at some open source e-commerce systems, e.g. this one, or just google "open source" "e-commerce". They probably won't do what you want, but they'll do parts of what you want and you'll be able to ask some more specific questions.

Obviously one of the largest constraints is cost. What is your budget?

Well I'm not the one that will care about budget

my job is only to decide which DBMS to use and what architecture to implement (one DB or two linked ones)

I can choose almost whatever is justified and suits the project, the budget of the project will be calculated from that, at least the IT part ...

I would not say its not a concern but Im not choosing the tools given a host and a budget, i'm doing the contrary...

Thanks a lot, I would really like to get a little bit more different points of view. I think I'll use Sybase after all, so I wonder if that'sa good choice and I still want to know your thoughts about the 2 or 1 DB design (separate Web & Billing information for example, or leave all the info in the hosted database, what techniques to use to keep the integrity and to have the latest information in-house)... Thanks a lot