Microsoft Access has been developed as a desktop database management system for individuals or small groups of users. It is perfect for small and medium size databases and supports simultaneous access over the network. At the same time MS Access cannot be used for large and complicated projects since it does not support client-server architecture that is necessary for advanced DBMS. This is the reason why many companies migrate their data from Microsoft Access to MySQL as more powerful, reliable and inexpensive database management system.
Reasons to Migrate
- MS Access and MySQL can work together as front-end and back-endcor respondingly. This approach allow sto keep user friendly interface of Microsoft Access for new system.
- All popular programming languages (C++, PHP, Perl, Python, etc)provide free APIs to work with MySQL on any platforms.
- MySQL allows to create database driven websites, catalogues or corporate portals
- As every enhanced DBMS, MySQL supports native client-server architecture and so can handle many simultaneous connections to database.
- MySQL implements comprehensive concept of user roles and permissions for more control over data access
- MySQL has open source distribution with a lot of free tools and frameworks and cost of commercial licenses is relatively low. Therefore migration to MySQL can reduce total cost of the ownership(TCO) compared to another advanced database management systems.
How to Migrate MS Access Database to MySQL
There are multiple approaches to migration of Microsoft Access database to MySQL server ranged from manual conversion to turn-key automated process. The most straight forward option is known as extract-transform-load (ETL)approach. It includes extracting MS Access data into temporary storage, converting it into the destination format and loading to MySQL database. Obviously, this solution requires essential manual efforts and so implies high risk of errors due to the human factor. Some other Access to MySQL migration methods are listed below.
Use MS Access for Data Export
First part of migration procedure can be handled by Microsoft Access since it can export data into plain text file. Then this file can be imported into existing MySQL tables either by running ‘LOAD DATA’ statement or via special tool mysql import. This method also requires some manual efforts to create MySQL tables before data migration.
Use Special Migration Tools
In order to avoid human efforts at all it is reasonable to use dedicated commercial tools that can fully automate migration from MS Access to MySQL with just a few clicks of mouse button. Even better if migration tool supports command line, it allows to script and schedule the process.
Being one of software vendors specializing in database migration since 2001, Intelligent Converters company offers the tool to automate migration of MS Access databases to MySQL server. Visit https://www.convert-in.com/access-to-mysql.htm to learn more about Microsoft Access to MySQL converter.