Wrapper for mySQL to make it look like SQL Server?

Question

We use a Microsoft SQL Server-powered system in our small family business. This is our main retail system.

I am sick and tired of running a server in-house and the business cannot afford a hosted (remote) SQL Server solution. The family business is a small, stable but not (yet) rapidly-growing retailer so does not have a serious budget for technology.

Looking at Google's new cloud-based SQL service, I see it is mySQL not SQL Server.

Does anyone know of a driver etc. to make mySQL look like SQL Server?

Then our in-store system could use cloud-based mySQL as if it were SQL Server and we could stop worrying about backups, servers, up-time etc.

We could then use the time saved to earn enough revenue to pay for a hosted solution!

Answer 1

I don't know about a translator either. However, did you look at one of the managed database services for SQL Server out there like SQL Azure or Amazon RDS.

SQL Server Azure (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/ee336279.aspx) is not completely compatible to a full SQL Server installation but it gets close.

Amazon's Relational Database Service (https://aws.amazon.com/rds/) lets you select between MySQL, Oracle and SQL Server. It is running the full SQL Server under the covers but has a few restrictions too.

Both services allow you to not have to worry about hosting the server itself. However, database maintenance like backups, index maintenance and some performance tuning is still up to you.