Microsoft is set release a new database engine this week designed to help developers bridge the gap between its Jet 4.0 engine for resource-limited platforms, and the enterprise level SQL Server. The Microsoft Data Engine (MDE) could be used by developers to scale small database applications up to enterprise size or vice versa.
Microsoft is well behind the pack in its database offering and is struggling to hold onto existing customers, let alone add new ones. With Sybase, Oracle and IBM already offering databases for the mobile and handheld markets, MDE does not bring Microsoft level with its competitors. The Jet 4.0 Engine, which is aimed at the desktop market, is still Microsoft’s smallest scale database offering, requiring around 4Mb of hard drive space. MDE takes around 33Mb to 40Mb, so is unlikely to help displace Jet. Microsoft said it does not expect that either of these database engines will be the basis of an offering for the mobile and handheld market, leaving it open whether Microsoft has anything on the road map at all.
MDE will be available free from the Microsoft web site developers already licensed to use Visual Studio 6.0 and ship in June with Access 2000, the desktop database which will be included in Office 2000. Microsoft will be showcasing MDE at the Tech Ed developers conference this week in Dallas.
