Using PHP with MS SQL Server - Why SQL-Server?
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Microsoft is frequently jeered in the community of open source developers, and a lot of it has been well deserved. For all their bad press though, they do have some products that show they've got developers firmly in mind. One of them in SQL-Server. It has excellent performance and a great feature set, including stored procedures, views and sub selects. It also has a first rate graphical client that makes it one of the easiest database engines to manipulate.
The other reason to consider a marriage of PHP and mssql is the ubiquity of SQL Server in the corporate world. While the open source database engines are excellent, it doesn't make sense from an administrative standpoint to add an additional database server to support the web site, when SQL Server can already take care of that.
PHP is an easier sell to management if it can take advantage of your existing computing infrastructure. It makes management look good, because their choice of database server is being validated, not challenged. It also saves a buck or two, and the manager who doesn't want to make his budget stretch even further hasn't survived an annual review yet.
The fact that SQL Server is so common in business means that it's where you're going to find most of the really interesting data for web applications. Making the case for PHP means getting to that data with a minimum of fuss and delivering results quickly. PHP is a very fast language for development, especially when compared to the alternatives. Combining this development speed with direct access to the corporate data is bound to make the enterprising computer jockey look good in the eyes of management. Likewise, your boss looks good to his boss, and there's nothing like making your boss look good to help your own career.
Conclusions
With the ability of PHP and SQL Server to communicate natively, there's no reason why software development has to be split up into all open source or all Microsoft camps. It's now possible to work with the best tools that both sides have to offer. Managers and accountants will be thrilled to see that projects are being completed with less expense and less system administration overhead. Programmers will be happy to see a wider range of language choices.
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