Thanks for the information you provided, especially the blog link.
Sorry if I wasn't clear in my original post. Performance is always an
issue but I certainly understand that there are tradeoffs when dealing
with a multiple configuration environment.

I'd love to go SNAC only. I just need to be certain that using it
won't cause our customers using SQL Server 2000 to take a performance
hit. Guess I'll put some people to work benchmarking that scenario.

Thanks again
Mark
Atlanta GA




On Mon, 21 Apr 2008 15:42:12 -0400, "Sylvain Lafontaine" <sylvain aei
ca (fill the blanks, no spam please)> wrote:

>Ah, now we are beginning to see a little clearer into your real problem. In
>your original post, you have expressed the point that your main concern was
>to only get the best performance possible in all cases; even if this was to
>give you some extra complication in the setup process but now, you are
>speaking more about the possibility of installation problems because of the
>need to support hundreds of customers, with many different versions of
>Windows and SPs.
>
>On the blog for the SQL Native Client (SNAC), you will find a lot of useful
>information about its differences with the other ODBC or OLEDB drivers for
>SQL-Server and its support for various OS:
>
>http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlnativeclient/
>
>The problem with the SNAC is that you will probably have to distribute it
>with your installation setup (or at least, provide the link to download it).
>However, its biggest advantage is that unlike the MDAC, not only that you
>will be sure to not have any problem because of a difference of version of
>the installed MDAC but also, you can also be sure (up to 100%) that you
>won't break anything on the user's machine; something that you cannot say if
>you take the precaution (?) of installing the latest available version of
>MDAC on the client's machines.
>
>Probably that there are still a lot of clients around here with older
>machines and versions of MDAC (I still have some clients with Access 97).
>They won't be happy if you break something on their machine by installing
>the most recent version of MDAC (or worse, an older version). However, by
>installing the SNAC (if they don't have it), you can be sure - probably with
>100% of certainty - that you won't mess anything on their machine and even
>more, you can even garantee that to your clients.
>
>It will also be easier to upgrade your application in the future with new
>functionalities if you start by using the SNAC right now. If you start with
>a mix of MDAC (many versions) and SNAC (version 9) from the beginning, it
>won't be so easy.
>
>My opinion: your application is a new application and whenever it's
>possible, a new application should always use the lasted driver if it can do
>so.