BTR2SQL Products from Mertech Data

While the PSQL database engine is one of the fastest ones available on the market today for navigational access, there comes a time in the life cycle of any environment when the powers that be say "why PSQL?". There are many arguments for PSQL, including cost savings for implementation, zero or very low administrative costs, and super-high performance. However, sometimes you simply run out of additional arguments to justify the database engine to a potential customer. Or, perhaps you are trying to sell your product into an environment where ALL databases have been mandated to be SQL Server. Or, the site may require enterprise-class replication and clustering capability that is still missing from PSQL. What do you do?

Luckily, developers have another option! Mertech Data created a product line called BTR2SQL that can take an existing database application that uses the low-level Btrieve interface and port all of the database-level calls to a completely different back end, including SQL Server, Oracle, and PostgresSQL. This software can act as a translator, allowing the database to be physically hosted on one of these other platforms, without requiring that the entire environment be changed away from the BTRV or BTRCALL functions.

Note that this solution is NOT a simple drop-in to replace PSQL, and this is not a way to avoid buying licenses. There can be a substantial amount of effort required to get the data translated and the system tested and working on the new environment. Further, while the BTR2SQL API handles a majority of the Btrieve calls perfectly, you may have to handle any specialty function calls or work around processes which work in Btrieve but don't work in most SQL environments. The real goal of this software is to enable you to port your database to a new environment first, which can make it easier to continue using existing (legacy) code in your application while rewriting larger portions of the application to the new SQL interface.

If you are looking for more information about the features, costs, and benefits of this solution, please contact us! We can help you ascertain whether your environment is a good candidate for the BTR2SQL solution, as well as help you set up a test environment to get started.