Microsoft Access is a popular data management application that allows you to store information in tables that it manages directly from the local disk. You can also use Access as a front end, that is, as an interface to information that is located else where and handled by another storage management system. In this case, Access acts as a client that connects to a server that provides the data. The MySQL database system is one such storage manager; if you install the MyODBC driver, Access can make ODBC connections to MySQL servers over the network. You can still use the contents of your tables through Access, but the tables themselves are hosted by the MySQL server.
Access has its strengths, such as an easy to use interface. Access also has its limitations—it's generally used as a personal or single-user application, typically for managing limited amounts of data. (Access is not commonly used for databases hundreds of megabytes in size, for example.) Because of its storage management limitations, you may be considering how to retain the Access interface but migrate your information to a storage manager with greater capabilities. Or you may even be considering a move away from Access entirely. This article outlines some benefits that you stand to gain by using MySQL to manage your data, and provides some guidelines to help you migrate locally stored Access tables to MySQL. The final section of the article lists links to locations where you can find the tools discussed here.
