As businesses explore new ways to leverage the Internet for business operations, they have been quick to recognize that most of the business content they would like to publish is already being managed by a relational database management system. These businesses also realize that today's Web sites are measured not just on content, but on presentation and level of interaction. The more popular sites capture the Web user's interest by publishing real-time information and building customized pages. These sites put users in control, allowing them to browse large volumes of data and provide input. A client/server database like Microsoft SQL Server is needed to accomplish this.
Ethos Corporation, for example, is an interactive service provider delivering up-to-the-minute financial news and research information to more than 300,000 online investors weekly. Their Web site InvestorsEdge, http://www.investorsedge.com, is among the most active financial services sites on the Internet, offering online stock quotes, corporate summaries, financial news, and personal portfolio analysis. Microsoft SQL Server drives this site, collecting, managing, and publishing the real-time financial data—averaging 3.4 million transactions per day.
Personal portfolio analysis brings a new level of customization to the InvestorsEdge Web site, allowing each user to build an individual portfolio of 15 stocks to be tracked over time. Once established, a portfolio can be accessed only with a unique user ID and password combination, where the user views a completely personalized Web page displaying the performance history of their stocks. This sensitive information is protected by Windows NT Server and SQL Server integrated security.