Excel Versus SQL

[Martina_Hawkins]

We are using Excel as a source for our data. Moving to Google is not an option as we are tied into Microsoft 365.

We are constantly getting the attached error which is getting very frustrating.

Too many requests are being sent to the Apps Microsoft Storage account.  This can happen when a large number of people use the app at the same time or if the apps spreadsheets contain a large amount of data to process...

(Can't seem to find how to attach a file from the computer like in the old community.)

Apps are also very slow to sync.

My question is, what are the pros and cons of moving the data to SQL?

Is this likely to solve the above issues.  Have about 100 users using around 60 Apps. Not all users use all apps. some Apps are complex and some are very simple.

What about cost? Paying $10/user at the minute

Any other sugesstions welcome.  We know about limiting virtual columns and Select statements and using security filters. We need the VC's and Select statements to give the Apps the functionality that we need. Also know about not having Excel spreadsheets open.

[SkrOYC]

I can relate about the cost.

It's going to be USD20/user/month with a minimum of 20 users

It should work better, also security filters are translated to select on the sql database.

More info can be found on the office hours of this month:

AppSheet Office Hours: Data Source Connections Featuring Google Drive Folders - YouTube

[graham_howe]

In short you do have some options to improve performance by moving from spreadsheets to SQL. There is some specific information here Scaling Using Security Filters | AppSheet Help Center which mentions the advantage with SQL. There is also some information at Copying an Existing App to a SQL Database | AppSheet Help Center which does suggest that plain conversion to SQL of an existing application may not provide all the benefits. So I would suggest that the answer to "Will moving the data to SQL resolve your issues?" is "possibly". If the apps today are loading far more data than they need and that is causing performance problems, then the more advanced options available with security filters and backend queries could well improve performance. However if tables are very large and have been built from a spreadsheet perspective then they may well need some redesign to get the best out of SQL. Such redesign could of course require significant application development, testing and training.

As far as cost is concerned, you would need to work with Google/AppSheet, but it is clear from AppSheet Pricing that SQL connections are not available in the Core product.