What is the most reliable programming language/server for an online based database?

I'm working on a website and hopefully expecting a decent amount of traffic. Mainly, the site will serve as a search portal to other sites in the related category, also, as a sidekick, the site will be hosting multimedia content (live webcams: either Java or Flash based). Database wise, i'm looking for something reliable to manage the clients' profiles along with the users' accounts.What is the most reliable programming language/server for an online based database?
Hey Virtual B -





That's a tough one, because the answer is continually changing.





For one thing, reliability cannot be accurately measured beyond a certain level. We don't have any fool proof method of examining software for bugs that haven't happened yet. And servers/languages are very complicated.





So what we're left with is examining the performance histories of different software packages, hoping that this will be a good predictor of future reliability.





However, as any stock market analyst will tell you, ';past performance is not necessarily an indicator of future performance.';





One reason is that servers are continually being upgraded. Another reason is that hackers are continually targeting different servers.





So, in the past, most hackers targeted Windows/IIS, simply because it was the most common. As a result, Microsoft started improving their act; the hackers started targeting Linux/Apache.





Some people like to say that Open source (e.g. Linux/Apache) is more reliable, due to the fact that anyone can inspect the source code and find potential flaws.





In general, that is true, but Linux/Apache may not be sufficiently more reliable that it makes a difference to you.





A more important indicator of reliability is how well you do at designing and testing your software. It is far more likely that your coding will be unreliable, and thus far more important than your server choice.





In order to make your own code more reliable (which is where you will expend your effort if you are smart), you could try several techniques:


- Test Driven Development


- Software Design CheckersWhat is the most reliable programming language/server for an online based database?
For online database applications, you really cannot go wrong with MySQL and PHP.





http://www.mysql.com/


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHP
Most modern databases are as reliable as you could ask for. But don't forget to do backups anyway.





MySQL is a good choice as it is as good as any in the reliability department, and is free. Still, the biggest part of reliability is having a correct design and implementing it carefully. And Test Test Test.
MySQL is a good database with very fast access and query times.