If the front end of a website is built in MX 2004, what kind of
Database program would be used so that information can be stored into
a scaleable database?

Howdy youngceo-ga,

MySQL makes the most sense for your environment.  This summary is from
the MySQL website.
http://www.mysql.com/why-mysql/

"The MySQL database has become the world's most popular open source
database because of its consistent fast performance, high reliability
and ease of use. It's used in more than 10 million installations ranging
from large corporations to specialized embedded applications on every
continent in the world."

Also from the MySQL website is this manual page that speaks to how large
of a table you can create within MySQL, addressing scalability concerns.
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/table-size.html

"...
Linux 2.4+ (using ext3 filesystem) 4TB
...
Win32 w/ NTFS 2TB (possibly larger)
..."

This MySQL features page mentions this issue as well.
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/features.html

"Scalability and Limits:

- Handles large databases. We use MySQL Server with databases that
contain 50 million records. We also know of users who use MySQL Server
with 60,000 tables and about 5,000,000,000 rows."

The people that "wrote the book" on the subject think that MySQL is the
route to go.

The following is from "Planning a Dynamic Site with Macromedia Studio MX
2004" by Tom Green, Jordan L. Chilcott and Chris Flick, as shown on the
Peachpit Press website.
http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.asp?p=102277&rl=1

"When we first considered producing this book, we assumed we would be
using Microsoft Access as our database of choice.
...
When we started looking at the market?our beloved readers?we came to the
conclusion that Microsoft Access was not a suitable choice.
...
When you ask [what is most suitable], the number of technology options
tends to narrow to one choice. That choice is MySQL."

You should read the above referenced sample chapter for the reasons
given by the authors on why they recommend MySQL, but one of the most
appealing qualities is that it is free.

"Dreamweaver MX 2004 Unleashed" by Zak Ruvalcaba and Matthew Pizzi, has
a section that deals with the topic.  THe following is from a review of
the manual on "PHP Classes" website.
http://www.phpclasses.org/reviews/id/0672326310.html

"Part five has separate chapters to talk about the Dreamweaver built-in
support for developing Web applications in PHP, ASP and Coldfusion. The
chapter about PHP talks about the basics of the language and specifically
how to build dynamic sites interfacing with MySQL. It explains in detail
how to setup a MySQL database structure with PHPMyAdmin and then use
Dreamweaver wizards and visual editors to establish a database connection
and generate dynamic pages using MySQL query record sets."

If you are leasing a server within a "server farm" chances are that
MySQL is either already installed, or easy to have installed for you.

If you are using Flash MX 2004, here is a tutorial on using MySQL with it.
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/articles/flash_xmlphp.html

You can find our more about MySQL at their website.
http://www.mysql.com/

Downloads of MySQL can be accessed through their website as well.
http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/

If you need any clarification, please feel free to ask.


Search strategy:

Personal experience of running a web hosting business.

Google search on: "MX 2004" MySQL
://www.google.com/search?q=%22MX+2004%22+MySQL

Google search on: MySQL scalability
://www.google.com/search?q=MySQL+scalability

Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher