Database limitations with shared hosting on GoDaddy
This is for all the developers out there looking to make serious applications on shared hosting accounts with GoDaddy.
Problem #1: Microsoft SQL field size limitations with GoDaddy
The problem: GoDaddy's Microsoft SQL servers only allow fields to be a maximum of 8000 bytes long. 
Jeez, that's not much. If I want to host images there, they have to be less than 8000 bytes - good luck.
After a friendly chat with the customer service representative, it was concluded that 8000 bytes was the MS SQL max and nobody could change it. I said "no, that just won't work for me." The rep went back to the Advanced Hosting Team and pleaded my case again, to no avail. "It's a server configuration that we can't change." For someone that's acustomed to working with servers directly, and limitation-free, this is hard to understand.
Work-around #1
I encourage you to post better solutions, I know I'm not the brightest crayon in the box. 
So I went to work trying to flush out a work around. It's not hard for even an amatuer developer to realize that you could make 50 requests of 8000 bytes in size to get a 400,000 byte "aggregated field" instead of storing the data in a 400,000 byte field.
It sounds pretty ridiculous, but I think it's a reasonable way to artificially remove the field size limitations on the GoDaddy account. The down side is that you're multiplying your overhead by at least 50.
Problem #2: Microsoft SQL Database size limitation with GoDaddy (and 1and1)
Now this is all well and good, but even if we hack out a way to overcome the 8000 byte MS SQL limitation on field sizes, we can still only store up to 200 MB in each MS SQL database we have. That's 400 MB total - not enough for me. I'm paying for a lot more hosting space, and I should be able to use it.
Work-around #2
Enter, mySQL. Although I'm very comfortable with Microsoft technologies, if GoDaddy says my mySQL database sizes are limited only by the amount of hosting space I've purchased, I'm willing to play with the Odbc Data Provider.
Not only are my mySQL databases not limited in total size, but the max field size with GoDaddy mySQL databases is 64 KB, not 8000 bytes as with the MS SQL databases.
Details
It's useful to know the pros and cons of using MS SQL vs mySQL on GoDaddy. After some questions to the customer service representative, the information I got was:
You're allowed 2 MS SQL accounts with GoDaddy for Economy ($4/month) and Deluxe ($7/month) hosting, 3 for the "extra rich" plan ($15/month). The max size of a MS SQL database is 200 MB.
This means that on Economy and Deluxe hosting, the max size of your MS SQL databases are going to be 400 MB total. For certain application developers, this may be a deal-breaking limitation. So if you want to use a large database on GoDaddy, you should probably use mySQL.
Also, the size of your databases is shared with your hosting plan.
So: (Space used for mySQL databases) + (space used for webfiles) < total shared hosting space you've purchased.
I'd love to hear some feedback.