A developer's thoughts on Microsoft Access 2010 (part 3)

In my last "Developer's thoughts ..." post, I spoke a bit about some of the reactions Microsoft Access 2010 is generating among current Access users. One of the primary reasons for that is the necessity of adopting an entirely additional (and costly) platform, Microsoft SharePoint, for application development on the Web. The bottom line: a lot of people are very unhappy campers. And for good reason. Read on to see what Martin has to say about it.

This validates everything I was saying and makes me feel comfortable that I am as expected, not alone in my thoughts. Everywhere you look the developers are VERY unhappy, but you know what, I don't think Microsoft cares, because what they are effectively saying is Visual Studio 2010 is the new home for developers, Access is now for those wanting to play at developing. It's become a new extension of Excel. How arrogant is that????

The door is wide open, guys. I am so excited to be in this at the beginning on the revolution ( I know I'm only an honorary member of the team, but it feels good nonetheless).

I think Martin hit the nail right on the head when he said that Microsoft simply doesn't care what Access developers are thinking. In my opinion, Microsoft is a company that is now (more than ever) very much driven by the Wall Street folks and their insatiable desire for short term earnings.

In another e-mail, Martin expands on the topic of SharePoint.

It is indeed a reflection of my earlier observations and if you look through the various posts there are some very unhappy developers out there. The big issue here is cost of ownership, MS is very cleverly directing the user base into SharePoint adoption I suspect as part of a wider strategy. I think what you need to consider is that in addition to Access being used departmentally within corporates, it is used by many more small businesses that could not justify the adoption of SharePoint, except for maybe a hosted solution where they and many other businesses share space and bandwidth. SharePoint is in my experience NOT an application feel environment, yes it satisfies the collaboration requirement, but my experience is that it's not a natural choice for business. Having said that Microsoft Live is promoting a business model that may well prove very attractive. However, given the fact that Access back ends are now part of every day life in hosting and VPS solutions, cost of ownership is very different from having to migrate to a SQL back end solution. The fact is that a small business solution simply DOES NOT require a SQL back end. Simply stick the Access back end on a VPS, add the application server layer and away you go. This is a massive market to aim at and I dare say would make for a great business opportunity to provide a service to help businesses move applications to the Web. I'm not suggesting you do this, but it's a fantastic opportunity for a startup. Once I have my migration out of the way I will certainly be looking to bring together some of the talent I know to maybe help them get started in this field. I think AlphaToGo is already down that route in your part of the world?

If you look at some of the basic Access solutions that are in play in small businesses, I dare say a week's work would blow them away as you use their existing data file to create something they never imagined they could get from what they have!

There are so many ways you can approach the market it's quite scary and nothing I see out there is a threat at the moment. I dare say that will change as others wake up to what you are doing, but the key is to be well established as the natural choice. I suspect that Selwyn is like me, he is already well down the road to the next steps, so while ever you adopt that approach it will serve you well. I have so many thoughts around all this it gives me a headache, but I'll try to keep it focused.

What MS are going to end up with is large numbers of poorly designed databases by enthusiasts hooked up to SharePoint lists, while developers struggle to come to terms with how to develop in the new environment. There is good reason many Access developers haven't gone down the SQL and Visual Studio route and that's because the low cost agility they enjoy with Access has got them by. This development is now forcing their hand and I for one am glad not to be going through that pain. The problem here is I can't assess performance and ultimately that will be the key. As we all know Web Apps are only as good as the performance they provide.

Regards,

Martin