What will we do after Access? [closed]

Answer 1

the nice thing about Access is its answer to large IT bloat. It comes with MS office so its already approved for use on locked down computers but I don't have to attempt to struggle for weeks/months to get an application approved through various departments, coding hours to account for, and all the testing for an application i can whip up in an afternoon with Access. Sure SQL server would be nice to use, but not worth the headache.

Answer 2

My cousin is a serious FileMaker guy. He seems to be doing great and has grown a small firm around it. Apparently FileMaker is a cross-platform Mac/PC system for rapid app development...

Maybe something like that will rise up with the business power-user/RAD set?

Microsoft may have a history of intentionally killing off database systems like this. I listened to a .Net Rocks interview one time with Les Pinter, where he claimed that he once heard a top Microsoft exec say that every copy of FoxPro that sells costs Microsoft thousands in lost SQL royalties. And where is FoxPro today? Officially, it is was end-of-lifed in March of 2007. So how did it get from prominance to demise? Well, Les says that Microsoft acquired it and ran it into the ground on purpose.

I am not usually big on conspiracy theories, but this does resonate with Microsoft's track record from that era.

Anyway, trivia aside, I believe there will be more RAD-style database tools... They empower non-developers and allow developers to solve certain types of problems very quickly. I have an aversion to using them for large projects that, unfortunately, cascades - small projects tend to grow over time. So as a result I only use them for the very tinest things.

As for the long term consequences... Well, I have seen scenarios where they didn't scale well and all those fragmented solutions started to look a lot like technical debt. It is actually possible to hook Access up to a SQL Server back-end, which solves a lot of problems.

Probably the biggest/weirdest thing I did with Access was writing an EDI system from scratch. For those of you who have worked first-hand with EDI, you know what I'm talking about. What a silly idea that was. My problems here had more to do with VBA than Access though -- I remember just really needing interfaces and not having them.

I also used it for code generation back before things like Codesmith were available. It generated business objects (CRUD and some other basics) for ASP Classic. That actually worked awesome.

Answer 3

I think the easy answer is nothing... Access is commonly used because it is the only option and it is extensible. There is simply nothing else out there that is installed on nearly every business machine in the world as access is. If you are looking for an alternative, Oracle Application Express is a fairly powerful web based app that can be run on Oracle XE. It is a potential alternative to Access but does not support Master-Detail tables as well as access.

Answer 4

I doubt Microsoft will kill off Access. With Access 2007's integration with Sharepoint and the rapid growth of SharePoint, Access may in fact have a resurgence as an off-line and reporting tool for SharePoint web sites.

Answer 5

Like many, I have used and abused access over the years, always felt a little dirty though ... I felt a little better about it when I came across this post by Rob Conery recently:

http://blog.wekeroad.com/blog/hacking-your-vote/

Would never have dreamed of using access in a voting system. Scary.

Answer 6

Microsoft would like us to move to using Office Business Applications - essentially hooking up the office apps to databases. Add SharePoint into the mix and there is a lot of possibility. Also plenty of licencing fees for MS as well.

I have seen access used to integrate and front end GIS and health data. It blew me away how well this app was coded and documented.