March 7th, 2006
Paul Mooney takes on the released "red bull"
Now that Microsoft has released the Application
Analyzer 2006 for Notes, Paul Mooney has reprised his examination
of the beta code, code-named “Red Bull”.
No longer can Microsoft claim that this is beta…so here are the
results of Paul’s sought-after
test drive.
In part
1, Paul examines the premise and documentation around the now-released
Analyzer. Not much has
changed, but there is a new XML-based configuration file. Some challenges:
- First, the tool stops analyzing if it
finds a template with a standard out-of-the-box name and filename. Hope
you haven’t been modifying the standard templates… - Second, “Theoretically I could
customise the XML file to say that even if the database is nothing like
the template and has lots of additional fields, class it as a Quad1 or
Quad2. ” Which means that a practitioner in the field could
put their finger on the scale, so to speak, and and make a lot of applications
look more simple than they are. Of course, we’re not
exactly in the realm of airtight ethics,
so let’s watch out for configuration file hacking. - Third, the tool can’t be run on a Notes
7 client, but does require the mysterious “Notes 5.16″ or higher.
In
part
2, Paul reports on the released Application Analyzer’s results.
He even has some fun faking out the tool — taking the out-of-the-box
MS Office Document Library in Notes and adding a single field. All
of a sudden, that application is in “quadrant 4″ –”Further
analysis is required to identify possible solutions from the MS collaboration
platform”.
In summary, Paul finds
[The Microsoft Application Analyser]
lists the majority of production databases as QUAD3 or QUAD4 (not easy
to migrate) and once any QUAD1 or QUAD2 template based application strays
off the beaten track, MS knows that Sharepoint is in trouble and lists
the database as QUAD3/4. That’s because its not easy to migrate
the apps. We all know it. On one box, the domino server
can easily provide services that multiple MS packages cannot. And
that is accepted by many people… For all its flaws, the tool is honest.
There is no easy migration to MS products… if you read the reports
from this tool on your production databases, it tells you that. Of
course, the FUD doesn’t tell you that. We should almost encourage
our customers to run this tool. It tells thema: Their easy RAD applications in Domino are considered complex in MS land
b: When an MS sales guy comes in and says we can easily migrate your apps
(and they do… I have seen it), show him the door.
Sounds
like a plan to me. I wonder if that applies to the bounty-seeking
partners, too?
Originally by Ed Brill from Ed Brill on March 2, 2006, 8:18pm
