[AccessD] To the Cloud or Not to the Cloud. that is the Question

Brad Marks BradM at blackforestltd.com
Fri Mar 28 14:17:37 CDT 2014


Bill,

About half the people who know me call me Mark instead of Brad.  Doesn't bother me a bit.  

Thanks for your ideas and insights.

I started working with computers way back in 1975 and I am currently semi-retired, working only 20 hours per week.  The experimenting that I am doing with Azure has been mostly at home, on my time and just a little bit on company time so far.  I feel like I need to better understand Azure and experiment with it before making a recommendation at work. 

Microsoft offers a free 30 day trial, so the only investment that I have made so far, is a little time.

I plan to post any significant findings here on AccessD, as I would guess that others might also be interested in the Microsoft Cloud.

Brad Marks

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Benson [mailto:bensonforums at gmail.com] 
Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2014 5:21 PM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: Re: [AccessD] To the Cloud or Not to the Cloud. that is the Question

Errr "Brad"... sorry.

Half my acquaintances call me Ben at one time or other, so I have felt your frustration I am sure.
On Mar 27, 2014 6:17 PM, "Bill Benson" <bensonforums at gmail.com> wrote:

> I have no experience with the cloud and perhaps in less open minded 
> circles this negates the value of my opinion. But never this group, 
> for which I am grateful. I would weigh the possibility of a web 
> service outage which you are unlikely to have any control over, 
> against the very much more expensive redundant hardware bases you will 
> have to cover to even touch the reliability of the web.
>
> The option to have the data available and accessible where and when 
> you need it seems to be a no - brainer in favor of a web platform from 
> a reliable cloud operation. And unless you are running heaps of 
> insertions with huge datasets, I have little doubt you will be that 
> unhappy with the performance. This is, if you are satisfied with MS as 
> a development platform.
>
> I do have to ask, have you looked into portability / migration if the 
> tool proves unsatisfactory in the long term? Can you ask MS for a data 
> pump version of your database or would you just have to turn it off 
> and walk away, subject to a few exports of tables, but leave all your 
> development behind? (Not that things would be all that different 
> necessarily with an Oracle or SQL Server application either but I do 
> think with those you can export the schema, no?)
>
> I am sure if you don't get your feet wet trying a web service database 
> it will be a mark against you career wise so why not use the current 
> need to be able to say been there done that on someone else's dime. It 
> comes well supported and at least fairly well recommended, do you have 
> that much to lose?
>
> I wish the future was nit web development because I am so uninitiated 
> in it, wish I had an employer asking me to test out the platform Mark, 
> I would say go for it.
> On Mar 27, 2014 5:54 PM, "Gustav Brock" <gustav at cactus.dk> wrote:
>
>> Hi Brad
>>
>> Your observation is correct. The Azure setup and the speed at which 
>> it evolves is impressive and proves to me the old saying "don't ever 
>> underestimate Microsoft".
>> Because Microsoft didn't invent this, the "cloud". Amazon did that. 
>> But having seen the light, there's no doubt that massive resources 
>> have been allocated this infrastructure and the support it needs 
>> beyond establishing the large and reliable data centers: Easy 
>> administration targeted admins at enterprises, scalability not 
>> possible with in-house hardware, programming interfaces, and - perhaps the most important part - the integration to ...
>> well, everything you can think of.
>>
>> One of our clients has asked for a customized document store and flow 
>> control. Problem is that this is a TV production company were all 
>> except accounting use Macs, and the network setup is handled by 
>> various Mac "techies" (you guessed it, it's a mess) so setting up a 
>> server in this environment is perhaps not then at least the last option.
>>
>> So, seriously, I consider storing all data at Azure. JC is right, 
>> that internet connection reliabilty and speed is a valid concern, but 
>> clients like these have fiber connections at 100+ Mb/s. It will work. 
>> Deciding to do so will, first, take very little to create the 
>> development environment and, second, deployment will be close to just 
>> "flip a switch". Add to this the establishing cost of zero money and 
>> ongoing costs that without in-house techies are impossible to match.
>>
>> Still, I believe, we will arrange for an off-line backup of all data 
>> - just in case.
>>
>> /gustav
>>
>> ________________________________________
>> Fra: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com < 
>> accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com> på vegne af Brad Marks < 
>> BradM at blackforestltd.com>
>> Sendt: 27. marts 2014 21:37
>> Til: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
>> Emne: [AccessD] To the Cloud or Not to the Cloud. that is the 
>> Question
>>
>> All,
>>
>> A few days ago, I posted a question regarding a new database that 
>> will be needed for a new small application (perhaps using Access 
>> 2007, MySQL, or Microsoft SQL Server).  I received a number of 
>> replies to my question and I appreciate the insights that were shared.
>>
>> In the mean time, I have also been doing some R&D work with Microsoft 
>> Azure SQL Database.
>> So far, I have been impressed.
>>
>> Yesterday in less than one hour, I was able accomplish the following 
>> - Set up a new Microsoft Azure Account Set up a new SQL Database Then 
>> with a small Access 2007 application using ODBC and Pass-through 
>> Queries I was able to Add a new table to the new test database Insert 
>> rows into the new table Retrieve this data.
>>
>>
>> My background is in mainframe databases (Primarily IBM's DB2 and 
>> Cincom's Supra).  I can remember how much work it was to accomplish 
>> these same simple steps with these databases.  Sometimes we would 
>> spend days, just wrestling with DB2's security.
>>
>> It is my understanding that other Access users are using Azure with 
>> some success.  It also sounds like the costs for our use of Azure 
>> will be very small ($5.00 - $10.00 per month).
>>
>>
>> At this point in time, it seems like this is a good option for our 
>> little project. (We don't have Microsoft SQL Server installed 
>> "in-house").
>>
>> I am curious if others have looked closely at Azure and decided to 
>> not go down this path.  Perhaps there are downsides that I have not 
>> yet read about. Perhaps I am missing some important considerations.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Brad
>>
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>
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