Evaluate Your .NET Migration Risks
Know your risk tolerance and plan the right timeframe for your move to the .NET Framework and Visual Studio .NET applications.
by Mark Driver
For this solution: .NET Framework, Java, ActiveX, Visual Studio .NET
As a research analyst, I spend my days cutting through the hype and marketing rhetoric of information technology. My challenge is to offer an independent and balanced perspective on the products and strategies you depend upon to deliver real world IT solutions. Needless to say, this is often much easier said than done. In this column, I'll share some insights and offer a technical as well as a strategic business viewpoint on the emerging and existing world of Microsoft .NET. In this article, I'll begin by addressing the impetus for moving to .NET and the challenges you'll face directly in the coming months as you decide if, when, and how .NET can play a role in your IT and e-business efforts.
By the time you read this, Microsoft will likely have recently released—or be on the cusp of releasing—the final production version of Visual Studio .NET (VS.NET). When this workbench hits the shelves, Microsoft's .NET vision will finally become a reality and will have a considerable impact on nearly every Microsoft-centric development organization. Just as with Windows, Microsoft is heavily betting its corporate future on .NET's success. And, like Windows before it, .NET adoption is inevitable for the overwhelming majority of Microsoft developers. Coming to grips with this simple but critical realization is the first and most important issue you must address when evaluating the role of .NET in your organization.
Short of abandoning a Microsoft software strategy altogether, you'll ultimately have little choice on an eventual migration to .NET-based products and architectures: It's a question of when rather than if. In fact, the only real control you have is the timeline for your migration efforts (see Figure 1). But before I dig too deeply in the potential role of .NET within your own organization, I'll clarify what I mean when I refer to .NET.
Clear the Air
Microsoft uses the term .NET for many purposes: as a vision, a high-level strategy, a brand, and a considerable amount of marketing hype. To put it succinctly, .NET is Microsoft's vision for implementing a "software as services" IT business strategy and technical architecture. At its highest level, it's the go-to market strategy upon which Microsoft will support next generation, Internet-centric applications that leverage emerging technologies such as Web services and mobile and wireless devices. Although the overall, big picture scope of .NET remains clouded in marketing speak, underneath this nebulous nameplate a real and a substantive new platform, called the .NET Framework, does indeed exist. This is the aspect of .NET upon which I'll focus our discussion.
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