[thelist] A sledgehammer when a hammer will do

[Chris Johnston]

On Mon, 16 Aug 2004 11:47:13 -0400, Ken Chase <raskenbo at fastmail.fm> wrote:
> 
> My suggestion is that a second set of technologies could be supported
> for smaller projects (for example PHP/MySQL or ASP/Access). This would
> allow my area of the  organisation to allocate a higher percentage of
> our budgets to new products/content development as opposed to
> technology. To me it seems like we're stuck in the late 1990's when
> technology ruled over business objectives.
> 
> I need to consider all aspects of this suggestion as I'm sure that
> management types will find all kinds of reasons to shoot the idea down
> (It's expensive to support multiple technologies, MySQL/PHP/Open Source
> sucks, current staff aren't familiar with technology x, security issues,
> Microsoft sucks, Cold Fusion is crap...). Basically, fear of the unknown
> and anything to defend their initial decision to adopt J2EE/Oracle for
> all projects.
> 

I have only two comments to add to this:

1. Remember that to a lot of business people, open source = free = no
support. Therefore, it you are going to make a case for open source,
make sure that you have a very strong emphasis on the various ways of
getting support for those open source products.

2. For what you describe, I would strongly suggest that you take a
look at ColdFusion MX (CFMX). This is a server technology from
macromedia that sits on top of your current J2EE Application Server
and acts as a RAD tool for web development. It allows you to use your
current technology (J2EE and Oracle) while still providing a fast way
of developing smaller web intranet applications. In addition, it is
fully supported by Macromedia which could be strength for your
Managers.

Basically, ColdFusion does not replace or mirror what you already
have, it simply adds another development tool to your J2EE
infrastructure.

http://www.macromedia.com/coldfusion

-- 
chris johnston

www.fuzzylizard.com

"For millions of years, mankind lived just like the animals and
something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination, we
learned to talk."
Pink Floyd